S&P 500 and Nasdaq Down After Nvidia Falls 3%

Barry Adams
09 Dec, 2024
New York City

Stock market indexes on Wall Street hovered near recent highs as investors digested two key labor reports released last week. 

At the end of last week, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite closed at new highs and extended weekly gains for the third week in a row amid a not-so-strong rebound in payrolls increase in November.

Market sentiment remained positive after the latest updates on factory orders, and the labor market supported the case for one more rate cut.

In addition, investors are anticipating the Federal Reserve to deliver one more rate cut after the final policy meeting next week. 

In Europe, stock markets jumped as much as 4% last week after business activities remained in contraction, raising expectations of a rate cut after the policy meeting this week.

Investors largely overlooked brewing political turmoil in France and hoped that the second-largest economy in the eurozone would soon form a new government. 

In the week ahead, in the U.S., investors are looking forward to the release of consumer and producer price inflation and export-import prices.

U.S. consumer price inflation is expected to rebound to 2.7% in November from 2.6% in October, and annual producer price inflation is estimated to edge higher to 2.5% from 2.4%, respectively. 

 

U.S. Indexes and Treasury Yields

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.1% to 6,082.85, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.03% to 19,853.36, and the Russell 2000 index advanced by 0.5% to 2,421.81. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged higher to 4.13%, 10-year Treasury notes inched up to 4.18%, and 30-year Treasury bonds increased to 4.37%.

WTI crude oil increased $1.18 to $68.31 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged up 9 cents to $3.17 a thermal unit.

Gold increased by $41.50 to $2,674.82 an ounce, and silver rose by $1.24 to $32.26. 

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, edged lower by 0.06 to 105.91.

 

Stock Movers 

Nvidia Corp. dropped 2.7% to $138.59 after the Chinese antitrust regulatory agency opened an investigation for a potential violation of the country's antimonopoly law. 

AMD decreased 3.8% to $133.32 following the decline in Nvidia stock and cautious comments from Bank of America citing entrenched market domination of Nvidia in the fast-growing market for advanced chips for artificial intelligence applications. 

Palantir Technologies declined 1.8% to $75.09, and the company said it won an additional contract with the U.S. Special Operations Command.