Stock market today: US futures stall as investors bide their time ahead of Nvidia earnings

08/28/2024 17:42
Stock market today: US futures stall as investors bide their time ahead of Nvidia earnings

Investors are holding back ahead of the AI bellwether's earnings report, seen as crucial to keeping confidence in the broader market aloft.

US stock futures stalled on Wednesday as investors bided their time ahead of chipmaker Nvidia's (NVDA) earnings report, seen as crucial to keeping confidence in the broader market aloft.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) futures were little changed after the blue-chip benchmark managed to eke out a second record close in a row. Futures on the S&P 500 (ES=F) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) also traded broadly flat.

Stocks are caught in cautious trade ahead of Nvidia's second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday. The $3.2 trillion AI juggernaut's report will serve as a litmus test for AI spending and the tech sector, and could end up moving the market as a whole.

Traders are expecting a swing of almost 10% in the chipmaker's shares in either direction, depending on whether hopes for another blowout quarter are met. Nvidia's stock was little changed in Wednesday's premarket, after a wobbly start to the week.

Elsewhere in techs, Apple (AAPL) made the rare move of cutting 100 jobs in its digital services group, a day after the iPhone maker announced it was replacing its long-standing CFO.

While Nvidia is the star of the earnings docket, eyes are on Salesforce (CRM) results to shed light on whether software companies are starting to see a return on their AI investments. Meanwhile. CrowdStrike's (CRWD) report should give insight to the cost of the fallout from the global Windows outage in July.

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