Highlights

• The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all closed higher on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq leading at 0.7%.
• Bitcoin briefly crossed $80,000 for the first time in three months, driven by dollar debasement fears.
• Chip stocks rallied early but lost momentum ahead of Nvidia's earnings report due Wednesday.
• Dick's Sporting Goods dropped 13% after missing Q2 expectations and cutting its full-year outlook.
• Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is set to speak at the Jackson Hole Symposium later this week.

US stocks edged higher on Tuesday as investors looked past concerns about new trade measures against Canada and Iran. The Nasdaq led the advance with a 0.7% gain, while the Dow and S&P 500 each added roughly 0.4%.

Beneath the surface, market breadth told a different story. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF slipped 0.2%, meaning that if every stock in the index carried the same weight, the market would have finished lower on the day — a sign of how dependent Tuesday's gains were on the index's largest constituents.

Chip Stocks Stall Ahead of Nvidia's Report

Semiconductor shares opened strongly, supported by falling bond yields and declining oil prices, but the momentum faded as the session progressed. By midday, the iShares Semiconductor ETF had trimmed its gain to around 1%.

Investors appear reluctant to chase chip stocks higher ahead of Nvidia's earnings, due Wednesday. Nvidia and Marvell Technology are both scheduled to report this week, and Wall Street will be watching closely for signs of continued demand for AI chips. Nvidia, the dominant supplier of the accelerators that power AI data centers, is also among the most heavily weighted stocks in the S&P 500, so its results and outlook can carry outsized weight in index-level moves. Marvell, which supplies custom silicon and networking components used in AI infrastructure, offers a further read on the pace of that buildout. Expectations are already elevated, which raises the risk if either company falls short.

Bitcoin Crosses $80,000 on Dollar Concerns

Bitcoin briefly rose above $80,000 on Tuesday, its highest level in three months. The move came after the Treasury's intervention in the bond market sparked fresh concerns about the long-term value of the US dollar, prompting investors to move into alternative assets.

Gold has also rallied in recent days, though it pulled back slightly on Tuesday. Bitcoin is often pitched by its proponents as "digital gold," a scarce alternative to fiat currencies, and its climb alongside the metal has drawn attention from investors weighing the dollar's long-term purchasing power.

Earnings and Economic Data in Focus

Dick's Sporting Goods was among the day's biggest losers. The retailer's stock fell 13% before the opening bell after missing second-quarter expectations and cutting its full-year earnings outlook, citing tough conditions in the athletic retail market. Retailer outlooks like Dick's are closely watched because consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of US economic output.

Intuit and Zoom Communications also reported results on Tuesday, giving the market a read on the health of the software sector.

On the economic calendar, new home sales, ADP employment figures, and manufacturing activity numbers were all scheduled for release Tuesday, with a PCE inflation reading due Wednesday. The ADP report offers an early look at private payroll growth ahead of the government's monthly jobs report, while the PCE price index is the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

Jackson Hole Takes Center Stage

All of this sets the stage for the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium later this week. The annual conference, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Wyoming, has historically served as a venue for signaling shifts in the direction of monetary policy. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is expected to deliver his first speech as chair, and markets will be listening closely for clues on the direction of interest rates.

The combination of AI earnings risk, a rising bitcoin, and a major Fed speech gives investors plenty to watch in the coming days.

Source: CoinCentral