Wall Street Falters Ahead Of Fed Minutes, Nvidia Earnings, Cybersecurity Selloff: What's Driving Markets Wednesday?

Wall Street saw a muted trading session as major indices dipped into the red by midday in New York.

Traders are currently anticipating further insights into monetary policy from the forthcoming Federal Reserve meeting minutes.

Investors are also poised for another significant event, as Nvidia Corp. NVDA is set to announce its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes.

The dollar, Treasury yields, and gold remained relatively stable, whereas in the commodities market, oil prices saw a modest 0.8% increase, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbing to nearly $78 a barrel.

Natural gas prices experienced a near 5% upswing, following a 9% jump on Tuesday, rebounding from significantly low levels, leading energy stocks to perform better than other sectors.

Cybersecurity stocks took the spotlight, with the Global X Cybersecurity ETF BUG experiencing a decline of over 7% in a single day, marking its steepest one-day drop since March 2020. This was in part due to a sharp fall in Palo Alto Networks Inc. PANW, which plummeted 27% following disappointing future earnings projections.

Similarly, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. CRWD and Zscaler Inc. ZS faced significant double-digit percentage losses.

Bitcoin BTC/USD was 1.8% weaker to $51,800.

Wednesday's Performance In Major Indices, ETFs

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 0.3% lower to $495.17, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA fell 0.2% to $384.80 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ fell 1% to $423.23, according to Benzinga Pro data.

The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK, was the notable underperformer, down by 1.4%, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE was the top gainer, up 1.7%.

Wall Street Stock Movers On Wednesday

• Garmin Ltd GRMN rallied over 10% in reaction to its quarterly results.
• Teladoc Health Inc. TDOC fell over 25% amid a revenue miss.
• Other companies reacting to earnings were Public Storage PSA, up 0.9%, Realty Income Corp. O, up 0.7%, Costar Group Inc. CSGP, up 1.3%, Analog Devices Inc. ADI, up 2%, Verisk Analytics Inc. VRSK, down 4%.
• EQT Corp. EQT and Antero Resources Corp. AR rose 13% and 11%, respectively, on the heels of a strong rebound in natural gas prices.
• Companies set to report their earnings after the closing bells are Nvidia Corp., Synopsys Inc. SNPS, Ansys Inc. ANSS, Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN, Marathon Oil Corp. MRO and Texas Pacific Land Corp. TPL.

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