Stocks Edge Down Ahead Of Fed Minutes, Nvidia Earnings, While Gold Hits $2,000: What's Driving Markets Tuesday?

Wall Street took a brief respite during midday trading on Tuesday, marked by modest losses in major stock averages.

The subdued optimism was likely influenced by disappointing quarterly results from prominent retailers such as Lowe’s Companies Inc. LOW, Kohls Corp. KSS, and Best Buy Co. Inc BBY.

Investors were also eagerly awaiting the release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes at 2 p.m. ET, hoping for greater insight into monetary policy.

Shares of NVIDIA Corp. NVDA declined by 1.7% after surging to fresh record highs on Monday, with the company scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell. This event has the potential to significantly influence market sentiment for the remainder of the shortened Thanksgiving week.

Gold prices made a remarkable surge, crossing the significant milestone of $2,000 per troy ounce, fueled by the sustained weakness of the dollar, which is holding at its lowest level in over two months.

US Index Performance On Tuesday

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 0.3% lower to $452.99.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA fell 0.2% to $350.70. 
• The Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ was 0.7% lower to $387.96.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM fell 1.1% to $177.36, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Chart Of The Day: Gold Surges To $2,000, Up Nearly 10% YTD

Sector, Industry ETF Performance

Health care and materials led gains among equity sectors, with the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLV and the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLB up 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.

Tech and real estate were the laggards, with the the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK and the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund XLRE down 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively.

Among industries, gold miners, as tracked by the VanEck Gold Miners ETF GDX, sharply outperformed, rallying over 3.4%.

Clean energy and solar stocks eased, following Monday’s sharp gains, with the Invesco Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF PBW and the Invesco Solar ETF TAN down 3.1% and 1.9%, respectively.

Stocks In Focus

• Agilent Technologies, Inc. A shares climbed over 8% following the release of its quarterly results.
• Other companies reacting to their earnings are Jacobs Solution Inc. J (down 9%), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF (down 3%), Burlington Stores, Inc. BURL (up 20%), Hibbett, Inc. HIBB (up 13%) and Medtronic plc MDT (up 4%).
• Meme stock AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC hit a fresh all-time low.
• Those reporting after the market close include Nvidia, Autodesk, Inc. ADSK, Guess?, Inc. GES, HP Inc. HPQ, Jack in the Box Inc. JACK, Nordstrom, Inc. JWN and Urban Outfitters, Inc. URBN.

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets And Crypto

The United States Oil Fund, LP USO, which tracks the price performance of light sweet crude oil, eased 0.2%.

Silver rose 1.9% to $23.85, fueled by the rise in gold prices. Treasury yields were slightly softer, with the 10-year benchmark hovering at a 4.41% yield. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT eased 0.3%.

European equity indices had a lackluster session. The SPDR DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETF  FEZ fell 0.6%.

In emerging markets, Global X MSCI Argentina ETF ARGT eased 1% after rallying as much as 11.6% on Monday following Javier Milei‘s victory in the country’s presidential elections.

Bitcoin BTC/USD was 2% lower to $36,761, while Ethereum ETH/USD fell 2.8% to $1,970.

Shanthi Rexaline contributed to this report.

Related Link: Nvidia, Microsoft Reach All-Time Highs, Push Nasdaq 100 Near 2021 Peak – Caution Indicator Flashes

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