Nasdaq Composite Today: Inflation Data Weighs on NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), And Other Major Stocks
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Nasdaq Composite Turns Positive
As of about 12:30 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite turned positive for the day. NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is leading the charge higher, its shares are up 1.68% on the day.
Other leading AI companies like Micron, Arm Holdings, and Synopsys are also up more than one percent on the day. Cybersecurity also continues to perform well with CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks seeing strong gains.
Nasdaq is Down - But Some Stocks Gain
The Nasdaq Composite is down .36% shortly after 11 a.m. ET. While the index is down, some notable stocks are seeing gains. NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is up 1.18% as the stock continues the winning streak it has seen across the past month.
Other stocks seeing gains today include Crowdstrike (up 3.68%), Micron (up 2.32%), and Spotify (up 1.22%).
Among smaller stocks, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers is up 19% and Trump Media & Technology is up big again today. The stock is up 17.3% and now has risen 30% in the past week.
Social Security Admin Sets COLA for 2025
The Social Security Administration set the cost-of-living adjustment for 2025 today at 2.5%. This adjustment is important as it aims to keep up buying power for seniors on fixed incomes with inflation.
In 2024 the COLA was set at 3.2% while it saw a 8.7% boost the year prior. Of course, those large increases were the result of higher inflation.
More Details on Today's CPI Numbers
What categories are adding to inflation the most? Airline fares rose 3.2% from the prior month in September. Other categories that grew quickly were motor vehicle insurance (up 1.2%), apparel (up 1.1%), motor vehicle maintenance & repair (1.0%), fruits and vegetables (.9%), and meats, poultry, fish & eggs (up .8%).
Categories where prices fell from the prior month were dominated by gasoline (down 4.1%) and fuel oil (down 6.0%).
Inflation data was released at 8:30 a.m. ET today, and prices rose slightly faster than expected. The consumer price index rose 2.4% on an annual basis, which was above consensus expectation of 2.3%.
Adding to this data was a jobless claims number of 254,000 lost jobs, which was higher than expectations of 230,000 jobless claims. With the Fed looking to balance employment and inflation as its primary mandates, it now faces more of a challenge headed into its next meeting in November. Prior to today, markets implied a 70% probability of a 25 basis point cut at their next meeting.
Market indexes like the Nasdaq Composite initially fell on the release of this hotter-than-expected inflation data. Minutes after the release of CPI numbers, Nasdaq futures were down .44%. They’ve continued trading in that range as traders digested CPI data.
Here’s where major indexes are shortly before 8:50 a.m. ET.
- Futures Implied Nasdaq Open: -88.75 (-.43%)
- Futures Implied Dow Open: -82 (-.20%)
- Futures Implied S&P 500 Open: -18.3 (-.31%)
Let’s Look at Some Other Major News Items Today
Stocks On The Move
A handful of stocks are seeing large moves premarket.
- TPST (Nasdaq: TPST): A tiny biotech that’s up 28% premarket after announcing an agreement with Roche to support advancement of a therapy its developing.
- Avient (NYSE: AVNT): Announced its increasing its annual dividend by 5%.
Megacaps Are Down After CPI Data
The megacap stocks that primarily drive the movements of the Nasdaq Index are down after the release of today’s inflation data. Here’s a sampling of their premarket performance:
- NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA): Down 1.03%
- Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL): Down .75%
- Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META): Down .73%
Other Magnificent 7 stocks aren’t down as much premarket. Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) is up .23% as investors anticipate the company’s ridesharing event that takes place after market close today.
Inflation Prior to Expectations
Today’s CPI release of 2.4% annual growth came in above expectations from major banks. Citigroup had projected 2.24%, Goldman Sachs 2.27%, Wells Fargo 2.30%, and Citadel Securities predicted 2.36%.
Traders are increasing their bets on a 25 basis point rate cut in November after the release of this CPI data.
Eric Bleeker has been investing for more than 20 years. He began his career working at Microsoft before joining Motley Fool, one of the largest publishers of financial research. In his 15 years at Motley Fool Eric served as the General Manager for Fool.com and led coverage in the Technology & Telecom sector. In addition, he was a featured columnist and has hosted dozens of investing seminars attended by more than a million total investors. Eric has more than 1,000 financial bylines to his name and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fox Business, and many other leading publications. He is currently focused on artificial intelligence investing and is a CFA Charterholoder.
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