Nvidia loses 5.5 percent
Wall Street is shifting gears
March 8, 2024, 11:03 p.m
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While the hearing of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently created a mood on the US stock exchanges, this is now gradually waning. Nvidia loses a lot, the Dow Jones closes just in the red. The labor market, however, is causing surprises.
The US stock markets fell at the end of the week. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 Although they had gained in early trading, they gave up their gains over the course of the year. The chip manufacturer Nvidia fell 5.5 percent, leading losses among major growth and technology stocks. “We’re just at a point where investors may have chased these stocks too much and they need to cool off a bit,” said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading.
Therefore, there is profit-taking before the weekend. The Dow Jones Index the standard values closed just in the red at 38,722 points. The broader one S&P 500 lost 0.7 percent to 5,123 jobs and the technology exchange index Nasdaq fell by 1.2 percent to 16,085 points. On a weekly basis, the Dow and the Nasdaq each lost around one percent and the S&P lost 0.3 percent. There were mixed signals from the labor market. The number of newly created jobs outside of US agriculture grew surprisingly strongly in February by 275,000, but the increase in hourly wages was significantly lower than forecast at 0.1 percent.
The latter is crucial, said Paul Nolte from the asset manager Murphy & Sylvest. This fits into the picture of declining inflation and raises hopes that the US Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates. Their boss Jerome Powell recently indicated such a step. Bitcoin temporarily climbed by up to 4.2 percent to $70,175, making it more expensive than ever. But then there was profit-taking. “The prospect of globally falling capital market interest rates obviously plays into the hands of interest-free investments such as Bitcoin,” commented Timo Emden from the analysis house Emden Research.
Gap shines with price growth
The price of gold was also close to its all-time high of $2,185, with an increase of around one percent to $2,177 per troy ounce. Experts also attribute this rally to the interest rate debate. Investors are therefore hoping that the US Federal Reserve could lower interest rates earlier than previously expected in order not to have too much of an impact on the economy.
Gap was one of the favorites among the individual stocks with a price increase of 8.2 percent. Thanks to a renewed increase in demand for clothing from the “Old Navy” brand, the fashion company recorded surprisingly high quarterly sales. The profit was even more than twice as high as expected. Analysts praised the reduction in inventory, which means the company doesn’t have to offer such drastic discounts during sales.
Costco, on the other hand, flew out of the depots. The retailer’s shares slipped by 7.6 percent. Sales fell short of expectations. The background was weak demand for more expensive products. Chip manufacturers Marvell and Broadcom came under pressure after disappointing forecasts. The rivals of the industry giant Nvidia lost 9.7 and 7.0 percent respectively. “For semiconductor companies with businesses that only partially benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, there will inevitably not be an uninterrupted growth trend in stocks,” said Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research.