US stocks open higher while Nvidia slips

29 Aug, 2024

NEW YORK: All major indices on Wall Street opened higher Thursday, shaking off investor concern about a slowdown in chipmaking giant Nvidia’s growth in the second quarter.

“We had some risk aversion yesterday, and so as a result, that’s why we’re seeing the market doing better (today),” Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick told AFP.

Shortly after the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent at 41,189.45, while the S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 5,608.79.

Nasdaq leads Wall Street lower as Nvidia results loom

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7 percent to 17,676.66, despite Nvidia’s earnings results, which sent the firm’s shares down around two percent in early trading.

Sales for Nvidia – whose chips are key to a boom in artificial intelligence technologies – reached a higher-than-expected $30 billion last quarter, but that growth was slower than the furious pace seen in previous quarters.

The fact the markets are up despite Nvidia slipping is “a sign that the market is able to look a little bit beyond that,” Sosnick said.

Elsewhere in the markets, shares in the business software company Salesforce were up around 0.7 percent after the firm announced it had beaten earnings expectations.

Traders were also digesting news that the US economy expanded more than initially estimated in the second quarter this year, according to government data published Thursday.

The Department of Commerce said stronger-than-predicted consumer spending helped the world’s biggest economy grow at an annual rate of 3.0 percent between April and June, up from its earlier estimate of 2.8 percent.

The development was a positive signal for the US Federal Reserve, which has sought to tackle high inflation without triggering a recession or a surge in the unemployment rate.

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