Nvidia falls after results
By: BARBARAKOLLMEYER
U.S. stocks rose modestly Friday morning, with the Dow looking to post its longest winning streak since late last year, with few economic reports on inflation or the economy deterring Wall Street from tentatively buying assets perceived as risky.
However, a modest decline in the technology sector, which has been leading the overall market of late, weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite in midday trading.
What are markets doing?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.12% rose 66 points, or 0.3%, to 24,808. If the blue-chip average were to end in positive territory, that would mark its seventh straight positive session, its longest winning streak since the one that ended the week of Nov. 8, 2017.
The S&P 500 SPX, +0.01% rose 4 points, or 0.1%, to 2,728. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.17% dipped 6 points to 7,398, a decline of 0.1%. The tech-heavy index is coming off a fifth straight positive session, its longest such streak since February.
For the week, the Dow is up 2.3%, the S&P 500 is up 2.4% and the Nasdaq is up 2.6%.
Read: Here’s why the stock market has its swagger back—for now
What is driving the markets?
Cooler U.S. consumer prices helped propel stocks Thursday, while lower bond yields and a weak dollar also lent a hand. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s so-called “fear gauge” has been falling for the past five sessions, tapping its lowest level since late January.
On Friday, the import price index rose 0.3% in April because of the higher cost of oil. This was softer than the 0.5% gain expected by economists surveyed by Econoday. Excluding fuel, import prices rose 0.2% last month. The initial University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was unchanged at 98.8 in May.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that after being dislocated over the past decade, suppliers of labor, or households, are now on the same footing as employers. He also said the U.S. wasn’t in any danger of a breakout of inflation, but that he was worried the yield curve could invert as soon as September. Inverted yield curves, or the gap between the 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes, often precede recessions.
What are strategists saying?
“We’ve been in a broad trading range, but we’ve broken out of the downtrend that we had been seeing, thanks to some strong earnings and bond yields that have remained stable below 3%. This has put us back into a neutral positive for the year,” said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at Newbridge Securities.
“Recent data on consumer prices and producer prices have also supported the market, as they’ve cooled investors on the idea that we might be seeing runaway inflation.”
Read: First-quarter earnings season was great—except for this small thing
What stocks are in focus?
The Trade Desk Inc. TTD, +41.10% jumped 40% after the platform for managing digital-ad campaigns blew out earnings forecasts. It reported that streaming TV advertising surged nearly 2,000% over the year in the first quarter.
Shares of Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -1.53% fell 1.2% after the chip maker’s shares fell in late trade, even after the company reported results and an outlook that topped Wall Street’s view. The stock was one of the bigger drags on the overall technology space, and it also weighed on other chip makers. Advanced Micro Devices AMD, -2.02% fell 2.1%.
Read: Nvidia made more from crypto mining than AMD, but expects a bigger drop
And: Nvidia CEO says self-driving pause, Tesla Model 3 issues didn’t affect auto business
Dropbox Inc. DBX, -1.97% slipped 3% after the cloud-storage company beat earnings and sales forecasts, but results weren’t as blowout as Wall Street would have liked.
Plus: Red-hot chip stocks are actually getting cheaper as their prices rise
Shares of PPG Industries Inc. PPG, -1.98% fell 1.6% after the paint maker fired its controller and reassigned employees as it said it found additional accounting errors worth millions.
Drug stocks could be active ahead after the administration of President Donald Trump is expected to make a speech on drug prices on Friday.
What are other markets doing?
Asian markets finished the week mostly higher, except for a 0.3% drop for the Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.35% while European stocks SXXP, +0.11%were pushing toward a seventh-straight weekly win.
Oil futures were mostly lower, with West Texas Intermediate crude CLM8, -0.64% off 0.2% to $71.20 a barrel, but still poised to gain 2% for the week.
Read: Oil and the dollar are doing something they have only done 11 times in the past 35 years
The dollar DXY, -0.22% was down 0.2% to 92.469, threatening its first weekly dropsince mid-April, while gold GCM8, -0.03% inched higher.
Read the full article at MarketWatch.com
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