Pre-Market Pulse 21st February – Stocks falter leading into Nvidia results

Overnight – Stocks falter leading into Nvidia results

Stocks fell Tuesday, as investors paused bullish bets on tech stocks ahead of quarterly results from the Nvidia and the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting due later this week.

NVIDIA fell more than 5% pressuring the broader tech sector lower as investors turned cautious ahead of the chipmaker’s quarterly results due Tuesday. Ahead of Nvidia’s results, some on Wall Street are expecting the company to not only beat quarterly estimates, but also deliver better than expected guidance amid AI-led chip demand. The question around NVDA’s near-term performance and outlook, in our view, is to what magnitude results and guidance will exceed estimates.

Walmart hit a record high and was last up 3.9% after the U.S. retail giant forecast fiscal 2025 sales largely above Wall Street expectations and raised its annual dividend by 9%. The S&P 500 consumer staples index , which includes Walmart, rose 1.2% as the best performing of the 11 major S&P sectors, while information technology was the weakest with a drop of 1.8%.

The Fed is set to release the minutes of its January meeting on Wednesday that could provide more insight into the central bank’s thinking, with markets currently pricing in four quarter point rate cuts this year, starting in June.