Nasdaq 100 Slumps 1.6% As Traders Turn Cautious Ahead Of Powell's Jackson Hole Address

The Nasdaq 100 took a significant hit on Thursday, sliding 1.6% as investors adopted a cautious stance in anticipation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s much-anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium, scheduled for Friday at 10:00 a.m. ET.

With market participants eagerly seeking insights on the future path of interest rates and the broader economic landscape, the session was marked by a shift towards risk aversion.

Market Sentiment Turns Bearish After Private Sector Data

Thursday’s session saw a noticeable downturn in sentiment after 11 a.m. as traders absorbed stronger-than-expected growth in private sector activity for August.

This unexpected data dented hopes for a larger-than-anticipated 50-basis-point rate cut by the Fed in September. As a result, market-implied probabilities for such a rate cut tumbled to 24%, down sharply from 38% just a day earlier.

This shift in expectations led to a broader market pullback, with traders opting to take profits following a 13% rally in the Nasdaq 100, tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ, from its early August lows. The day’s decline marks the steepest drop for tech stocks since August 5.

Semiconductor, Magnificent 7 Stocks Dragged The Index

Semiconductor stocks were among the hardest hit, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX plunging 3.4%, its worst performance since August 2.

Out of the 100 components in the Nasdaq 100, 80 ended the day in the red, indicating a broad-based weak sentiment.

The day’s worst performers included Moderna Inc. MRNA, down 6.5%, Intel Corp. INTC, down 6.1%, and MongoDB Inc. MDB, down 5.8%.

When looking at the performance contribution, four of the Magnificent 7 tech giants were significant drags on the Nasdaq 100’s performance:

Company	Weight	1-day return (%)	Contribution
NVIDIA Corporation NVDA	8.14%	-3.68	-0.31 percentage points (pp)
Microsoft Corporation MSFT	8.12	-2.01	-0.16pp
Tesla, Inc. TSLA	2.77	-5.64	-0.16pp
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN	4.83	-2.19	-0.11pp
Broadcom Inc. AVGO	5.11	-2.06	-0.11pp

Technical Outlook: Crucial Support Level in Focus

From a technical perspective, the Nasdaq 100 closed the session right at the critical support level provided by its 50-day moving average.

The market’s reaction in Friday’s session will be crucial in determining whether this support level can hold and potentially trigger a rebound. If the index breaks below this key level, the next support zone lies around the 18,839 mark, coinciding with the 100-day moving average.

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Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.