Nvidia dropped again on Wednesday, after a rare stumble the previous day.
The chip maker has consolidated gains following the unveiling of its new Blackwell chips but it might lose some steam as retail traders search for more volatile stocks.
Nvidia shares dropped 2.5% at $902.5 on Wednesday. The stock closed down 2.6% at $925.61 on Tuesday after reaching a new closing high the day before. And the shares fell another 0.7% in premarket trading Thursday.
With the market still digesting the announcements from Nvidia’s developer event last week, there aren’t many new catalysts for the stock.
That means retail traders driving the frothiest market action might shift their attention away from Nvidia in the short term at least and toward companies such as Reddit and Trump Media & Technology Group which are grabbing the headlines.
“While monetary conditions are hardly as loose right now, it is nonetheless apparent that we have been in a market that has been driven by momentum,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “It shouldn’t be a huge shock that some of that momentum has spilled away from companies with demonstrable recent growth, like Nvidia…into those whose bottom-line growth is far from assured.”
That’s not necessarily a bad thing for Nvidia as it should mean it will hold up better if the market does turn more pessimistic. If it does want to get some of the new meme-stock frenzy, the obvious answer would be a stock split which would make its shares more attractive for retail investors. However, there are no signs so far of such a move.
Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices rose 1% and Intel gained 4.2% on Wednesday, with both companies recovering after being hit earlier in the week bya reportthe Chinese government was aiming to phase out their chips from its devices.
Nvidia shares have risen 82% this year to date through to Wednesday’s close. That compares with a 10% rise in the S&P 500 index and a 9.2% rise in the Nasdaq Composite Index over the same period.