Stock market today: Nasdaq pops, Nvidia rallies amid more jobs market cooling

Live6 updates

• Wed, June 5, 2024 at 5:11 PM GMT+2

  Nvidia stock hits all-time high ahead of stock split

  Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock rally keeps rolling.

  The chipmaker’s stock rose about 3% on Wednesday morning, hitting a new-time record high just shy of $1,200 a share. The move comes just days before the company enacts a 10-for-1 stock split.

  Shares are now up nearly 35% in the past month as Wall Street has grown even more bullish on the company’s AI prospects after its latest earnings report.

• 

  Wed, June 5, 2024 at 4:17 PM GMT+2

  Growth in services sector returns stronger than Wall Street expected

  Economic activity in the services sector returned to expansion in May, after contracting for the first time in nearly two years during the month of April.

  The Institute for Supply Management’s services PMI registered a reading of 53.8 in May, up from 49.4 in April and higher than the 51 print that economists expected, according to Bloomberg data.

  Any reading above 50 reflects the sector is in expansion territory.

  Elsewhere in the release, the measure for prices paid decreased to 58.1 from 59.2 in the month prior. Meanwhile, those for new orders and employment ticked higher. Notably, though, the employment reading of 47.1 reflected that the index remained in contraction territory.

  “The increase in the composite index in May is a result of notably higher business activity, faster new orders growth, slower supplier deliveries and despite the continued contraction in employment,” ISM Services Business Survey Committee chair Anthony Nieves said in a release. “Survey respondents indicated that overall business is increasing, with growth rates continuing to vary by company and industry.”

  He added: “The majority of respondents indicate that inflation and the current interest rates are an impediment to improving business conditions.”

• 

  Wed, June 5, 2024 at 3:34 PM GMT+2

  Stocks pop at the open

  US stocks popped on Wednesday, buoyed by tentative optimism for interest rate cuts amid signs of slowing labor demand and a cooling economy.

  The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the gains, popping 0.7%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained about 0.2%.

  The moves come as hopes for a Fed shift appear to be growing. According to the CME FedWatch tool, about 65% of traders now expect policymakers to reduce the benchmark rate at their September meeting, compared with less than 50% a week ago.

• 

  Wed, June 5, 2024 at 1:00 PM GMT+2

  Some tech stock intel

  The AI chip craze is expected to bring big business to Lam Research (LRCX).

  The chip supplier, whose customers include Intel (INTC), Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC), foresees its high-bandwidth memory business tripling this year and expects “even stronger” demand in 2025.

  “Frankly, I see continued strength for the foreseeable future,” Lam Research CFO Doug Bettinger told me inside Bank of America’s Global Technology Conference late Tuesday. “The opportunity in front of this industry and the opportunity in front of Lam specifically is amazing,” Bettinger added.

  This week, Bank of America analysts raised their price target on the stock to $1,100 while maintaining a Buy rating.

  Analyst Vivek Arya (who also struck a bullish tone on Nvidia on Yahoo Finance Live yesterday) noted that while chip equipment makers are currently trading at a premium relative to historical levels, he and his team believe valuation is justified in part due to AI leading to record levels of wafer fab equipment (WFE) intensity.

  The company’s recently approved 10-for-1 stock split, along with a new $10 billion share buyback, reignited investor excitement last month.

  However, Lam remains an underperformer compared to rivals. The stock is up 18% this year versus Applied Materials’ (AMAT) 31% surge and ASML Holding’s (ASML) 26% climb.

• 

  Wed, June 5, 2024 at 11:22 AM GMT+2

  Here comes Apple’s WWDC

  Amid a five-day rally, Apple’s (AAPL) stock is taking dead aim at breaking through its late January closing high of $195.75 ahead of WWDC this coming Monday.

  Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring is out with a great deep dive into what’s expected from the event and Apple’s stock price around WWDC.

  Sa Woodring:

  “We believe that at WWDC, Siri 2.0 will be introduced as a next-gen, voice-activated virtual assistant/intelligent layer capable of processing more complex commands directly on the iPhone, which will improve the utility value of the device and its native applications, including text/website summarization, automated messaging, new photo editing tools, and more. In addition, we believe it’s highly likely Apple announces a cloud-based foundation model partnership at WWDC (GOOGL or OpenAI?), which would add broader cloud-based AI chatbot-like features to iOS18. While we’d expect Siri’s capabilities to continue to evolve over time, including deeper integration of more complex multicommands with third-party applications in future software updates, this would represent Apple’s most important software overhaul to-date, and formally enter Apple into the mega-cap Gen AI race.”

  

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  Wed, June 5, 2024 at 11:13 AM GMT+2

  GameStop, day 3

  I am still on GameStop (GME) stock watch.

  Shares are down about 1% premarket following a 5.36% slide on Tuesday. The stock is off by 36% from the highs hit on Monday after Roaring Kitty’s post.

  I did a special taping of my “Opening Bid” podcast yesterday afternoon, 100% focused on GameStop. Check it out below. I came away wondering if maybe I am thinking about this stock entirely the wrong way!