By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street stocks rose on Wednesday, clawing back some ground lost during the recent selloff as investors positioned themselves ahead of Nvidia’s much-anticipated quarterly results and crucial employment data that had been unavailable during the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were in positive territory, with tech shares putting the Nasdaq in the lead, while gold jumped and crude prices slid.
Chipmaker Nvidia has come to represent the nascent artificial intelligence technology that has powered much of the stock market’s rally in recent months. Its quarterly results and forward guidance will be scrutinized to determine how much life remains in the AI boom and whether worries over inflated valuations and a potential AI bubble are warranted.
“Investing is all about fear and greed, and those fears that AI is in a bubble were running rampant,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive officer at InfraCap in New York. “NVIDIA critical to answer the question, ‘Are we in a bubble or not?’ There’s some optimism, as there should be, going into it.”
The recently ended government shutdown resulted in a backlog of official economic data, which is now beginning to flow. The Labor Department’s September employment report is slated for release on Thursday. Should the report fall short of expectations, it could affect the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision at the conclusion of next month’s monetary policy meeting.
Minutes from the Fed’s October meeting, scheduled for release later in the day, could shed light on the central bank’s decision-making process as it weighs still-elevated inflation against signs of a dampening labor market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31.65 points, or 0.07%, to 46,124.28, the S&P 500 rose 48.03 points, or 0.73%, to 6,665.84 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 269.87 points, or 1.22%, to 22,706.45.
European shares inched higher but continued to drift near one-month lows ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 3.89 points, or 0.40%, to 979.90.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.35%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 6.95 points, or 0.31%.
Emerging market stocks fell 1.04 points, or 0.08%, to 1,360.71. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 0.28% to 698.21, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 165.28 points, or 0.34%, to 48,537.70.
U.S. Treasury yields reversed, edging higher as investors digested delayed economic data and looked toward the Fed minutes for clues regarding the central bank’s path forward.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.4 basis points to 4.125%, from 4.121% late on Tuesday.
The 30-year bond yield rose 0.8 basis points to 4.7497%, from 4.741% late on Tuesday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 0.4 basis points to 3.577%, from 3.581% late on Tuesday.
The dollar edged higher, while the yen dropped to a 10-month low and the sterling eased on cooling British inflation data.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.43% to 100.02, with the euro down 0.32% at $1.1542. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.73% to 156.62.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 2.24% to $90,390.78. Ethereum declined 3.52% to $2,987.69.
Reports of a U.S. proposal to end the Russian war in Ukraine, along with ongoing oversupply concerns, sent crude oil prices sliding.
U.S. crude fell 2.3% to $59.34 a barrel and Brent fell to $63.49 per barrel, down 2.16% on the day.
Gold prices advanced as investors sought safe-haven assets and girded themselves for the delayed employment data and the Fed minutes.
Spot gold rose 0.94% to $4,106.02 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 1.51% to $4,122.70 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Will Dunham)
