Nvidia and chip stocks drag down the Nasdaq as markets slip on trade war woes

Still, determination were agleam spots. Abbott Labs bushed expectations with adjusted EPS of $1.09 and double-digit integrated maturation successful its aesculapian instrumentality division, including a 20% leap successful diabetes-related products. Prologis, the world’s largest concern REIT, met forecasts with $1.27 successful halfway FFO and reaffirmed guidance — but noted rising lawsuit caution.

Meanwhile, U.S. retail income surged 1.4% successful March, the biggest monthly summation since January 2023. Analysts accidental shoppers apt pulled purchases guardant to debar tariff-driven terms hikes — think: customers loading up connected TVs and T-shirts astatine Costco (COST) up of imaginable terms pain.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is acceptable to talk successful Chicago connected Wednesday day — his 2nd nationalist quality successful arsenic galore weeks — arsenic investors look for immoderate clues connected however the cardinal slope is weighing beardown retail data, tariff-driven uncertainty, and persistent inflation.

U.S. banal futures had moved little Wednesday greeting arsenic investors braced for different question of geopolitical and net headlines. Nasdaq futures dropped much than 1%, with the S&P 500 disconnected 0.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average flat.

The CNN (WBD) Fear & Greed Index remains successful “extreme fear” territory — a temper that’s proven hard to shingle since President Donald Trump’s tariff barrage earlier this month. It should travel arsenic nary surprise: This is simply a marketplace progressively driven by argumentation whiplash, cheerleading soundbites, and dropped hints of commercialized negotiations. Mixed signals, selective leaks, and abrupt reversals — often via societal media oregon offhand remarks — are proving arsenic influential arsenic authoritative announcements.

And it’s not conscionable the argumentation that’s unpredictable. The choreography is, too.

The astir intimately watched communicative Wednesday centers connected Nvidia (NVDA) and its disclosure of the $5.5 cardinal complaint tied to caller U.S. authorities restrictions connected exporting its H20 AI chips to China. The Biden medication primitively designed export controls to curtail China’s entree to precocious AI chips — but nether Trump, the argumentation has sharpened. Shares of Nvidia, the third-largest U.S. institution by marketplace capitalization, were down astir 5% earlier the bell.