Stocks Rebound, Chipmakers Halt Bloodbath As Traders Upgrade Rate Cut Wagers; Tesla Rises, Dollar Tree In Free Fall: What's Driving Markets Wednesday?

Author: Piero Cingari | September 04, 2024 01:14pm

Wall Street traded slightly higher on Wednesday, rebounding after the sharp sell-off a day earlier that saw chipmakers tumble, with NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) shedding around $280 billion in market value — the largest single-day drop in history.

Investors processed fresh insights from July labor market statistics, which confirmed cooling conditions as job openings fell to their lowest level in three years, almost closing the gap with unemployment levels.

Expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut improved, with market participants now assigning a 43% implied probability of a 50-basis-point cut in September, up from 38% the previous day.

Attention now shifts to key August labor data, with the ADP private payrolls report due Thursday, followed by the official jobs report on Friday.

Major equity indices were up marginally, while bonds outperformed, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT) rising 0.7%, adding to Tuesday’s 1.3% gain.

Notably, chipmakers, as tracked by the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NYSE:SOXX), rose 1%.

The U.S. dollar weakened, losing 0.4% as falling Treasury yields weighed on the currency. Gold inched up 0.2%, set to break a three-day losing streak.

Oil prices continued to decline, falling 0.7% despite OPEC+ announcing a delay in its planned production increases.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) bounced back 1.6%, trading at $58,200.

Wednesday’s Performance Among Major Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-day %chg
Russell 2000	2,162.23	0.4%
Nasdaq 100	19,033.77	0.4%
Dow Jones	40,985.75	0.1%
S&P 500	5,535.16	0.1%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was 0.2% higher to $552.98.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.2% to $411.03.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 0.4% to $463.53.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) increase 0.4% to $214.31.
• The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) outperformed, up by 0.8%, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) lagged, down 0.8%.

Wednesday’s Stock Movers

• Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) sunk 20% after missing quarterly earnings estimates and delivering a guidance cut.
• Other stocks reacting to company earnings were Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE:DKS) down 5%, Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE:HRL) down 6.6% and Ciena Corp. (NYSE:CIEN) up 2.2%.
• ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) fell 3.2% after UBS downgraded the Dutch chipmaker from Buy to Neutral, also cutting the price target.
• Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 5% on upbeat sales data in China. The China Passenger Car Association reported that sales of Tesla's China-made electric vehicles rose 17% compared to July and increased 3% year-over-year.
• Companies reporting earnings after the close include Copart Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT), Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) and Caseys General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY).

Read Now:

• Bank Of Canada Cuts Rates Again As Inflation, Labor Market Cool: Canadian Stocks Rebound, Loonie Strengthens

This image was created using artificial intelligence MidJourney.

Posted In: $BTC ASML CASY CIEN CPRT DIA DKS DLTR HPE HRL IWM NVDA QQQ SOXX SPY TLT TSLA XLE XLK XLP