The S&P 500 ended Tuesday's session slightly lower as investors anticipated that the Federal Reserve would take a hawkish tone even if it cuts interest rates this week, while JPMorgan was the heaviest drag on the benchmark index after the biggest U.S. bank warned of hefty expenses for 2026.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 179.03 points, or 0.38%, to 47,560.29, the S&P 500 lost 6.00 points, or 0.09%, to 6,840.51 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 30.58 points, or 0.13%, to 23,576.49. BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. up 9%; Pan American Silver up 11%; CoreWeave, Inc. up 5%.
Market Movers
NVIDIA slipped 0.3%. Shares initially rose after President Donald Trump said he planned to allow the company to sell its more advanced H200 artificial intelligence chip to China. Trump seemed to imply that Nvidia would pay a 25% fee on any sales to China. He said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had “responded positively” to the plan, although it remains to be seen whether Beijing will allow Nvidia to sell the H200 in the country.
Trump said the Commerce Department will finalize the details, and the government will allow fellow chip makers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel to do similar deals. AMD rose 0.2% and Intel shares were up 0.5%.
CVS Health gained 2.2%. The healthcare company raised its adjusted earnings forecast and guided for higher revenue in 2025. On a non-adjusted basis, the company expects to post a narrower loss in the full year than previously anticipated.
AutoZone slid 7.2%. Fiscal first-quarter earnings came in at $31.04 a share, missing the $32.03 a share analysts had expected, according to FactSet. Revenue rose 8.2% to $4.63 billion, compared with Wall Street’s calls for $4.64 billion.
Home Depot fell 1.3%. In the fiscal year ending February 2027, the home-improvement retailer expects comparable sales growth of zero to 2%, and total sales growth of 2.5% to 4.5%. Home Depot's outlook also signaled decelerating earnings growth in the fiscal year.
Ares Management LP jumped 7.3%. The asset manager, which specializes in private credit, is set to replace Kellanova in the S&P 500 ahead of the market open on Thursday. The Pringles and Pop-Tarts owner is being acquired by private company Mars Inc. in a deal that is expected to close soon.
Toll Brothers declined 2.4% after the luxury home builder missed analysts’earnings estimates for its fourth quarter, although revenue came in above expectations. It has been a bumpy year for home builders, with high housing costs squeezing would-be buyers out of the market.
Ferguson Plc. tumbled 8% as investors looked to take profits following a better-than-expected quarter. Guidance for the final two months of 2025 was also largely unchanged, with expectations for profit margins raised slightly to a midpoint of 9.5% from 9.4%.
Norwegian Cruise Line declined 2.1% to $18.72 after the stock was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $21, down from $23. Viking Holdings Ltd., meanwhile, gained 1.7% after Goldman upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral.
Market News
Gold Rises Ahead of Fed Rate Cut Decision, Silver Hits $60/Oz Milestone
Gold gained on Tuesday as traders remained optimistic ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, while silver rose to hit an unprecedented $60 per ounce milestone amid supply constraints.
Spot gold rose 0.6% to $4,208 per ounce by 07:18 p.m. ET. U.S. gold futures for February delivery settled 0.1% higher at $4,236.8 per ounce.
JPMorgan Chase Shares Fall as Lake Warns of 'Little More Fragile' Economy
JPMorgan Chase shares slipped 5% in Tuesday trading after the bank's head of consumer and community banking characterized the current economic environment as being "a little more fragile" while speaking at the Goldman Sachs 2025 Financial Services Conference.
Marianne Lake, CEO of Consumer & Community Banking at JPMorgan Chase, also stated that the bank sees full-year 2026 expenses at $105B. According to Bloomberg data, the estimate for JPMorgan’s total non-interest expense is $101B for 2026.
SpaceX to Pursue 2026 IPO Raising Far Above $30 Billion
SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for an initial public offering that would seek to raise significantly more than $30 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in a transaction that would make it the biggest listing of all time.
The Elon Musk-led company is targeting a valuation of about $1.5 trillion for the entire company, which would leave SpaceX near the market value that Saudi Aramco established during its record 2019 listing. The oil major raised $29 billion at the time.
