The Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.4%, primarily due to declines in major tech stocks such as Nvidia, while the S&P 500 saw a slight increase of less than 0.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.6%. Nvidia's stock dipped 1.6% following its GTC Conference, where CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the new AI chip, Blackwell, despite the stock's significant rally of over 78% year to date. Super Micro Computer, a key vendor for Nvidia's AI servers, saw a 10.3% drop after announcing a share offering. Microstrategy, a bitcoin proxy, dropped more than 15% amidst a slowing bull run.
Analysts believe the AI revolution has a long way to go, and any current declines are seen as minor adjustments after recent gains. The market is also awaiting the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, with expectations leaning towards unchanged rates, although concerns about inflation persist.
Nvidia's shares further dipped by 2% after unveiling its Blackwell AI chips, which are touted as more powerful than the current Hopper GPUs. The GB200 chip, part of the Blackwell series, is expected to ship later this year and could cost between $30,000 to $40,000. Nvidia also introduced a new enterprise software product, Nvidia Inference Microservice, to facilitate the use of older GPU generations.
Analysts have reacted positively to Nvidia's announcements, with Bernstein maintaining an outperform rating and a $1,000 price target, and Wells Fargo boosting their price target to $970 from $840 while reiterating an overweight rating. Goldman Sachs also raised their price target to $1,000 from $875, expressing a renewed appreciation for Nvidia's innovation and its role in the generative AI space.
Movers of the hour:
Aeva Technologies is up 389.11% at $4.94.
Fusion is up 97.23% at $20.99.
Enliven is up 25.08% at $15.81.
Li-Cycle Holdings is up 24.45% at $1.37.
National Cinemedia is up 24.41% at $5.25.