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The S&P 500 was lower on Wednesday, pulling back from a record reached in the previous session, as Nvidia cooled off from its red-hot rally.
The broad market index slipped 0.19% to close at 5,165.31, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.54% to 16,177.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 37.83 points, or 0.1%, to finish the session at 39,043.32.
Nvidia shares were down 1.1%. Shares of Meta Platforms slipped 0.8%, and Apple fell about 1.2%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) slid roughly 2% for its third losing session in four. The information technology sector slipped about 1.1%.
“Investors are booking profits in tech after the big [Tuesday] outperformance, but sentiment on AI/data centers is as bullish as ever, and there’s still a lot of anticipation for the Nvidia GTC conference,” Vital Knowledge founder and president Adam Crisafulli wrote on Wednesday.
Wall Street is coming off a winning session, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq popping more than 1% on Tuesday, after February U.S. inflation data came in about in line with expectations. Core inflation, which strips out food and energy from the headline reading, increased more than expected last month.
“I think it was a relief to see the [headline] CPI number yesterday, but people are still cautious about the underlying data,” said Ayako Yoshioka, senior portfolio manager at Wealth Enhancement Group. “In the short-term, the macro narrative around the Federal Reserve is going to be the front and center issue.”
Wall Street will remain hypervigilant for how the central bank will proceed with monetary policy at its next meeting beginning on March 19, Yoshioka noted, where she expects Fed Chair Jerome Powell to reiterate a data-dependent outlook and more neutral tone.
“When you look underneath the surface, things are a bit stickier than people would have hoped,” Yoshioka noted, pointing toward increasing services costs in the latest CPI print.
Elsewhere, Dollar Tree lost 14% after the discount retailer released its fourth-quarter results. Investors will get more inflation data Thursday in the form of the producer price index for February.
