Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq sink as Russia-Ukraine tensions spur rush to havens

US stock futures fell on Tuesday as worries about a nuclear escalation to the Russia-Ukraine war rattled markets, stealing focus from Nvidia (NVDA) earnings and other corporate results.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures () led declines, down 0.6%, while S&P 500 futures () slid roughly 0.4%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 () dropped 0.3%, on the heels of a mixed day for the major gauges.

Stocks are retreating as investors assess news that President Vladimir Putin has signed a revised nuclear doctrine that allows Russia to expand its use of atomic weapons. The changes mean any large-scale aerial attack could prompt a nuclear response, and come just days after President Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use US long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.

US bond prices climbed alongside gains for the yen (JPY=X), gold (GC=F), and other safe-haven assets as the risk-off trade kicked in. Treasury yields — which move inversely to bond prices — fell, with the 10-year benchmark yield (^TNX) down 5 basis points to around 4.37%. Gold jumped almost 1% to trade at around $2,639 an ounce.

The geopolitical situation blotted out themes such as corporate earnings, President-elect Trump’s cabinet picks, the path of interest rates, and Wall Street’s view of where stocks are headed.

Walmart (WMT) and Lowe’s (LOW) are lined up to post quarterly reports before the bell. Investors will watch the major retailers’ results for hints of consumers under pressure that could reflect stress in the economy.

Meanwhile, the countdown is on to Nvidia earnings on Wednesday, seen as a test of the AI trade that has powered gains on Wall Street. The chipmaker’s stock edged higher in premarket trading after getting bruised by a report of overheating issues with its flagship new AI product.

Goldman Sachs strategists said they expect outperformance by Nvidia and its “Magnificent Seven” tech megacap peers to narrow next year, in an S&P 500 (^GSPC) forecast setting a 6,500 target by the end of next year.

LIVE 3 updates

  • Brian Sozzi

    Walmart’s e-commerce business is still on fire

    Walmart (WMT) has worked very diligently behind the scenes the past two years to be a major player online. The company has expanded its assortment online and has fine-tuned its buy online, pickup in store functionality — amongst other initiatives.

    The efforts continue to show up on earnings days.

    Here are the company’s e-commerce results by division for the third quarter reported this morning:

    These results are eye-popping for two reasons: 1) Walmart isn’t exactly a startup; 2) the competition online is as fierce as ever.

    I am talking to Walmart CFO John David Rainey live at 9:15am on Yahoo Finance. Rest assured we will ask him about these online sales numbers!

  • Brian Sozzi

    How Goldman sees the Mag 7 trade playing out in 2025

    Hat tip to Goldman’s chief US equity strategist David Kostin for calling out specific stocks in his 2025 outlook piece that just dropped.

    So often these year end works of art from investment bank strategists simply serve up S&P 500 targets, with various underlying scenarios explained. But usually, no stock predictions.

    Kostin is calling out another year of strong performance for the Mag 7 trade, just not as hot as recent years.

    Says Kostin:

    “The ‘Magnificent 7’ stocks (Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA)) collectively will outperform the S&P 493 in 2025, but by roughly 7 percentage points, the slimmest margin in seven years and down from 63 percentage points in 2023 and 22 percentage points year to date. Narrowing relative EPS growth will drive the narrowing performance gap.”

    It’s a good point by Kostin, and comes in the face of all these Mag 7 stocks trading at rich multiples on hearty outlooks for profit growth. There is only so far you can push a stock price using reasonable future financial assumptions!

    You can toil around on Mag 7 valuations on Yahoo Finance’s new stock comparison tool here.

  • Brian Sozzi

    If there is one thing that could trip Nvidia bulls up

    As I noted on Monday in our blog, expectations on Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings and outlook are very robust…to say the very least.

    If there is one thing that could trip up the bullish trade the morning after earnings, it’s Nvidia’s guidance. While it will likely be above consensus, it may not be above consensus enough given the dynamics around Blackwell chip demand. Nvidia could opt to go stronger with guidance when it reports three months from now or so.

    Important point on this from Stifel analyst Ruben Roy this morning in a note:

    “While expectations are elevated and our scenario appears to be widely anticipated (consensus estimates for FY2026/FY2027 have moved roughly +4% over the past two weeks), our conversations suggest that a Blackwell driven inflection to the upside is more likely an April quarter event than January.”


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