By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Nasdaq rose more than 1% to also finish higher on Tuesday, led by a jump in technology stocks as investors eagerly awaited results from Nvidia (NASDAQ:) this week, while shares of Walmart (NYSE:) ) then rose. the retailer increased its annual forecasts.
The Dow Jones finished lower.
All three major indexes started the day lower, with the benchmark index down as much as about 0.6% after Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a wider range of conventional attacks earlier in the day , and Moscow said Ukraine had struck deep inside Russia with US-made long-range missiles.
Stock prices pared losses as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow will do everything possible to prevent nuclear war.
Chipmaker Nvidia, which will report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, climbed 4.9% to $147.01 and was the biggest gainer for all three major indexes. Technology rose 1.2%, leading gains among S&P 500 sectors.
Strategists said expectations are high for Nvidia, which has driven the artificial intelligence-related rally in stocks.
Other mega-cap stocks also rose, including Amazon.com (NASDAQ:).
“The biggest takeaway today is caution about what’s happening in Ukraine. The majority of investors are hiding in some of the mega cap names, which is a little surprising compared to Nvidia’s gains, but they are very liquid,” said Timothy Chubb (NYSE: ), Chief Investment Officer at Girard, a division of Univest Wealth.
It fell 120.66 points, or 0.28%, to 43,268.94. The S&P 500 rose 23.36 points, or 0.40%, to 5,916.98 and rose 195.66 points, or 1.04%, to 18,987.47.
Shares of Walmart rose 3% to $86.60, hitting a record high after the retailer raised its annual sales and profit forecasts for the third straight time.
“Walmart came in and gave bullish guidance,” said Quincy Krosby, chief strategist at LPL Financial (NASDAQ:) in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“One of the components that was important to the market was that it indicated that more customers are going in and purchasing items in the higher margin categories, which is something that has been monitored.”
Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:) rose 31.2% after the artificial intelligence server maker named BDO USA as its auditor and said it has filed a plan with the Nasdaq to avoid delisting.
Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:) rose 2.9% to $871.32, hitting a record high for the second day in a row after the streaming media company said 108 million people watched a boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.
Adding to the optimism, Goldman Sachs strategists predict the S&P 500 would reach 6,500 by the end of 2025.
Investors are busy processing the choices for the administration of newly-elected President Donald Trump.
Trump said Tuesday that he had chosen famed doctor Mehmet Oz to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He also said he will nominate Wall Street CEO Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary.
On the NYSE, advancing issues outnumbered declining issues by a ratio of 1.14 to 1. There were 172 new highs and 97 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 2,459 stocks rose and 1,841 fell as advancing issues outnumbered declining stocks by a 1.34-to-1 ratio.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 13.94 billion shares, compared with the full-session average of 14.24 billion over the past 20 trading days.
