Wall Street unsteady, ASX set to rise
The US stock market is swinging through another unsettled day of trading on Wednesday, as a huge couple of tests loom on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent in afternoon trading after veering earlier between a loss of 0.2 per cent and a jump of 1.1 per cent. The index is coming off a four-day losing streak, its longest in nearly three months, and has been shaky recently because of worries that stock prices have shot too high and that the Federal Reserve may not deliver as many revitalising cuts to interest rates as expected.
Wall Street is eagerly awaiting Nvidia’s results.Credit: AP
The Dow Jones was down 76 points, or 0.2 per cent, in early afternoon trade, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 per cent higher. The Australian sharemarket is set to advance, with futures at 4.56am AEDT pointing to a gain of 37 points, or 0.4 per cent, at the open. The ASX lost 0.3 per cent on Wednesday. The Australian dollar was trading at US64.62¢ at 5.12am AEDT.
On Wall Street, Constellation Energy helped lead the market and rallied 5.6 per cent after the US Department of Energy said it’s lending $1 billion ($1.6 billion) to help restart Constellation’s nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island. Lowe’s rose 5.3 per cent after the home-improvement retailer reported a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected.
They helped work against a 2.2 per cent dip for Target, which reported a stronger profit but also weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer hinted that challenges may continue through the critical holiday shopping season.
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The market’s focus, though, remained on Nvidia. Wall Street’s most influential stock climbed 1.6 per cent to recover some of its loss for the month so far, which topped 10 per cent on Tuesday. Traders are making their final moves before the chip company reports how much profit it made after trading ends for the day.
Much is riding on it.
Nvidia has grown to become the largest stock on Wall Street and briefly topped $US5 trillion in value. That means its movements have more of an effect on the S&P 500 than any other stock, and it can single-handedly steer the index’s direction some days.
