Wall St set for tepid open as tech recovery loses steam

By Ankika Biswas and Lisa Pauline Mattackal

(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes looked set for a muted open on Wednesday as megacaps dipped and a momentum in chip stocks fizzled out, with investors awaiting a crucial inflation report this week.

AI chip leader Nvidia (NASDAQ:) slipped 0.7%, back in losses after a selloff that wiped out $430 billion in market value and weighed on the broader technology sector.

Other chip stocks including Broadcom (NASDAQ:) , Qualcomm (NASDAQ:) and Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:) also pared strong early gains. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) rose 2.3% ahead of its quarterly results due after the closing bell.

“The market is trying to figure out in real time whether it needs to focus on the biggest three stocks – Nvidia, Apple (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:) – or is it time for the other 497 stocks to take the baton,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

“That’s been the debate in markets over the course of the last week or so, and that debate continues today. But I don’t think that question gets answered until we get into the second-quarter earnings season.”

Delivery giant FedEx (NYSE:) jumped 14.8% after forecasting fiscal 2025 profit above estimates.

Appliances manufacturer Whirlpool (NYSE:) surged about 18% after Reuters reported German engineering group Robert Bosch is weighing a bid for the U.S. appliances manufacturer.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, the information technology index and the all notched gains of more than 1% on Tuesday, marking a rebound for those sectors that were instrumental in Wall Street’s rise to fresh record highs.

Several economic data releases are on tap this week, leading up to Friday’s release of the much-anticipated personal consumption expenditures price index – the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.

With the Fed projecting only one interest rate cut in December, all eyes will be on whether the data shows an expected moderation in price pressures.

Market participants see a near 60% chance of a 25-basis point rate cut in September, and about two cuts by the year-end, LSEG’s interest rate probabilities app showed.

At 8:29 a.m. ET, were down 101 points, or 0.26%, were down 5.75 points, or 0.1%, and were up 2 points, or 0.01%.

Rivian (NASDAQ:) soared 40.1% as German automaker Volkswagen (ETR:) said it will invest up to $5 billion in the U.S. electric-vehicle maker.

Shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) dropped 3.7% after the company cut its forecast for second-quarter unit revenue, citing uneven travel demand.

Albemarle (NYSE:) rose 2.7% as the world’s largest lithium producer plans to hold more auctions for the metal used in EV batteries.

Shares of major U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:), Citigroup, and Bank of America slipped between 0.4% and 0.6% ahead of the Fed’s release of results from its annual banking sector stress test.