Wall Street opens on a mixed note after sticky PCE inflation; Dow Jones rises 160 pts, S&P500 and NASDAQ 100 drop 0.2%

Benchmark indices on Wall Street opened mixed on Wednesday after the core PCE inflation numbers stood largely unchanged. However, investor sentiment remains cautious ahead of NVIDIA’s earnings, expected to be released later today. The Dow Jones extended its rally with over 160-point gains, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 opened in the red with minor losses.

Alongside NVIDIA, software firms like Salesforce and CrowdStrike will also announce their quarterly earnings on Wednesday, after the market closes. Besides this, today’s market activity is likely to be dominated by core inflation numbers, which remained resilient and relatively higher than expectations.

The PCE inflation numbers came in at 3.7%, unchanged over the previous month, but slightly higher than the expectations of 3.6%. The stickiness in inflation brought back fears of higher-for-longer inflation and slower-than-expected rate cuts. Similarly, the PCE price index stood at 0.2% in July as against the expectations of 0.1%.

Soon after the PCE inflation numbers came, the US 10Y yields spiked above 4.64%, recouping partial losses from Tuesday. Meanwhile, international gold prices remained largely steady near $4,650 per ounce, after hitting the $4,700 per ounce mark on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Asian stock markets closed in the green across the board after a sharp pullback in crude oil prices and the US Treasury yields boosted investor sentiment. The buoyancy was carried forward by the European markets, trading in the green across the UK, France, Germany, and the Eurozone.

Nvidia earnings

Nvidia is the largest company in the world, currently valued at over $5 trillion, and will be releasing its earnings for the quarter ending June 2026. The consensus estimates suggest EPS of $2.09 dollars. The chipmaker is scheduled to report quarterly earnings after market hours on Wednesday. Investors will be closely monitoring the earnings as the chipmaker drives the majority of the AI infrastructure-related expenditure.

Meanwhile, shares of Nvidia have delivered moderate returns of 11% in 2026 on a YTD basis and 16% in the past twelve months, highly underperforming its other chip-making and industry peers. Despite the underperformance, the company continues to remain the most valued company by market capitalization at $5.1 trillion.