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The S&P 500 was little changed Wednesday, pulling back from a record reached in the previous session, as Nvidia cooled off from its red-hot rally to start 2024.
The broad market hovered near the flatline, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 91 points, or 0.2%.
Nvidia shares were down roughly 2%. Shares of Meta and Apple fell marginally. The S&P 500 tech sector was the lone decliner Wednesday, dropping more than 1%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) slid 2.3%, on track for its third losing session in four.
“Investors are booking profits in tech after the big [Tuesday] outperformance, but sentiment on AI/data centers is as bullish as ever, and there’s still a lot of anticipation for the Nvidia GTC conference,” Vital Knowledge founder and president Adam Crisafulli wrote on Wednesday.
Wall Street is coming off a winning session, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq popping more than 1% on Tuesday, after February U.S. inflation data came in about in line with expectations. Core inflation, which strips out food and energy from the headline reading, increased more than expected last month.
“I think it was a relief to see the [headline] CPI number yesterday, but people are still cautious about the underlying data,” said Ayako Yoshioka, senior portfolio manager at Wealth Enhancement Group. “In the short-term, the macro narrative around the Federal Reserve is going to be the front and center issue.”
Wall Street will remain hypervigilant for how the central bank will proceed with monetary policy at its next meeting beginning on March 19, Yoshioka noted, where she expects Fed Chair Jerome Powell to reiterated a data-dependent outlook and more neutral tone.
“When you look underneath the surface, things are a bit stickier than people would have hoped,” Yoshioka noted, pointing toward increasing services costs in the latest CPI print.
Elsewhere, Dollar Tree lost 14% after the discount retailer released its fourth-quarter results. Investors will get more inflation data Thursday in the form of the producer price index for February.