Wall Street traders kept a lid on stocks ahead of results from Nvidia Corp. — the giant chipmaker at the heart of the artificial-intelligence revolution that has powered the bull market.
The bar is high for the Santa Clara, California-based company — whose shares have soared over 90% this year after more than tripling in 2023.
Nvidia's revenue is expected to be buoyed by soaring demand in its data-center business. Investors around the world are waiting to see whether the poster child of AI will be able to match the sky-high expectations surrounding the technology.
In the run-up to those numbers, traders refrained from making any big commitments, with equities just fluctuating around all-time highs.
The market also kept a close eye on a handful of Federal Reserve speakers, with Governor Christopher Waller saying he needs to see several more good inflation numbers to begin rate cuts.
"At this point, the higher-for-longer mantra has been absorbed by markets and it would take renewed talk of rate hikes to meaningfully move markets, especially as traders settle in and await tomorrow's post-bell earnings release from Nvidia — which is widely viewed as the most important catalyst of this week," said Tom Essaye at The Sevens Report.
The S&P 500 hovered near 5,315 as of 2:35 p.m. in New York. Nvidia was little changed.
