Wall Street traded lower on Wednesday as technology stocks took a hit ahead of the release of chip giant Nvidia’s (NVDA) quarterly results, an event that Wedbush said was “the most important week for the stock market this year.”

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) Was -1.11% to 17,558.24 points in afternoon trading, while the benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) Was -0.64% to 5,589.71 points. The blue-chip index Dow (DJI) Was -0.43% to 41,071.18 points.

It may be unusual for market direction to depend on just one stock, but that’s a testament to Nvidia’s (NVDA) importance in investors’ minds. The company has become the barometer of demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and its dominance in the space has made it a key driver of the current bull run on Wall Street.

“When you combine $NVDA’s weight in the S&P 500 with its average volatility in response to corporate earnings, it towers over all other stocks in terms of its impact on the market in response to its reports,” Bespoke Investment Group noted on X (formerly Twitter).

Options market activity in Nvidia (NVDA) has already shown disproportionate activity. The stock has moved an average of about 8% after earnings over the past 12 quarters, and another move of that magnitude today could result in a market cap move of around $250 billion.

Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said recent reactions to the company’s reports “may rival those that take place after surprise labor market reports or the release of the consumer price index (CPI).”

The technology sector was already under pressure as traders waited for Nvidia’s (NVDA) report after the market closed. Super Micro Computer (SMCI) had earlier said the same day that it was postponing its annual filing. The AI ​​server maker’s announcement sent its shares plunging more than 23% and sparked concerns in the AI ​​and semiconductor space. Nvidia (NVDA), memory chip maker Micron (MU) and British chip designer Arm (ARM) lost between 2% and 6%.

Eight of the eleven S&P sectors were in the red. Technology, consumer discretionary and communications services were among the losers, each losing more than 1 percent.

With the spotlight firmly on Nvidia (NVDA), there was little else to grab attention on Wednesday. The economic calendar was fairly bare, with only the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s monthly survey of business uncertainty on the agenda. The data showed that expectations for revenue growth have returned to their pre-COVID average.

In the bond markets, US Treasury yields rose slightly as bonds were sold off following the failure of a $70 billion auction of 5-year notes.

Live data on the evolution of US Treasury yields over the entire maturity range can be found on Seeking Alpha’s bond page.

Looking at other active stocks, JM Smucker (SJM) was among the biggest percentage losers in the S&P 500 (SP500). The company, which owns brands such as Jif peanut butter and Hostess Twinkies, dramatically cut its annual sales forecast.

Dow 30 component Salesforce (CRM) fell nearly 2% after the close ahead of earnings. Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (CRWD) is also set to release its first quarterly report since a faulty update in July led to a historic global IT outage that affected millions of Microsoft (MSFT) Windows devices.