Wall Street On Track For Weak Start As Anticipation For Nvidia Earnings Drives Traders To Sidelines: Strategist Flags Shift From Volatile Tech Stocks To Good Dividend-Paying Bets

U.S. stocks are on track for a jittery start as traders brace for a few market-moving catalysts that will pan out over the next few sessions. The index futures were narrowly mixed in early trading. A couple of house price reading and the Conference Board’s consumer confidence data may provide some cues but traders may remain mostly on the sidelines to see off Nvidia Corp.’s NVDA earnings and Friday’s inflation data.

Looking ahead to Nvidia’s earnings, fund manager Louis Navellier said, “There may be more downside from under-delivering good news, than upside from better than hoped for news, given the stock has a P/E in the 70’s.”

“Clearly, market momentum remains positive, with rate cuts the driver in the near term, and AI the longer-term driver,” he added.

Futures	Performance (+/-)
Nasdaq 100	+0.05%
S&P 500	-0.01%
Dow	-0.06%
R2K	-0.02%

In premarket trading on Tuesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY dipped 0.05% to $560.52, and the Invesco QQQ ETF QQQ gained 0.01% to $475.38, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session

Wall Street closed Monday’s session on a mixed note, with tech weakness weighing down on the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 indices. The major averages all opened higher but fell sharply in early trading. While the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 indices moved sideways mostly below the unchanged line for the remainder of the session, the Dow Industrials held above the flatline, closing at a new record.

The Russell 2,000 Index, which hovered in positive terrain for the bulk of the session, retreated in the final few minutes of trading and ended marginally lower.

IT and consumer discretionary stocks were among the worst-performing S&P 500 sectors, while energy, consumer staple and utility stocks saw some strength.

Index	Performance (+/)	Value
Nasdaq Composite	-0.85%	17,725.77
S&P 500 Index	-0.32%	5,616.84
Dow Industrials	+0.16%	41,240.52
Russell 2000	-0.04%	2,217.92

Insights From Analysts:

Ahead of the September Fed meeting, WisdomTree Chief Economist and Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel said the overarching economic landscape is currently stable, given the stable jobless claims data and fairly strong housing market data. The market has responded by noticeably tilting toward value, dividend-paying and smaller-cap stocks.

“This trend reflects a broader anticipation of decreasing interest rates, making bonds less attractive to stocks in comparison,” the economist said. “It also suggests a potential shift in investor preference from high growth but volatile tech stocks, to more stocks paying good dividends, a realignment that could define the next phase of market behavior.”

Upcoming Economic Data

• The results of the S&P/Case-Shiller house price survey for June are due at 9 a.m. EDT. The Federal House Finance Agency will also release the results of a separate housing price survey around the same time.
• The Conference Board is due to announce the results of its consumer confidence survey for August at 10 a.m. EDT, with the headline consumer confidence index expected to rise slightly from 100.3 in July to 101 in August.
• The Treasury is set to auction two-year notes at 1 p.m. EDT.

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Stocks In Focus:

• Paramount Global PARA fell over 3% in premarket trading after media veteran Edgar Bronfman, Jr., withdrew his offer for the company paving the way for it to combine with Skydance Media, LLC.
• CAVA Group, Inc. CAVA plunged over 7% after the company’s post-earnings spike, with insider sales serving as the trigger.
• Ambarella, Inc. AMBA, Box, Inc. BOX, nCino, Inc. NCNO, Nordstrom, Inc. JWN, PVH Corp. PVH, Semtech Corporation SMTC and SentinelOne, Inc. S are among the companies due to release their quarterly results after the market close.

Commodities, Bonds And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures pulled back after Monday’s strong rally and gold futures fell modestly. Bitcoin BTC/USD retreated below the $62.5K level. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 2.1 basis points to 3.839%.

Asian stocks went about a lackluster run on Tuesday, drawing inspiration from the mixed performance on Wall Street overnight, while the European markets rose modestly amid some sour data from the region. German Federal Statistical Office confirmed that the nation’s economy contracted in the second quarter.

Read Next:

• Top Nvidia Analyst Sees No Major Impact From Blackwell Delay, But Flags One Caveat He’s Wary About Ahead Of Earnings

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