US stocks closed mixed on Tuesday as Wall Street largely shrugged off fears over a nuclear escalation to the Russia-Ukraine war, while Nvidia (NVDA) provided a solid boost for the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closed down about 0.3% but still recovered from earlier session lows. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) battled back to finish the day up 0.4% after the index fell below its election breakout level in early trade.

But the big winner was the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), which reversed declines to gain over 1%. The index was aided by shares of Nvidia, which rose nearly 5% following a series of bullish notes from Wall Street analysts ahead of its anticipated earnings results on Wednesday.

The gains come just one day after the stock was bruised by a report of overheating issues with its flagship new AI product.

Earlier in the trading day, investors assessed news that President Vladimir Putin had signed a revised nuclear doctrine that allows Russia to expand its use of atomic weapons. It comes just days after President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use US long-range missiles to strike inside Russia. Ukraine carried out its first such aerial attack in a border region on Tuesday morning.

US bond prices climbed alongside gains for gold (GC=F), and other safe-haven assets as the risk-off trade kicked in. Treasury yields — which move inversely to bond prices — fell, with the 10-year benchmark yield (^TNX) down roughly 4 basis points to around 4.38%. Gold jumped nearly 1% to trade above $2,600 an ounce.

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices touched a new record of above $93,500 a token.

Source : Yahoo Finance - Nov 20, 2024