PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened slightly lower on Tuesday in a wait-and-see environment that does not encourage risk-taking, ahead of Nvidia’s results on Wednesday and key economic and inflation indicators later this week.

In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 0.15% to 41,178.27 points, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.20% to 5,604.82 points.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.40% to 17,659.17 points.

Nvidia, the world’s second largest market capitalization behind Apple, will publish its quarterly results on Wednesday after the close of trading on Wall Street. These are particularly anticipated as the stock of the semiconductor group, considered the flagship value of artificial intelligence (AI), has jumped by more than 160% since the beginning of the year.

Nvidia shares fell nearly 1% in early trading Tuesday and the semiconductor sector index dropped 0.7% as some investors worried about the chipmaker’s ability to meet high expectations for its business, including the pace of AI spending by the company’s biggest customers.

“Nvidia’s results on Wednesday are by far the most important event in global stock markets,” said Peter Garnry, chief investment strategist at Saxo.

“Given the underlying dynamics of the AI ​​industry and the results we’ve seen from other companies in the AI ​​ecosystem, we believe Nvidia will beat consensus and raise its fiscal third quarter guidance above estimates,” he added.

In addition to the expected publications from Nvidia, the market is keeping an eye on the US indicators of the week, in particular the quarterly GDP and the monthly PCE price index, while the chairman of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, opened the door on Friday to a first monetary easing on September 18 in view of the deterioration of the economy.

US consumer confidence figures for August, due at 1400 GMT, will provide a first glimpse of the economic situation in the country.

UBS Global Wealth Management raised the probability of a U.S. recession from 20% to 25%, citing revised estimates of job growth.

In corporate news, Apple fell 0.60% after announcing the appointment of Kevan Parekh as CFO, replacing Luca Maestri.

Paramount Global fell 4.85% after media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. withdrew from the race to buy the group, leaving Skydance Media as the sole contender to take control of Shari Redstone’s media empire.

Eli Lilly rose 0.25% as it launched sales in the United States of single-dose vials of its anti-obesity treatment Zepbound for patients who cannot benefit from reimbursement for the drug by their health insurance plan.

JD.com jumped nearly 4% as the Chinese e-commerce group’s board approved a new $5 billion share buyback plan.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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