The U.S. stock market is holding steadier on Wednesday, for now at least, ahead of a couple huge tests for Wall Street.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading, coming off a four-day losing streak, its longest in nearly three months. It’s been shaky recently, not just day to day but also hour to hour, because of worries that stock prices have shot too high and that the Federal Reserve may not deliver as many revitalizing jolts through lower interest rates as expected.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
But Wall Street’s focus remained squarely on Nvidia. Wall Street’s most influential stock climbed 2% to recover some of its loss for the month so far, which topped 10% on Tuesday. Traders are making their final moves before the chip company reports how much profit it made during the summer after trading ends for the day.
Much is riding on it.
Nvidia has grown to become the largest stock on Wall Street and briefly topped $5 trillion in value. That means its stock movements carry more weight on the S&P 500 than any other stock, and it can single-handedly steer the index’s direction some days.
It’s also become a bellwether for the broader frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, because other companies are using its chips to ramp up their AI efforts. Palantir Technologies is helping customers to use AI, for example, while Amazon, Microsoft and others are pouring investments into AI data centers that will hopefully improve their productivity.

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