Stock Market Today: Dow scores 25th record close of year, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq slip (2024)

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Nvidia has erased $441.7 billion from its market capitalization since its June peak, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The company is on track to see $186.7 billion of market cap wiped out in Thursday's session alone, after the company's earnings report late Wednesday failed to pack the same level of upside as previous ones.

Nvidia's market cap reached a peak of $3.335 trillion on June 18 and now stands near $2.9 trillion.

Expected interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve would only scratch the surface of a bigger problem for global financial markets: spiraling U.S. debt levels.

Investors this summer have snapped up freshly minted U.S. Treasury securities without a hitch. That’s aided the U.S. government as it has increased its debt load to more than $35 trillion in August, up from roughly $32.8 trillion a year ago.

“This continues until suddenly it can’t,” said Steve Foresti, a senior adviser of investment at Wilshire Advisors, who recommends that investors put aside a slice of their investments in inflation-sensitive assets like gold, real estate and TIPS.

Major indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had been on track to claw back most, if not all, of their losses from earlier in the week.

But that changed at around 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, when what had been a modest pullback in stocks suddenly accelerated — briefly sending the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq into the red for the day, and causing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to dramatically pare its earlier gains.

What caused the sudden drop? One trading-desk note seen by MarketWatch mentioned chatter about a large sell order in S&P 500 futures which had hit the tape right around the time when the pressure started to build.

But two strategists told MarketWatch that they didn't see a specific catalyst for the move. Instead, it appeared to be more of a technical pullback exacerbated by low preholiday trading volume.

"[It] just looks like a low-volume choppy tape this afternoon. [It] doesn't help that we're a day away from a long weekend at the end of summer," said Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment and options analyst at eToro.

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, concurred. "I think it was more technical," he said.

Meanwhile, Michael Reinking, senior market strategist with the New York Stock Exchanged pointed out that a selloff in megacap technology stocks appeared to heap more pressure on the market. He noted that some investors might be trimming their positions in these names ahead of the quarterly MSCI index rebalancing on Friday.

Investors received a batch of earnings reports overnight, including a closely watched report from Nvidia Corp. which appeared to disappoint. But other reports spurred strong reactions in their respective stocks.

Also, another flurry of economic data was released earlier on Thursday. Most of the marquee data was strong, with a revised reading on second-quarter GDP coming in better than expected. But investors also contended with a disappointing reading out of the housing market, as pending home sales dropped more than 5% to an all-time low in July.

Stocks have recovered some of their late-day losses in recent trade. The S&P 500 was back to trading higher on the day, up 9 points, or 0.2%, at 5,601.

The Nasdaq Composite was marginally lower in recent trade, at 17,554.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 332 points, or 0.8%, at 41,418. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track for a weekly loss, while the Dow was headed for a weekly gain.

Stocks were off their best levels of the session in the final half-hour of trade, but that was not by enough to stop the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average from sealing another record finish.

The Dow was up about 343 points, or 0.9%, trading near 41,431, according to FactSet data.

If that level holds, it would eclipse its prior 41,250.50 record finish on Aug. 27, 2024, putting the index on pace for its 25th record close of the year, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Gold prices climbed on Thursday with geopolitical issues, Western buyers and central-bank demand helping to push futures to their 32nd record-high settlement of the year.

Multiple factors have helped to drive gold higher “during this stealth bull phase,” Peter Spina, founder and president of investor website GoldSeek.com, told MarketWatch.

“Geopolitical issues remain dominant, a move to de-dollarize along with the Western gold investor flipping from selling mode into buying mode last month,” he said. “Central banks to individuals are loading up on a store of safety during uncertain times.”

Gold for December delivery climbed $22.50, or 0.9%, to settle at $2,560.30 an ounce on Comex, after trading as high as $2,562.20.

The U.S. dollar remains the world’s dominant currency, overcoming nearly constant hand wringing over its potential demise. And it’s resilience may be despite, rather than a result of, actions by U.S. officials, a London-based currency strategist argued Thursday.

Most policy makers consider preserving the value of their currencies to be an important consideration, said Steven Barrow, head of G-10 strategy at Standard Bank, in a note. "To many it can become the paramount consideration when times are tough."

But among U.S. policy makers, Barrow said, "it seems that there is a death wish when it comes to the dollar."

Barrow laid out a number of “self-destructive” actions — including protectionism, using the dollar as a weapon to punish others, a lack of budget discipline, and a reticence to embrace a central-bank digital currency, or CBDC.

The U.S. stock market’s real-estate sector was falling Thursday afternoon, but remained on track to book a monthly gain.

The S&P 500’s real-estate sector was down 0.6% in afternoon trading, trimming its August rise to around 4.4%, FactSet data show, at last check. Real-estate stocks in the index were broadly on track to rise for a fourth straight month, which would mark the sector’s longest monthly winning streak since the stretch ending in August 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The S&P 500 index was slipping 0.1% Thursday afternoon, FactSet data show, at last check.

The S&P 500 joined the Nasdaq Composite in negative territory, losing a grip on earlier gains ahead of the final hour of trade.

The Nasdaq was off 0.2%, at last check, while the S&P 500 was less than 0.1% lower.

However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was still on pace for gains, up 228 points, or 0.6%, near 41,323.

Affirm's stock was up 31.9% in afternoon trading Thursday and roaring toward its best day in three years after what management and analysts described as a "killer quarter."

Thursday's gain could be the best one-day percentage move for the buy-now-pay-later company's shares since they rose 34.4% on Sept. 10, 2021.

The latest report offered a glimpse ahead at what Mizuho's Dan Dolev said would constitute a "major milestone." Affirm sees a pathway to GAAP operating profit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.

"Other key metrics are strong yet still conservative as they do not include material contribution from Apple Pay BNPL," Dolev wrote.