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Quiet Wall Street: Markets await the latest earnings report from chipmaker Nvidia
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Quiet Wall Street: Markets await the latest earnings report from chipmaker Nvidia

Wall Street markets were largely unchanged in light trading early Wednesday as investors eagerly awaited an earnings report from chipmaker Nvidia later in the day.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost less than 0.1 percent before the market opened, a day after the Dow hit a new record.

Nordstrom rose 1.7% in overnight trading after the department store chain easily beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations on better-than-expected sales. It also raised its earnings per share forecast and said it plans to open 21 more stores by fall 2025, in addition to the 11 it has already opened this year.

Investors were less enthusiastic about Bath & Body Works, whose shares fell 2.7 percent in premarket trading after the soap and perfume retailer failed to meet analysts’ sales targets and issued a cautious sales forecast for the full year.

Most investors and market observers are fixated on Nvidia’s upcoming earnings report. Big technology companies like Nvidia have gained enormous, if not excessive, influence lately, with their total market value surpassing the $3 trillion mark.

“That’s the big question, and I think all eyes will be on Nvidia when they report this week,” said Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at US Bank Wealth Management. “That’s the elephant in the room, so to speak, that a lot of investors will be focusing on.”

Nvidia has gained 159% this year thanks to rising demand for its semiconductors used in artificial intelligence applications. Wall Street expects Nvidia to report second-quarter revenue of $28.7 billion, more than double the year-ago quarter.

Investors are also looking ahead to Friday, when the U.S. government releases its latest inflation data for July, the Personal Consumption and Expenditure (PCE) report. There is hope that the data will show further moderation or at least stagnation in inflation, so that Federal Reserve officials remain prepared to cut interest rates at their September meeting, as they have previously indicated.

In Europe, the French CAC 40 rose 0.6 percent at lunchtime, while the German DAX rose 0.9 percent. The British FTSE 100 lost about 0.1 percent.

In Asia, Japan’s leading index Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent to close at 38,371.76.

Toyota shares rose 3.9% after Japanese media reported that Japan’s largest automaker would announce a fuel cell cooperation agreement with European automaker BMW.

Fuel cell vehicles are environmentally friendly and run on electricity generated by combining hydrogen and oxygen to form water. The Japanese business newspaper Nikkei reported that a partnership to this effect is to be announced next week.

Toyota Motor Corp. is often criticized for lagging behind in global electric vehicle development, but is a long-time proponent of fuel cells.

In energy trading, the US benchmark price for crude oil lost $1.36 to $74.17 per barrel. The international standard price for Brent crude oil fell by $1.23 to $77.43 per barrel.

In foreign exchange trading, the US dollar rose from 143.91 yen to 144.32 Japanese yen. The euro cost 1.1122 dollars, up from 1.1188 dollars previously.

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