Nasdaq, S&P 500 Futures Flatline As Traders Await Earnings Report From AI Barometer Nvidia: Fund Manager Says Market Could Hold Up Until Presidential Election

Sentiment on Wall Street could be guarded until Nvidia Corp’s NVDA earnings are in the rearview mirror. The index futures are barely holding up early Wednesday. Given the absence of any major catalyst, stocks could tread water and could move about listlessly. That said, the retail space could see some strength, encouraged by Nordstrom, Inc.‘s JWN earnings, while some positive tech earnings could bolster sentiment toward that space.

Market strategist Ed Yardeni said in Yardeni Research’s weekly preview that Nvidia earnings are a function of AI investments by mostly other large-cap tech companies, making the AI stalwart the fulcrum of not only the AI trade but a big portion of the entire stock market rally. “Nvidia’s earnings will begin to be supported by rising demand from other tech and many non-tech companies in the S&P 493,” he said.

Futures	Performance (+/-)
Nasdaq 100	+0.09%
S&P 500	+0.06%
Dow	-0.01%
R2K	+0.05%

In premarket trading on Wednesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.08% to $562, and the Invesco QQQ ETF QQQ gained 0.11% to $477.28, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session

U.S. stocks meandered back and forth across the unchanged line on Tuesday before ending higher, with IT stocks providing the thrust. After a negative start, the indices recovered after a report showed consumer confidence rose to the highest since February amid an improvement in inflation expectations. The averages went about in a listless manner and yet had enough momentum to close in the green.

The Dow Industrials scaled a fresh closing high, although the 30-stock blue-chip average could not break above its intraday high. The S&P 500 inched further toward its record close of 5,667.20 hit on July 16, while small-caps fell for a second straight session following their recent runup.

Index	Performance (+/)	Value
Nasdaq Composite	+0.16%	17,754.82
S&P 500 Index	+0.16%	5,625.80
Dow Industrials	+0.02%	41,250.50
Russell 2000	-0.67%	2,203.00

Insights From Analysts:

Fund manager Louis Navellier expects the market to rally through the presidential election. “Historically, the stock market rallies into Presidential Election Day since the candidates are promising voters everything and anything,” he said, adding that “no taxes on tips and social security benefits are very popular, as are larger child tax credits, plus aid for first-time homeowners.”

Upcoming Economic Data

• The Energy Information is due to release its weekly petroleum status report at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
• Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic’s speech will make a public appearance at 6 p.m. EDT.
• The Treasury will auction five-year notes at 1 p.m. EDT.

See Also: How To Trade Futures

Stocks In Focus:

• Nordstrom rose about 8% in premarket trading following the company’s quarterly results.
• Other stocks moving on earnings are Ambarella, Inc. AMBA (up over 23%), Box, Inc. BOX (up over 7.50%), nCino, Inc. NCNO (down over 12.5%), PVH Corp. PVH (down over 8%), Semtech Corporation SMTC (up over 4%)and SentinelOne, Inc. S (up over 2%).
• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF, Chewy, Inc. CHWY, Foot Locker, Inc. FL, J. M. Smucker Company SJM, Kohl’s Corporation KSS, Li Auto Inc. LI and Patterson Companies, Inc. PDCO are among the key companies reporting their earnings ahead of the market open.
• Those reporting after the close include Affirm Holdings, Inc. AFRM,  Cooper Companies, Inc. COO, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD, Five Below, Inc. FIVE, HP Inc. HPQ, Nutanix, Inc. NTNX, NetApp, Inc. NTAP, Okta, Inc. OKTA, Salesforce, Inc. CRM and Victoria’s Secret & Co. VSCO.
• Super Micro Computer, Inc. SMCI is extending the weakness seen on Tuesday on the back of a short report.

Commodities, Bonds And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil and gold futures extended their weakness and Bitcoin BTC/USD retreated below the $60K level. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 1.1 basis points to 3.822%.

Asian stocks closed Wednesday’s session on a mixed note, while European stocks were firmer in early trading.

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