Street Calls of the Week
Investing.com-- S&P 500 fell Friday, pressured by an Nvidia-led stumble in tech, but wrapped up August with its fourth-straight monthly win.
At 4:00 p.m. ET (20:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 index dropped 0.6%, and the NASDAQ Composite slipped 1.2%.
Nvidia slump drags tech lower; Alibaba jumps
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) fell more than 3% a day as investors continued to assess the uncertainty surrounding the chipmaker’s China sales amid regulatory restrictions on sales to Beijing. The fall in chipmaker also comes amid that China is making progress on reducing its reliance on U.S. chipmaker’s.
Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd ADR (NYSE:BABA) reportedly developed a new chip for inferencing needed to run AI applications. While this new chip is designed for inferencing rather than training, which is China’s biggest weakness--the move signals Beijing’s push for homegrown chipmakers.
PCE in line with expectations
Data released earlier Friday showed that the core PCE price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation, rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, putting the annual rate at 2.9%, its highest level in five months.
This was in line with expectations, suggesting that U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs were not filtering excessively into consumer prices, despite a recent upside surprise in producer inflation.
"You can check this off as one more risk to potentially derailing a cut in September. The inflation part of it, at least in this measure, is not going to do anything to reduce odds of a cut in September," said Michael Lorizio at Manulife Investment Management.
The Fed lowered its policy rate by a full percentage point last year, but has held rates steady this year, citing worries that Trump’s higher tariffs could reignite inflation that is still running above the Fed’s 2% goal.
Bets on a September cut grew sharply after Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged such a possibility, citing some recent cooling in the labor market. But Powell still remained largely non-committal towards future rate cuts, citing uncertainty over the inflation impact of President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.
Dell drops on weak guidance
In the corporate sector, Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) fell as weak current-quarter guidance largely overshadowed strong earnings.
Amazon.com chip partner Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) dropped sharply after posting disappointing guidance for the current quarter.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) stock fell after the heavy-equipment maker forecast higher tariff-related expenses for 2025, as companies scramble to assess the impact of shifting U.S. trade policy.
Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) soared after the software developer clocked strong quarterly earnings.
Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) stock fell sharply even after the beauty company raised its annual sales and profit forecast after topping quarterly sales estimates, banking on steady demand for makeup and skincare brands at its stores as well as lower inventory losses.
Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ:AFRM) stock soared after the buy-now-pay-later company crushed revenue estimates and delivered an upbeat forecast, boosted by resilient consumer spending.
Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article