Wall Street Falters Ahead Of Fed Minutes, Nvidia Earnings, Cybersecurity Selloff: What's Driving Markets Wednesday?

Author: Piero Cingari | February 21, 2024 02:04pm

Wall Street saw a muted trading session as major indices dipped into the red by midday in New York.

Traders are currently anticipating further insights into monetary policy from the forthcoming Federal Reserve meeting minutes.

Investors are also poised for another significant event, as Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) is set to announce its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes.

The dollar, Treasury yields, and gold remained relatively stable, whereas in the commodities market, oil prices saw a modest 0.8% increase, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbing to nearly $78 a barrel.

Natural gas prices experienced a near 5% upswing, following a 9% jump on Tuesday, rebounding from significantly low levels, leading energy stocks to perform better than other sectors.

Cybersecurity stocks took the spotlight, with the Global X Cybersecurity ETF (NYSE:BUG) experiencing a decline of over 7% in a single day, marking its steepest one-day drop since March 2020. This was in part due to a sharp fall in Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW), which plummeted 27% following disappointing future earnings projections.

Similarly, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) and Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) faced significant double-digit percentage losses.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was 1.8% weaker to $51,800.

Wednesday's Performance In Major Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-day %
Dow Jones	38,467.09	-0.3%
S&P 500	4,961.51	-0.3%
Nasdaq 100	17,392.80	-0.9%
Russell 2000	1,988.06	-0.9%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was 0.3% lower to $495.17, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) fell 0.2% to $384.80 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) fell 1% to $423.23, according to Benzinga Pro data.

The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK), was the notable underperformer, down by 1.4%, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) was the top gainer, up 1.7%.

Wall Street Stock Movers On Wednesday

• Garmin Ltd (NYSE:GRMN) rallied over 10% in reaction to its quarterly results.
• Teladoc Health Inc. (NYSE:TDOC) fell over 25% amid a revenue miss.
• Other companies reacting to earnings were Public Storage (NYSE:PSA), up 0.9%, Realty Income Corp. (NYSE:O), up 0.7%, Costar Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP), up 1.3%, Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI), up 2%, Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK), down 4%.
• EQT Corp. (NYSE:EQT) and Antero Resources Corp. (NYSE:AR) rose 13% and 11%, respectively, on the heels of a strong rebound in natural gas prices.
• Companies set to report their earnings after the closing bells are Nvidia Corp., Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), Ansys Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN), Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO) and Texas Pacific Land Corp. (NYSE:TPL).

Read now: Health Care Becomes Most Overweighted Sector As Hedge Funds Crowd Into Magnificent 7

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Posted In: $BTC ADI ANSS AR BUG CRWD CSGP DIA EQT GRMN MRO NVDA O PANW PSA QQQ RIVN SNPS SPY TDOC