Stock Market Today: All Eyes Turn to Nvidia
Technology shares were enjoying a modest rally this afternoon as investor awaited earnings from AI giant Nvidia () and Salesforce () , both due after today's close.
Nvidia shares were up 1% to $136.90 at 2:40 p.m. Nvidia's semiconductors and Graphic Processing Units dominate the market for chips used to power artificial intelligence applications.
Salesforce, a powerhouse in customer relations management, was off 0.8% at $275.01.
While techs were higher, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial were both modestly lower. Drifting is a good descriptor for the overall market.
The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, released the minutes of its May 6-7 meeting. The minutes suggest Fed officials believed market and trade volatility were enough to leave its key federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.5%.
Nine of 11 S&P 500 sectors were lower. The leading sector was information technology led by Fair Isaac Corp. () , up 8.6%. It was followed by Broadcom () and Super Micro Computer () , up 1.6% and 1.32%, respectively.
Communications Services were the other winners led by Discovery Inc. () and News Corp. Class B () , up 4,3% and 1.3%, respectively. Facebook parent Meta Platforms () was up slightly after its annual meeting. The company is breaking its AI team into two pieces to better compete with OpenAI and Google-parent Alphabet () .
Utilities were still the weakest sector, off 1.6%, weighed down by higher interest rates. The 10-year yield was at 4.481%, up from 4.45% on Tuesday.
Shares of Nvidia () were edging higher this afternoon ahead of its fiscal-first-quarter earnings report, due after Wednesday's close.
The shares were up 0.5% to $136.14 at 1:20 p.m.
Stocks generally were lower with the Standard &Poor's 500 Index off just six points at 5,915. The Nasdaq Composite was off very slightly at 19,199. The Dow Jones industrials were off 102 points at 42,242.
Only two of 11 S&P 500 sectors were higher, however: Communications Services and Information Technology. The first includes Facebook parent Meta Platforms () , up 0.6% to $646.16 as the company holds its annual meeting
Techs were led by Fair Isaac () , the company that generates credit scores for consumers. The shares were up 8.6% to $1632.
The weakest sector was utilities, lower because bond yields had moved higher today. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.49%, up slightly from Monday. The yield had reached as much as 4.61% on May 21.
Crude oil was up $1.11 at $62.00.
The Federal Reserve was scheduled to release minutes of its May 6-7 meeting at 2 p.m. ET.
Stocks are drifting lower in midday trading. The S&P 500 Index is 30 points off the day's highs at 5906, down 0.25% on the day.
More stocks are down than up, too. Among S&P 500 constituents, for every stock that's higher today, around 5 are down.
You can see that clearly on this heat map, where the biggest ups include AutoZone () , Palantir () , and the healthcare providers like UnitedHealth () , Elevance () and CVS () .
UNH has been beaten down, and while there's no big news to explain today's gain, the company has mentioned seeing cost benefits to using AI in the future and reports say that Congress members have bought stock.
Nvidia has drifted off the day's highs and is down slightly. But there are way more red boxes that green ones.
Yesterday, I mentioned the huge gain in the Conference Board's Consumer Sentiment for May.
David Rosenberg tweeted the following, which prompted some discussion in TheStreet Pro's Daily Diary about the value of this survey.
Our own Doug Kass at TheStreet Pro suggested that this number should be ignored. It's a lagging indicator that was influenced by the big jump in stock prices. Especially considering that people are more than twice as confident in the stock market as they are in their own jobs!
What else is happening?
While not directly related to Tesla () , another SpaceX rocket launch failed yesterday. While launching rockets into space is incredibly hard and failure will be part of the road to success, this begs the question of whether Elon Musk has taken his eye off the ball with his foray into politics.
That's all for now!
Happy Wednesday!
After the close of trading today, all eyes will turn to Nvidia () as investors await the company's Q1 earnings release. The Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor maker is expected to report earnings of 93 cents a share on revenue of $43.2 billion, according to LSEG.
TheStreet Pro's Stephen "Sarge" Guilfoyle says in his Market Recon column today that investors should also be on the lookout for "the reality (or not) of the company's April projection of a $5.5 billion inventory-based charge after President Trump tightened export controls for high-technology-type products headed for mainland China that could be used for military purposes."
Nvidia shares are up in premarket trading.
What else is happening today? Salesforce () is also set to report after the close. Expectations are for quarterly earnings per share of $2.55 on revenue of $9.75 billion.
Yesterday was quite a day. Following Sunday's news that the Trump administration's aggressive tariffs on Europe would be delayed at least until July, stocks ripped more than 2% higher. All sectors were up, led by Consumer Discretionary, which gained nearly 3%. Breadth was strong, too.
As for today, expect the market to be less exuberant. S&P futures are up 0.11%, while the Dow is down slightly. European markets are lower.
Bond prices are slightly lower, sending yields up, while gold and crude oil are higher.
Stock Market Today: All Eyes Turn to Nvidia first appeared on TheStreet on May 28, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
31 minutes ago
- CNBC
CNBC Daily Open: Recent gains in markets are likely just short-term optimism
Over the past week, Washington and Beijing have been trading barbs about violating their preliminary trade deal. Aside from that, higher steel and aluminum tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will kick in Wednesday. Amid all the trade tensions, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development slashed its U.S. and global growth forecast for this year and the next, citing "barriers to trade tighter financial conditions, weaker business and consumer confidence and heightened policy uncertainty." Investors, however, are still pushing up stocks, with Nvidia on Tuesday regaining the crown of most valuable public company. That said, CFRA Research's Sam Stovall thinks that the market is "going to just sort of bob and weave in the meantime until we start to get a clearer understanding, if we get one, of the outlook for earnings, GDP growth, etc." In other words, recent gains in markets aren't likely to be indicative of a longer-term trajectory. Where stocks go will depend on where the U.S. economy lands amid the developments surrounding tariffs. Markets in U.S. and Europe riseU.S. stocks climbed Tuesday, boosted by rises in chip stocks and more-than-expected job openings in April. The S&P 500 gained 0.58%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.51% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.81% higher. Europe's Stoxx 600 index edged up 0.09%, reversing losses from earlier in the day. Nvidia is king againNvidia shares added 2.8% Tuesday to close at $141.22, giving it a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion. That move puts the chipmaker ahead of Microsoft's $3.44 trillion cap, which means Nvidia is again the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. The stock has surged more than 23% over the past month as Nvidia's growth has persisted even through export control and tariff concerns. OECD slashes U.S. and global growth rate The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development drastically cut its growth forecast for the U.S. to 1.6% in 2025 from an earlier estimate of 2.2%, according to a Tuesday report. OECD also lowered global economic growth this year to 2.9% from 3.1%. "Substantial increases in barriers to trade" is one factor weighing down growth prospects, the report said. Inflation in the euro zone dips below 2%Euro zone inflation fell to 1.9% in May — below the European Central Bank's 2% target — on sharp declines in services, flash data from statistics agency Eurostat showed Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the May reading to come in at 2%, compared to the previous month's 2.2% figure. Core inflation, which excludes energy, food, tobacco and alcohol prices, also eased, falling to 2.3% in May from 2.7% in April. Trump's bill is a 'disgusting abomination': MuskElon Musk in a Tuesday post on X described U.S. President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" as a "disgusting abomination" and subsequently wrote that the bill "will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!)" Trump is still pressuring U.S. lawmakers to pass the bill, blasting Rand Paul after he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he is "just not open" to supporting a $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. [PRO] Watch out for new stocks in S&PSeveral financial services stocks could be rotated into the S&P 500, according to Bank of America. Stocks added to the index often rise in value because funds that track the benchmark will add it to their portfolios, so investors should pay attention to the moves, which will be announced by the end of the week. Tesla's planned robotaxi launch in tech-friendly Austin has Musk playing catch-up in his hometown Tesla's long-awaited entry into the robotaxi market — expected later this month — will begin in Austin, Texas, which has emerged as a key battleground for self-driving technology. CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on X last week that the company has been testing Model Y vehicles with no safety drivers on board in the Texas capital for several days. But while the market remains nascent, Tesla already faces a hefty amount of competition. Alphabet's Waymo, Amazon's Zoox, Volkswagen subsidiary ADMT and startup Avride are already present in Austin. "The winners of the space are emerging, and it's just a matter of scaling," said Toby Snuggs, head of sales and partnerships at Avride.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
20 stocks primed for rapid growth while trading at half of Nvidia's valuation
When selecting investments, it is easy to get hung up on a particular metric, such as a dividend yield or a price ratio, but investors need to look deeper or they might miss opportunities. Inc. AMZN provides an example: Its stock has typically traded at a high price-to-earnings ratio. Investors tend to look at a stock's forward P/E ratio, which is the price divided by analysts' consensus estimate for earnings per share over the following 12 months. Over the past 10 years, Amazon's stock has traded at an average forward P/E of 79.5, while the S&P 500 SPX has traded at an average forward P/E of 18.7, according to FactSet. But Amazon's stock was up 855% for 10 years through Friday, while the S&P 500 returned 235% with dividends reinvested. My daughter's boyfriend, a guest in my home, offered to powerwash part of my house — then demanded money What on Earth is going on with the American consumer? My father-in-law has dementia and is moving in with us. Can we invoice him for a caregiver? 'The situation is extreme': I'm 65 and leaving my estate to only one grandchild. Can the others contest my will? 20 stocks primed for rapid growth while trading at half of Nvidia's valuation It turns out that for Amazon's management team, bottom-line earnings traditionally weren't a focus. The emphasis was on reinvesting most of the cash being generated to expand the business in multiple directions. So the Amazon story was about revenue growth, rather than EPS growth. And that brings us to Nvidia Corp. NVDA. Last week Laila Maidan looked into Nvidia's relatively high forward P/E and explained why the stock might still be considered a bargain for long-term investors, based on analysts' expectations for the company's revenue growth. Nvidia's stock traded at a forward P/E of 28.1 at Friday's close, while the S&P 500 traded at a weighted forward P/E of 21.4. It is not a surprise to see Nvidia trading at a P/E valuation that is 31% higher than that of the index. But based on consensus estimates among analysts polled by FactSet, Nvidia is expected to increase its sales per share at a compound annual growth rate of 41.7% through 2026, versus an expected sales-per-share CAGR of 5.5% for the S&P 500. All such estimates in this article are adjusted by FactSet to match calendar years; about 20% of companies in the S&P 500 have fiscal reporting periods that don't match the calendar. For Nvidia, investors pay a premium for the higher expected growth rate. And that sets the stage for a stock screen. Which companies trading at low P/E multiples are also expected to increase revenue quickly? For this screen we are looking at revenue growth projections — specifically sales per share. We are using the per-share numbers because they reflect expected dilution to a company's share count if it issues new shares to help fund an acquisition. Merging with a competitor will obviously make revenue increase. But if the share count rises significantly, sales per share will be lower. The per-share numbers help investors to understand whether or not a company might have overpaid for an acquisition. Starting with the S&P 500, we narrowed the list to companies trading at forward P/E ratios of 14 or less — half Nvidia's valuation. Actually, we rounded down, so the list was confined to stocks trading at a forward P/E of less than 14.5. Then we sorted the list by expected sales-per-share CAGR from calendar 2024 through 2026, based on consensus estimates among analysts polled by FactSet. Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 with the highest expected sales-per-share CAGR through 2025 among those trading at a P/E of less than 14.5: Company Ticker Industry Forward P/E Expected sales-per-share CAGR from 2024 through 2026 Expand Energy Corp. EXE Integrated Oil 12.0 39.6% Super Micro Computer Inc. SMCI Computer Processing Hardware 14.1 31.9% EQT Corp. EQT Integrated Oil 13.6 26.0% Micron Technology Inc. MU Semiconductors 9.4 23.2% Coterra Energy Inc. CTRA Integrated Oil 8.3 21.2% First Solar Inc. FSLR Solar Power Equipment 8.7 20.5% Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH Hotels/ Resorts/ Cruiselines 7.9 15.9% Incyte Corp. INCY Pharmaceuticals 10.7 15.5% Seagate Technology Holdings PLC STX Computer Peripherals 12.4 15.0% Gen Digital Inc. GEN Software 11.1 13.0% DaVita Inc. DVA Medical/ Nursing Services 11.6 12.0% Oneok Inc. OKE Oil & Gas Pipelines 14.2 11.8% Molina Healthcare Inc. MOH Managed Healthcare 11.7 11.8% Aptiv PLC APTV Electrical Products 9.0 10.9% UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH Managed Healthcare 12.5 10.7% Elevance Health Inc. ELV Managed Healthcare 10.5 10.4% Dell Technologies Inc. Class C DELL Computer Processing Hardware 11.4 10.2% American International Group Inc. AIG Multi-Line Insurance 12.2 10.2% HCA Healthcare Inc. HCA Hospital/ Nursing Management 14.4 9.9% Ball Corp. BALL Containers/ Packaging 14.3 9.7% Source: FactSet You may need to scroll the table to see all of the data. It is a varied list. Super Micro Computer SMCI ranks second, with a 31.9% CAGR expected for sales per share through 2026. The stock soared last month after President Donald Trump announced investment agreements with Saudi Arabia to build data centers in the U.S., which lifted suppliers of related equipment. Read: Super Micro's stock keeps surging. Here's what might come next. It might surprise you to see UnitedHealth Group UNH on the list, in light of the company's numerous difficulties. These have included higher-than-expected costs in its Medicare Advantage business, reports of a government investigation into possible healthcare fraud and the departure of Chief Executive Andrew Witty. But with the stock having tumbled 40% this year through Friday, with dividends reinvested, analysts working for brokerage and research firms believe the worst is over, with 21 out of 29 analysts polled by FactSet rating UnitedHealth a buy or the equivalent. Only three of the analysts rate the stock a sell or the equivalent. Leaving the companies passing the screen in the same order, here is a summary of analysts' opinions about the stocks: Company Ticker Share buy ratings Share neutral ratings Share sell ratings May 30 price Consensus price target Implied 12-month upside potential Expand Energy Corp. EXE 90% 10% 0% $116.13 $128.45 11% Super Micro Computer Inc. SMCI 47% 41% 12% $40.02 $40.69 2% EQT Corp. EQT 72% 24% 4% $55.13 $60.63 10% Micron Technology Inc. MU 85% 12% 3% $94.46 $123.95 31% Coterra Energy Inc. CTRA 83% 17% 0% $24.31 $33.41 37% First Solar Inc. FSLR 78% 20% 2% $158.08 $202.43 28% Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH 72% 28% 0% $17.65 $23.65 34% Incyte Corp. INCY 45% 52% 3% $65.06 $73.95 14% Seagate Technology Holdings PLC STX 59% 36% 5% $117.94 $119.88 2% Gen Digital Inc. GEN 45% 55% 0% $28.48 $31.83 12% DaVita Inc. DVA 9% 83% 8% $136.26 $167.14 23% ONEOK Inc. OKE 67% 33% 0% $80.84 $106.75 32% Molina Healthcare Inc. MOH 42% 47% 11% $305.04 $356.93 17% Aptiv PLC APTV 68% 23% 9% $66.81 $75.76 13% UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH 73% 17% 10% $301.91 $376.05 25% Elevance Health Inc. ELV 75% 25% 0% $383.84 $491.94 28% Dell Technologies Inc. Class C DELL 81% 19% 0% $111.27 $136.52 23% American International Group Inc. AIG 55% 45% 0% $84.64 $90.88 7% HCA Healthcare Inc. HCA 59% 34% 7% $381.39 $387.95 2% Ball Corp. BALL 61% 33% 6% $53.58 $61.23 14% Source: FactSet Any stock screen has its limits and should only be used as a tool as part of your own research if you are selecting individual companies for investment. Click on the tickers for more about each company. Read: Tomi Kilgore's detailed guide to the information available on the MarketWatch quote page 'You never know what might happen': How do I make sure my son-in-law doesn't get his hands on my daughter's inheritance? Strategists forecast a sizzling summer for small-cap stocks 'I am getting very frustrated': My mother's adviser has not returned my calls. He manages $1 million. Is this normal? My life partner is 18 years my senior. He wants to leave his $4.5 million fortune to me — not his two kids. Do we tell them? 'I'm afraid to ask her': My stepmother won't show me my father's will. What now?
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
The AI Era Enters Its Sovereign Phase
Generative AI adoption started in late 2022 with public adoption of models like ChatGPT and Llama. As it drives towards its next phase of value creation with reasoning, also referred to as agentic AI, it has recently crossed the boundary from a consumer-centric application into an enterprise application. Right on the heels of this adoption is also another phase of value creation – Sovereign AI. What Is Sovereign AI? Sovereign AI refers to artificial intelligence that is developed, maintained, and controlled within a specific nation's or organization's jurisdiction, ensuring independence from external influences. This artificial intelligence is designed to align with local regulations, ethical standards, and strategic priorities, allowing governments and enterprises to maintain autonomy over their AI-driven operations. The Opportunity To Reign Supreme (Or At Least Be At The Front Of The Pack) Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that 'AI is now an essential form of national infrastructure – just like energy, telecommunications and the internet.' Indeed, many leading countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, China, France, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates have launched sovereign AI initiatives. Stargate is an example of such an initiative from the United States. Additionally, leading AI enablers like Nvidia and OpenAI, have initiatives targeted specifically at helping entities establish their own sovereign AI capabilities. Sovereign AI is particularly crucial in areas like national security, defense, and critical infrastructure, where reliance on foreign AI models could pose risks related to data privacy, cybersecurity, or geopolitical dependencies. By building and maintaining custom AI capabilities, nations and organizations can safeguard their technological sovereignty while fostering innovation tailored to their unique needs. Moving Forward With Sovereign AI While this is a gross oversimplification of how complicated this task is for national leaders to undertake, the following are some critical areas that must be addressed in embarking on the sovereign AI journey: To this end, AI enablers like Nvidia and leading countries such as France have started to organize events. For example, at the upcoming Viva Technology event in Paris this coming June, Jensen Huang and Nvidia have organized a dedicated GTC event where interested parties can learn more. As mentioned earlier, it is important to keep in mind that sovereign AI isn't necessarily limited to national entities. Any sufficiently capable entity, whether they be nations, companies, organizations or universities interested in securing their own AI systems and capabilities from data curation and model creation to specified and focused outcomes can take advantage of sovereign AI.
