Nasdaq rallies with Nvidia, tech shares; investors look toward Jackson Hole

NEW YORK, Aug 21 – The Nasdaq ended more than 1% higher and the S&P 500 also rose on Monday, with shares of Nvidia jumping as investors were optimistic ahead of its earnings this week, and other technology-related stocks gaining.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended slightly lower.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes hit highs last seen during the Great Financial Crisis in 2007 as investors looked warily toward a meeting of central bankers who convene on Thursday at Jackson Hole in Wyoming. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak on Friday.

The technology sector gave the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, while an index of semiconductors advanced 2.8%.

Nvidia (NVDA) rose 8.5%, leading gains among semiconductor stocks, as HSBC raised its price target on the stock to USD 780, the second highest on Wall Street.

Nvidia, one of the biggest winners in this year’s artificial intelligence tech stock rally, is expected to forecast quarterly revenue above analysts’ estimates when it reports late on Wednesday. Nvidia’s stock is up more than 220% for the year so far, while the Nasdaq is up 29%.

“Nvidia is considered the brand for AI,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Their targets have been lifted dramatically, so the question is, can they deliver… A catalyst coming in with Nvidia would be extremely helpful.”

At the same time, she said, investors are anxious to hear Powell’s comments at Jackson Hole. Concerns the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer have pushed up US Treasury yields, and fanned worries about the impact of higher rates on businesses and consumers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.97 points, or 0.11%, to 34,463.69, the S&P 500 gained 30.06 points, or 0.69%, to 4,399.77 and the Nasdaq Composite added 206.81 points, or 1.56%, to 13,497.59.

Among decliners in the Dow, Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N shares fell 3% after the healthcare conglomerate said it was expecting to retain a stake of about 9.5% in its newly separated consumer health unit, Kenvue (KVUE).

Goldman Sachs Group’s stock (GS) dipped 0.9% after the bank said it was weighing the sale of a part of its wealth business.

Also in the tech space, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) surged 14.8% after the cybersecurity firm alleviated worries about its late Friday release of results with a strong quarter and a forecast for annual billings above expectations.

And VMware (VMW) jumped 4.9% after UK’s competition regulator cleared Broadcom’s (AVGO) purchase of the cloud computing firm. Broadcom’s stock gained 4.8%.

Volume on US exchanges was 9.75 billion shares, compared with the 10.99 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.44-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 18 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 36 new highs and 214 new lows.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Vinay Dwivedi, and David Gregorio)