Wall St mixed as Marvell mooted as next US$1 trillion company; Bitcoin tumbles

Stocks on Wall Street were mixed as a slump in Bitcoin weighed on crypto firms such as Strategy and Coinbase, while tech companies remained firmly in favour as Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang mooted chipmaker Marvell Technology as a contender to join the trillion-dollar club.

Oil prices rose as US President Donald Trump said talks were continuing with Iran, having aired his frustration with Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon.

Victoria’s Secret surged 47% after the lingerie maker raised its annual guidance, while Palo Alto Networks dipped ahead of reporting its quarterly earnings after the bell.

And milk prices fell at the latest Global Dairy Trade event, while Statistics New Zealand will release March quarter terms of trade and May building consents figures today as Australian futures point to a firmer start to the trading day across the Tasman.

Different directions

Investors struggled for direction in the US trading session as the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.1% in late trading and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.1%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.5%.

Bitcoin tumbled 6% to US$67,233 after Strategy sold its holdings for the first time in four years and as uncertainty over the Middle East conflict persisted, while the volatility index, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, eased 1.3% to 15.84 and the Polymarket prediction market priced in a 25% chance of a lasting ceasefire by the end of the month and a 39% chance by the end of July.

Brent crude oil futures rose 1.1% to US$96.05 a barrel at 7am in Auckland.

Meanwhile, Marvell soared 31% after Nvidia’s Huang said the chipmaker could crack the US$1 trillion market capitalisation mark and Hewlett Packard Enterprises surged 18% after reporting strong artificial intelligence demand.

Victoria’s Secret was on track to hit an all-time high after raising its annual outlook on strong quarterly sales, beating analysts’ expectations. Palo Alto is due to report after the bell, with Broadcom scheduled to announce its results on Wednesday in the US.

Alphabet declined after the Google parent announced plans to raise US$80 billion to help fund its AI infrastructure capital spending.

Firming up

Across the Atlantic, stock markets were firmer as the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.5% and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.8%.

“The NZX is expected to open modestly firmer today after US markets pushed to fresh record highs overnight, supported by another strong session for artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks,” Moomoo market strategy consultant Greg Boland said in a note. “A firmer US lead and continued strength in technology stocks should provide some support for the local market today, although higher oil prices and geopolitical headlines are likely to keep investors cautious.”

Australian futures are pointing to a 0.3% gain for the S&P/ASX 200 index when trading opens across the Tasman after two modestly negative days. The kiwi dollar traded at 59.25 US cents at 7am from 59.33 cents yesterday and fell to 82.54 Australian cents from 82.85 cents.

The GDT price index fell 0.6% at the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, with an average winning price of US$4,021 a tonne. Whole milk prices dropped 2.2% to US$3,706/tonne.

New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index dipped on Tuesday as it caught up from the long weekend, with Infratil weighing on the bourse and Spark New Zealand hitting a 15-year low.

Local data today include Stats NZ’s terms of trade and latest building consents figures, while across the Tasman, Australian March quarter gross domestic product is due.

Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Aditya Vyas on Unsplash.