A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
Stock futures were relatively flat Tuesday night following a session where investors sold off technology names and drove a rally in more risk-off parts of the market.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 3 points points, or 0.01%. S&P futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both inched up less than 0.1%.
Tuesday saw a tale of two markets emerge — the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied more than 550 points to close at a record high, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped. The S&P 500 closed up higher, notching its third positive session in a row.
Consumer stocks such as Walmart, Home Depot and McDonald’s propped up the 30-stock Dow on Tuesday as traders moved into parts of the market with lower valuations and less exposure to the artificial intelligence trade. The health care sector was the top-performing sector, driven by moves higher in names such as Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
Darling AI stocks such as Nvidia swung lower on Tuesday, reflecting the uneasy sentiment among investors that tech valuations could be stretched after their recent surge. Talks of a stock market bubble have not dissipated either, but investors are showing more discernment between which tech giants appear to have a leg-up in the AI race.
“When you have very few groups making new highs, very few stocks remaining above their 200-day moving average or 40-day moving average … it’s a very interesting rotation,” Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” “What hasn’t been working is a place to go hide right now.”
Investors also digested a new ADP report that showed private employers cut payrolls in October, adding to worries about labor market weakness. The report received greater focus since the record-setting U.S. government stoppage has halted many crucial economic releases. The U.S. government could reopen as soon as the end of this week. The Senate on Monday evening passed a spending bill that has since moved to the House of Representatives for a final vote.
