Nvidia Did the Heavy Lifting for the Major Market Indexes Today

Some days, the market has a plot. Today, it's a collective shrug.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was up 0.4% as of 12:55 p.m. ET, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) added 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) rose 0.4%. All three indexes opened lower, and the Dow enjoyed a short-lived spike around 11 a.m. ET. But it's a pretty tight bundle of gains just below 0.5% as of this writing.

^DJI data by YCharts

Nvidia's 3.8% gain did nearly all of the index lifting

There is one clear hero behind the morning's index gains. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) jumped 3.8% to $225.67, which by itself is worth a 0.38% boost of the Nasdaq Composite's total score. No other stock moved the index by 0.1% or more. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) came close after a 2.9% jump, but it's hard to compete with a stock creating $206 billion of market value with a single-digit percentage bump.

Here's a fun fact. If you exclude Meta and Nvidia from the calculation, the Nasdaq Composite indexes would be down right now. The S&P 500 would still be up after this adjustment, but only by 0.12%.

I wish I had big news to share about Meta's and Nvidia's price gains, but their press rooms were pretty quiet, too. Overall, Wednesday's market moves were dictated by macroeconomic wrinkles.

Image source: Getty Images.

New York Fed President John Williams said that the surge in Treasury yields reflects a strong economy, driven by AI and data center investment. He's doing the homework to prepare for September's rate-setting meeting in two weeks, where he holds a vote. Williams hasn't nailed down a firm recommendation yet. Recent inflation data have been encouraging, but a month or two isn't enough. At this point, analysts see a 66% chance of a small rate hike in the Sept. 15-16 meeting.

I do see a couple of interesting oddities. Gold prices climbed 1% while the iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ: IBIT) slipped 0.1%, which breaks a safe-harbor linkage that's been reliable for weeks. The divergence is still small, but it's a clear break from recent correlation trends.

At the same time, oil prices inched 0.2% higher amid continued strikes in and around the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump wants to rename the strategic shipping channel after himself. Like the rest of the market, oil traders shrugged and moved on. Oil prices often move 2% or more on any given weekday recently, so today's blip looks quite flat in comparison.

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Friday brings the August jobs report, the last big number before the Fed meets on Sept. 15. The major indexes have been fairly quiet over the last couple of days; I don't mean to jinx it, but there's little reason to expect much drama before Friday's jobs report.

Enjoy the silence.

Anders Bylund has positions in Nvidia and iShares Bitcoin Trust. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and iShares Bitcoin Trust. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.