[New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)] Stocks fall ahead of NVIDIA earnings; Palantir rises 2.9%

[Financial News]  

The three major indexes on the NYSE all declined on the 26th. The losses were modest, but investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of NVIDIA Corporation's quarterly earnings, due after the close.
NVIDIA Corporation fell 1.6%, while semiconductor stocks edged higher.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA Corporation and Alphabet Inc. were weak, but large-cap tech stocks moved higher, led by Palantir Technologies.

Investors expressed disappointment over concerns about the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index for last month, which was released before the market opened.
The core PCE Price Index, which the Federal Reserve System (Fed) uses as its inflation gauge, rose 3.3% from a year earlier, in line with market expectations. The headline PCE Price Index increased 3.7%, beating forecasts by 0.1 percentage point.
The data confirmed that inflation has remained sticky despite higher U.S. productivity, held back by elevated oil prices.
The market also turned cautious because NVIDIA Corporation, the leading stock, was set to report quarterly earnings after the close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 53,463.88, down 113.52 points, or 0.21%, from the previous session.
The technology-heavy Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) and NASDAQ posted smaller losses. The S&P 500 turned lower just before the close and finished down 1.58 points, or 0.02%, at 7,675.70. The NASDAQ ended the day down 21.10 points, or 0.08%, at 26,130.20.
The NASDAQ-100 Index, which tracks 100 large-cap technology stocks, closed with a slight gain, rising 15.29 points, or 0.05%, to 29,224.52.

Software stocks weakened after fintech company Intuit issued a disappointing outlook for fiscal 2027. Still, they managed to narrow their losses significantly later in the session.
Intuit closed at $345.89, down $11.58, or 3.24%, while ServiceNow fell $1.20, or 0.94%, to $125.80.
Salesforce slipped $0.07, or 0.03%, to $205.62, and Workday fell $3.67, or 1.89%, to $190.75.
However, Salesforce reversed sentiment after releasing better-than-expected quarterly results after the close.
In after-hours trading, the stock jumped 12.4% to $231.14.
Intuit, ServiceNow and Workday also turned sharply higher in after-hours trading.

Big tech stocks were mixed.
Meta Platforms Inc. rose after a lawsuit in California was settled, easing uncertainty. The stock closed at $576.14, up $6.09, or 1.07%.
Palantir Technologies jumped $4.77, or 2.76%, to $177.50, while Apple Inc. rose $3.55, or 1.15%, to $313.45. Microsoft also gained $4.66, or 0.95%, to $496.37.
By contrast, NVIDIA Corporation fell $3.39, or 1.59%, to $209.66, and Alphabet Inc. dropped $4.96, or 1.43%, to $342.00.
Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX moved in opposite directions.
Tesla fell $4.43, or 1.26%, to $345.82, but SpaceX rose $1.52, or 1.10%, to $139.63 on expectations that it will build a launch center in Louisiana. Despite the $100 billion investment, hopes are growing that the new launch site will accelerate plans for a space-based AI data center.

Semiconductor stocks were generally firm.
Although NVIDIA Corporation struggled, Micron Technology, Inc. closed at $938.40, up $5.43, or 0.58%.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) rose $1.10, or 0.23%, to $480.28, and Intel gained $0.76, or 0.87%, to $88.24.
However, SK hynix American depositary receipts (ADRs) slipped $1.63, or 1.02%, to $157.90.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF closed at $514.65, up $0.59, or 0.11%.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter