U.S. stocks were sluggish on Wednesday as investors bided their time ahead of chipmaker Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings report, which is seen as crucial for keeping overall market confidence high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), the benchmark S&P 500 Index (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) were all little changed at the open.
Stocks traded cautiously after the close on Wednesday ahead of Nvidia’s second-quarter earnings report, a test of AI spending and the tech sector that could ultimately move the broader market.
Traders are expecting the chipmaker’s shares to move almost 10% in either direction depending on whether another strong quarterly result lives up to expectations. Wall Street expects Nvidia’s profit to rise about 109% year-over-year and sales to rise 99%. Any updates on possible delays to Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips will be particularly closely watched.
Nvidia shares are up about 160% so far this year. After a shaky start to the week, the stock was little changed in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in tech, iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) took the unusual step of cutting 100 jobs in its Digital Services group, a day after it said it was replacing its longtime chief financial officer.
While NVIDIA headlines the earnings report, attention will be focused on Salesforce (CRM) results to find out whether the software company is starting to see returns on its AI investments, while a report from CrowdStrike (CRWD) should provide insight into the costs of the fallout from July’s global Windows outage.
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