By Ankika Biswas, Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Carolina Mandl
(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed and close to unchanged on Wednesday, with trading choppy as investors gave second thoughts to their bets on non-technology sectors while awaiting a U.S. inflation report later this week.
The was slightly down and the Dow and Nasdaq slightly up in the early afternoon. Leading chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:) reversed early gains and was down 2%, with its losses weighing on the , which fell 1%.
The S&P 500 information technology index was down 0.13% in another volatile session for the sector, which is instrumental in Wall Street’s rise to record highs this year.
Among the 11 S&P 500 major industry sectors, only consumer discretionary was solidly in positive territory, up 2%.
At 2:06 p.m. the rose 43.52 points, or 0.11%, to 39,155.68, the S&P 500 lost 2.74 points, or 0.05%, to 5,466.56 and the gained 34.78 points, or 0.20%, to 17,752.43.
“Investors are sitting on their hands, waiting for tomorrow’s presidential debate and for additional economic news in particular, this Friday’s personal consumption expenditure report,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.
Positive earnings and benign inflation data could encourage more rotation from tech to sectors that have lagged this year, Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at the Carson Group.
Appliances manufacturer Whirlpool (NYSE:) surged 14.93% after Reuters reported that German engineering group Robert Bosch is weighing a bid for the U.S. appliances maker.
FedEx (NYSE:) jumped 14.87% after the delivery giant forecast fiscal 2025 profit above estimates, boosting the Dow Jones Transport index to its highest in over a month.
Apple (NASDAQ:) rose 2.55% after Rosenblatt upgraded the iPhone maker’s stock to “buy” from “neutral”. Tesla (NASDAQ:) jumped 4.43% to a nearly two-month high as Stifel initiated coverage with a buy rating.
Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:) Inc surged 4.17%, bringing the company’s market value above $2 trillion, the fifth U.S. corporation to cross that level.
“We’re probably going to see this choppiness continue until there is a catalyst,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Several economic data releases are due this week, leading to Friday’s release of the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.
The Fed has been projecting only one interest rate cut this year, in December. But investors see a 62% chance of a 25-basis point rate cut in September, and about two cuts by the year-end, LSEG’s interest rate probabilities app showed.
Shares of major U.S. banks including Morgan Stanley , Citigroup, and Bank of America slipped between 2.2% and 0.67% ahead of the Fed’s release of results from its annual banking sector stress test.
The broader S&P 500 financial index fell 0.63%.
Rivian (NASDAQ:) soared 21.32% as German automaker Volkswagen (ETR:) said it will invest up to $5 billion in the U.S. electric-vehicle maker.
General Mills (NYSE:) dipped 4.56% after the Cheerios cereal maker forecast annual profit below estimates and posted a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly sales.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.85-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 67 new highs and 80 new lows on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 32 new highs and 154 new lows.
