S&P 500, Nasdaq Higher as Tech Stocks Lifted by Nvidia Surge
On Tuesday, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hovered at record peaks, bolstered by gains in Nvidia and other megacaps, as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Congress that more “good” economic data would bolster the case for rate cuts.
AI-chip maker Nvidia rose 2.4%, while Micron Technology and Applied Materials gained 1.1% and 1.5%, respectively, briefly pushing the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index to a new high.
The S&P 500 Information Technology Index also pushed to an all-time peak. Megacaps including Tesla, Meta Platforms, and Alphabet rose between 3.6% and 0.3%.
On Monday, the S&P 500 set a new closing record for the 35th time this year, as sharp gains in tech shares including AI-linked ones kept the sentiment for equities bright, offsetting the uncertainty around the rate-cut path of the Fed.
The Dow Jones, however, underperformed, with an over 1% drop in Microsoft and Salesforce. The rate-sensitive small-cap Russell 2000 declined 0.4%.
According to CME’s FedWatch tool, markets are still pricing in 0.5% of easing for the year, seeing a chance for a 0.25 bps cut by the Fed in Sept. at about 72%. The bets were at less than 50% a month ago.
The CPI report will be released on Thursday and the PPI reading on Friday.