Wall St set for muted open ahead of busy data week, inflation test
February 26, 2024
Linea Mercati Interview 2/26/24
February 27, 2024The S&P 500 nibbled 0.03% to 5,088.80 points, also very narrowly reaching a new peak. The predominantly technological Nasdaq returned 0.28% to 15,996.82 points.
“In the absence of macroeconomic news on Friday, the euphoria linked to Nvidia” – the specialist in chips for artificial intelligence which had posted brilliant results on Wednesday evening, generating overwhelming enthusiasm from investors on the stock market on Thursday – , “created positive momentum that has continued,” commented Spartan Capital analyst Peter Cardillo.
“The craze for artificial intelligence has helped reach new highs,” he added, even if the technology sector has calmed down a bit after the Nasdaq soared almost 3%. the day before, one of the best sessions of this index in a year.
On Thursday, Nvidia’s stock jumped 16%, swelling the group’s market valuation from $277 billion to nearly $2,000 billion, placing it in third place of the “Magnificent Seven”, behind Microsoft. and Apple.
On Friday, Nvidia shares ended slightly up 0.36%, at $788.17.
Several big names in tech, however, lost ground such as microprocessor manufacturer AMD (-2.94%), Tesla (-2.76%) and Apple (-1%).
Of the eleven S&P sectors, seven concluded in the green, including utilities (+0.71%), materials (+0.58%) and industrial stocks (+0.50%).
Energy (-0.58%) was the worst performer, while crude prices fell sharply on Friday.
The bond market eased slightly, with rates on ten-year Treasury bills rising to 4.24% around 9:35 p.m. GMT, instead of 4.32% the day before.
On the value side, the Block payment services group (Cash App, Square) climbed 16.13%, to $78.92, after announcing quarterly turnover up to $5.77 billion. and an operating profit of 2.03 billion.
Travel reservation site Booking saw its stock fall 10.15%, as its forecasts for the current first quarter disappointed the market, even if its results for the fourth quarter of 2023 were better than expected.
Online car seller Carvana soared 32.09% to $69.23, a one-year high. The company, which experienced a difficult last year, managed to record its first annual profit. Carvana is optimistic about its sales in the current first quarter.
The electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian continued to lose weight (-12.05%), after an abysmal fall the day before following the announcement of a disappointing production volume for this year.
Investors took Intuitive Machines to the moon (+15.82% to $9.59), after the Texan company managed to place a probe on the Earth’s natural satellite, the first moon landing of an American device in a half century.
Next week, results from videoconferencing specialist Zoom and those from Salesforce client software are expected.
