Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday, weighed down by tech stocks. Investors remained hopeful that inflation numbers slated to be released on Friday would facilitate interest rate cuts. All of the three most widely followed indexes closed the session in the red.

How Did the Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 159.08 points, or 0.4%, to close at 41,091.42. Twenty components of the 30-stock index ended in negative territory, while 10 ended in positive.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 198.79 points, or 1.1%, to close at 17,556.03.

The S&P 500 declined 33.62 points, or 0.6%, to close at 5,592.18. Eight of the 11 broad sectors of the benchmark index closed in the red. The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) and the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XLC) decreased 1.4%, 1% and 0.7%, respectively, while the Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLF) advanced 0.3%.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) increased 10.9% to 17.11. A total of 9.9 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 11.7 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the S&P 500.

NVIDIA Earnings and Inflation Report Dominate Headlines

Wednesday’s trade ebbed and flowed on uncertainty about NVIDIA Corporation’s NVDA upcoming quarterly earnings call. The chipmaking giant’s shares fell a further 2.1% before reporting earnings after the bell on Wednesday, having risen 1.5% in the previous session. The company’s stock fell on worries that it might fall short of earnings and revenue expectations, and may not provide a bright enough outlook.

Investors are also keeping a watchful eye on the Friday release of the Fed’s favorite inflation metric, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index for July. The central bank recently sent clear signals that it is on the verge of a series of interest rate cuts. Markets expect inflation to remain low and facilitate the Fed’s decision-making on monetary policy.

Currently, CME’s FedWatch Tool predicts a 64% probability that the central bank would go for a 25 bps rate reduction in its September meeting. However, a not-so-insignificant 37% weightage has also been provided to a 50 bps rate cut. Overall, it was a gloomy day on Wall Street. Semiconductor stocks suffered in particular.

Shares of Broadcom Inc. AVGO and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD fell 2% and 2.8%, respectively. Both currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Economic Data

Per a government report, for the week ending Aug. 23, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 0.8 million barrels from the previous week. In the week prior, inventory had gone down by 4.6 million barrels.

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