Major stock market indexes rose slightly Tuesday as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kicked off a closely watched meeting, which will end Wednesday with an even more closely watch decision on interest rates. The central bank is expected to maintain interest rates within a range of 5.25% to 5.5% as inflation remains stubborn, albeit far below its peak levels from 2022.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both ended the day up, but Nvidia’s “Taylor Swift” moment didn’t do much to help lift the Nasdaq.
All eyes on Nvidia
AI chipmaker Nvidia, which on Monday unveiled its next-generation chip named Blackwell, was the center of attention on Tuesday. After a rocky start to the day, Nvidia stock closed up just 1% to $894 per share.
But Wall Street analysts doubled down on their bullish outlook on Nvidia stock Tuesday following CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address Monday, with one analyst comparing his speech at the company’s annual “Woodstock of AI” conference to a Taylor Swift concert: “Move over, Taylor Swift, you’re not the only one that can sell out a stadium,” Stacy Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research, said in a note.
Bitcoin drags down crypto stocks
Bitcoin saw a sudden drop overnight in its value, heading from $73,000 to $63,000 in just five days. The current decline follows news from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, that saw record daily outflows of $642.5 million on Monday.
While Bitcoin’s price is expected to bounce back to new heights, crypto stocks suffered on Tuesday. MicroStrategy announced it was raising funds for another batch of Bitcoin, but its stock dropped more than 5%, ending the day at $1,417. Other crypto-linked stocks, including Tesla, saw a decline of more than 1%, crypto exchange Coinbase fell almost 4%, and Square stock dropped 2%.
Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all rise
All three major stock market indexes gained. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 300 points, or 0.83%, the Dow’s best day since Feb. 22. The S&P 500 jumped by 0.4%, or 29 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.3%.