Nvidia Rebound Props Up Wall Street

A rebound for Nvidia propped up a weakened Wall Street on Tuesday and kept US stock indexes close to their records.

• The S&P 500 rose 21.43 points, or 0.4%, to 5,469.30 and neared its all-time high set a week earlier.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which doesn't include Nvidia among its members, was a laggard. It fell 299.05 points, or 0.8%, to 39,112.16.
• The Nasdaq composite leaped 220.84 points, or 1.3%, to 17,717.65 for its first gain in four days.

Such strength came even as the majority of stocks on Wall Street outside artificial-intelligence winners fell, the AP reports. Treasury yields were relatively steady after a report showed consumer confidence is a touch better than expected.

Nvidia's jump of 6.8% was enough to keep the S&P 500 out of a loss for the day by itself. The chip company's shares broke a three-day losing streak where they had lost nearly 13%, their worst such stretch since 2022. It's just one stock, but Nvidia has the power to swing the S&P 500 around because it's grown to become one of Wall Street's largest and most influential stocks.

Pool Corp., a distributor of swimming pool supplies, tumbled 8% after it said construction of new pools is falling amid "cautious consumer spending on big ticket items" and cut its financial forecasts for the year. It was the worst performer in the S&P 500, but Pool wasn't alone. Roughly three out of every four stocks in the index fell. SolarEdge Technologies dropped 20.6% after it said a customer that owes it $11.4 million filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

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Sales at retailers across the country have been up and down recently as companies highlight how lower-income customers are struggling to keep up with still-rising prices. The job market, though, still looks mostly solid. A report on Tuesday also showed confidence among US consumers fell this month, but not by quite as much as economists expected. Upper-income households seem to be doing better, and they're booking trips on cruise ships. Carnival steamed 8.7% higher after it raised its profit forecast for 2024. (More stock market stories.)