U.S. Stocks Give Back Ground After Early Rebound But Remain Mostly Positive

(RTTNews) - After showing a strong move back to the upside early in the session, stocks have given back ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages have pulled back well off their highs of the session, with the Dow slipping into negative territory.

Currently, the Nasdaq is up 176.75 points or 0.8 percent at 22,609.60 and the S&P 500 is up 27.34 points or 0.4 percent at 6,644.66, while the narrower Dow is down 86.65 points or 0.2 percent at 46,005.09.

The early strength on Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following the significant weakness seen over the past few sessions.

The major averages slumped to their lowest closing levels in a month on Tuesday amid lingering concerns about a potential AI bubble.

Buying interest has waned over the course of the session, however, as traders look ahead to the release of earnings news from market leader and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) after the close of today's trading.

Ahead of the release of its third quarter results, Nvidia is jumping by 2.5 percent after ending the previous session at its lowest closing level in almost a month.

"Nvidia reports tonight and the slightest bit of news to disappoint investors has the potential to whip up a tornado across global markets," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. "Investors will be hanging on [CEO] Jensen Huang's every word and looking for clues that big investment in AI is worth it."

"Huang is an eternal optimist and Nvidia has a habit of smashing earnings expectations," he added. "Therefore, investors might be digging deeper than usual into the numbers to spot any signs of weakness, rather than simply being swayed by the headline narrative."

Traders may also be reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting this afternoon.

The Fed minutes may shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates amid a recent decline in expectations for another quarter point rate cut at the central bank's next meeting in December.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicates the changes the Fed lowers rates by 25 basis points next month are roughly 50-50.

Sector News

Gold stocks are seeing substantial strength amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.1 percent.

Significant strength is also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent gain being posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

On the other hand, oil stocks are moving sharply lower along with the price of crude oil, dragging the NYSE Arca Oil Index down by 2.5 percent.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dipped by 0.3 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside over the course of the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is just above the unchanged line.

In the bond market, treasuries are showing a lack of direction after moving modestly higher over the two previous sessions. Currently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by less than a basis point at 4.119 percent.