U.S. stocks were trading cautiously early Tuesday morning as investors await the release of July consumer price index reports.
Stocks wavered Monday as investors reviewed a series of earnings reports for insight into the impact of higher inflation on companies and consumers.
The S&P 500 fell 5.13 points, or 0.1%, to 4140.06. The Nasdaq Composite retreated 13.10 points, or 0.1%, to 12644.46 after spending much of the afternoon hovering between gains and losses. The technology-heavy index earlier flirted with a potential exit of its bear market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 29.07 points, or 0.1%, to 32832.54 points.
Shares of tech giant Nvidia fell $11.96, or 6.3%, to $177.93 after reporting preliminary quarterly revenue below analysts’ forecasts. The company said it expects challenging market conditions to persist in the third quarter.
Shares of Palantir Technologies lost $1.63, or 14%, to $9.82 after it issued guidance that missed Wall Street’s estimates.
Stocks have swayed in recent days, buffeted by shifting views on central bank policy. Friday’s better-than-expected jobs report divided investors and analysts. Some raised concerns that the Federal Reserve could continue raising interest rates aggressively, while others questioned whether the U.S. economy could really be in recession.
“If we do technically get into recession, I think it’s more likely to be shorter-lived and less severe because both the consumer and corporations are well suited going into this recession,” said Wiley Angell, chief investment officer at Ziegler Capital Management.
Kiran Ganesh, a multiasset strategist at UBS, said the labor market “doesn’t look like a recession in the sort of broad sense.” “Investors seem to be in the mood to listen to the good news,” he added.
Meanwhile, Asian shares mostly declined Tuesday amid a global fall in technology shares, including Japan’s SoftBank, which has reported hefty losses caused by the market downturn.
Shares fell in Tokyo and Hong Kong but rose in other regional markets. Japan’s technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. dropped more than 4% in Tokyo trading. On Monday it reported a record quarterly loss of $23 billion.
A global nose-dive of technology-related issues, such as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, dragged on its sprawling portfolio of investments. Analysts monitoring Asian markets said regional tensions also remain a risk, because of the flareup between China and Taiwan after the recent visit of U.S. House Speak Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. China has said it’s extending threatening military exercises surrounding Taiwan, disrupting shipping and air traffic and raising up a notch worries about trade.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 0.9% in afternoon trading to 27,999.96. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1% to 7,029.80. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.5% higher to 2,504.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng erased earlier gains and fell nearly 0.1% to 20,029.60, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.3% to 3,245.92.
