Dow Jones, S&P500 and Nasdaq end with minor gains; Nvidia and Meta announce multi-year partnership

The US stock market was little changed on Tuesday as investors felt uncertain about the monetary policy direction after lower-than-expected inflation data was released last week. The Dow Jones, S&P500 and NASDAQ closed almost flat with minor gains across the board.

Investors also trimmed the bets on safe-haven assets like gold and silver, which plunged 2.2% and 4.5% on Tuesday. The risk-off environment also eased in the geopolitical arena after reports that US-Iran talks were progressing well, further reducing the risk premium on safe-haven assets.

Following the development in the Middle East, the crude oil prices also sank in the international markets. The Brent crude oil prices dropped nearly 2% to trade at $67 per barrel on Tuesday.

At the individual stock level, investors continued to trim their bets on software stocks on fears of losing out on the business to AI. Shares of Salesforce plunged 2%, Oracle over 3%, and Intuit loosing 5.1%.

Nvidia and Meta announce multi-year partnership

Shares of Meta and Nvidia jumped nearly 2% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after they announced a multi-year AI infrastructure strategic partnership. The partnership will include Meta building hyperscale data centres optimised for AI training, built with Nvidia’s Blackwell and Rubin GPUs, along with CPUs. Following the announcement, shares of AMD dropped 2% as the competition in the AI infrastructure spaces turns fierce between key competitors like AMD, Micron and Nvidia.

Financial stocks rise after governor's comments

Meanwhile, comments from Fed Governor Michael Barr lifted the sentiments for financial stocks. He said that the interest rates need to be restrictive for some time, which bolstered the expectations for net-interest margins for financial services. Consequently, shares of J.P Morgan and Citigroup jumped over 3%.

The US dollar stabilised at 97 ahead of important Fed minutes set to be released on Friday. Investors will also be closely watching the core PCE inflation data, which will set the tone for the upcoming Federal Reserve policy stance.