Wall Street advances with Nvidia and Fed meeting in focus

The big sell off that began in the final half hour on Monday was still evidence at open this morning with both the S&P and Nasdaq well into the red. But all three indexes began rising immediately after open with the two tech indexes recovering into the black by noon and then well into the black by close, the Dow even gaining a big 320 points. What happened?  Nvidia!  Its hotly awaited new AI chip was announced, with the claim that it could be 30x faster than current chips. This caused the entire market to take off, tech and otherwise.  

Yesterday’s sentiment that there would be a bad reaction to Wednesday’s Fed announcement seems to have now evaporated and replaced by “optimism that the Fed’s not going to surprise us a lot. We think three cuts are still on the table.” Ahead of the Fed, volume remains below average at 10.7 billion.  

Wall Street advances with Nvidia and Fed meeting in focus

By Sinéad Carew and Bansari Mayur Kamdar

Tue March 19, 2024 4:39 PM

DJ: 38,790.43  +75.66        NAS: 16,103.45  +130.27      S&P: 5,149.42  +32.33     3/18

DJ: 39,110.76  +320.33      NAS: 16,166.79  +63.34        S&P: 5,178.51  +29.09     3/19

March 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street's three major indexes closed higher on Tuesday after shares in hotshot chipmaker Nvidia shook off early losses and investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting conclusion on Wednesday for clues on interest rate policy.  Shares in Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab pulled out of the red to close up 1% after it revealed pricing and shipment plans for its hotly anticipated Blackwell B200 artificial intelligence chip, which it says could be 30 times faster than current chips.  Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles attributed Tuesday's overall gains to improving sentiment after Nvidia's shares turned around along with ongoing bullishness about the economy's direction.

"You're continuing to see money go into the market and not just technology," said James. "It certainly helps when you're seeing the large cap tech names today like Nvidia show relative strength from where they opened. But it's continuing the overall bullish theme that's been going on since the year started."

At 04:15 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab rose 320.33 points, or 0.83% , to 39,110.76, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab gained 29.09 points, or 0.56%, to 5,178.51 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab gained 63.34 points, or 0.39%, to 16,166.79.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab outpaced its Wall Street peers, supported by a 2% gains in Home Depot (HD.N), opens new tab and advances of more than 1% in both McDonald's (MCD.N), opens new tab and Apple Inc (AAPL.O), opens new tab.  In the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors only communications services (.SPLRCL), opens new tab lost ground and that ended down just 0.2% after an almost 3% rally on Monday.  Energy (.SPNY), opens new tab led gains, rising 1.1% as oil prices rose.

Investors were preparing a day ahead of the Fed's policy update, including a press conference from Chair Jerome Powell. Robust inflation data has pulled back bets for the first rate cut in June to about 59% from about 69% at the start of last week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.  "There's optimism that the Fed's not going to surprise us a lot on Wednesday," said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management. "We think three cuts are still on the table."  But, Goldman still sees Powell reminding the market that he is cautious about inflation and that policy will depend on economic data and expects the central bank to update its inflation and economic growth projections. 

 Among other movers, crypto-exchange operator Coinbase Global (COIN.O), opens new tab fell almost 4% while miner Riot Platforms (RIOT.O), opens new tab fell almost 3% along with a 5% slide in bitcoin.  MicroStrategy (MSTR.O), opens new tab shares fell 5.7% after the company announced it had completed a $603.75 million convertible debt offering - its second in a week - to fund bitcoin purchases.  AI server maker Super Micro Computer (SMCI.O), opens new tab shares tumbled just under 9% after it announced it will sell 2 million shares that could fetch about $2 billion.  Spire Global (SPIR.N), opens new tab shares soared 30.4% after it announced a collaboration with Nvidia for AI-driven weather prediction.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.25-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, which showed 286 new highs and 53 new lows.  On the Nasdaq, 2,517 stocks rose and 1,768 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about a 1.42-to-1 ratio and it recorded 98 new highs and 126 new lows. The S&P 500 posted 49 new 52-week highs and one new low.

On U.S. exchanges 10.74 billion shares changed hands compared with the 12.37 billion average for the last 20 sessions.