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HomeMarket NewsNasdaq falls another 350 points led by Chipmakers; Amgen, Honeywell support Dow Jones
Nasdaq's fall was led by AMD, which fell 17%. AMD's fall took other chipmaker stocks along with it. Nvidia's shares fell 3.5%, Broadcom fell nearly 4%, Qualcomm did well in regular trading but tanked afterhours. Other bigtech names like Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta also dragged the Nasdaq lower, seeing losses between 2% to 3%.
Wall Street had yet another divergent day as the sell-off in software stocks on Tuesday was replaced by chipmaking companies on Wednesday, leading to a similar crack on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 for the second day running.
The Nasdaq fell another350 points on Wednesday or 1.5%, taking the total two-day fall to nearly 700 points. The S&P 500 also fell 0.5%. While Software stocks besides Adobe found some stability, chipmakers, led by AMD led the fall overnight. AMD fell 17%, the biggest fall seen by Nvidia's rival in a single session since 2017 after its guidance failed to enthuse investors.
AMD's fall took other chipmaker stocks along with it. Nvidia's shares fell 3.5%, Broadcom fell nearly 4%, Qualcomm did well in regular trading but tanked afterhours. Other bigtech names like Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta also dragged the Nasdaq lower, seeing losses between 2% to 3%.
On the flip side, the Dow Jones outperformed for the second day in a row as the index, comprising mainly of old-economy stocks, ended with gains of 260 points. At one point during the session, even the Dow slipped into the red, but recovered from those levels to end higher. The Dow was supported by stocks like Amgen, which surged over 8% after reporting better-than-expected results, and Honeywell.
Within macro cues, the ADP released private payrolls growth for January, which showed an addition of only 22,000, half of what economists had projected the figure to be (45,000). The focus should have been on the non-farm payrolls data to be released this Friday, but the partial government shutdown has meant that the report is now delayed. The partial shutdown though, is over, after President Donald Trump signed the new spending bill into law.
With Alphabet having reported results in extended trading, the focus shifts to Amazon, which will be reporting results after the bell in today's session.
Beyond equities, the US Dollar strengthened further to cross 97.5, Gold prices hover around the mark of $5,000 an ounce, while Silver remained near $90 in the spot market. Bitcoin fell further, testing levels of $72,000, with betting markets predicting the largest cryptocurrency to fall further towards the $65,000 mark.
