Nvidia, Google Lift S&P 500 Amid Weak Breadth; Intuitive Surgical Also In Focus

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0:39Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Stock Market Today for Tuesday, December 23rd. My name is Ken Shreve, and today I am joined by our news editor, Ed Carson, who has got three stocks to watch. And Ed, good afternoon. What stocks are we looking at today? Yeah, I want to take a look at NVIDIA and Google. Obviously, we're really big players today on the market. And as well, Intuitive Surgical. Okay, very good. Well, we didn't get a chance to talk about the stock market yet. We will do that. Let me go ahead and pull up a chart of the NASDAQ composite here. We did have A pretty good day for the NASDAQ composite and the S &P 500.

1:24Gains of about five-tenths of a percent, six-tenths of a percent. Here's a look at the NASDAQ composite. Four up days in a row. NASDAQ composite up, I think it was six-tenths of a percent was the NASDAQ's gain today. S &P 500, let's take a look at the bogey here. That was up five-tenths of a percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged a little bit today. That eked out a small gain that was up, I think, just two-tenths of a percent or so. And the Russell 2000, that was the laggard today. Couldn't get out of its own way. Russell 2000 was down, I think, about six-tenths of a percent by the close.

2:10Ed Breth was negative all day. Take a look at QQEW. NASDAQ 100 was mostly in line with the NASDAQ composite today, but QQEW, that was down two-tenths of a percent RSP. This is the equal-weighted S &P 500 ETF. That was down two-tenths of a percent today on a day, again, where the S &P 500 was up five-tenths of a percent. So economic data, Ed, before the open, you know, wasn't that long ago when the market might look at a stronger than expected reading on GDP and maybe some inflationary data and get freaked out. But we had a stronger than expected reading on third quarter gross domestic product and more inflation data, but the market seemed to shrug it off.

3:04Yeah, the economic data showed really strong economic growth in the third quarter, finally got the first reading. I mean, it's a little backward reading. I think people probably expect Q4 will be weaker, probably because of the shutdown, maybe some labor market weakness. And there were some special factors. So it was a strong report. Even if you stripped out other things, it was a solid report. I mean, I think partly the market isn't expecting Fed rate cuts anytime soon. And so we're going to get a lot of data before that happens. I mean, it's not until March that people are expecting a rate cut.

3:33And now the odds, the last time I had looked, it slipped from just above 50 % to just below. But, I mean, that's so far away, honestly. It just didn't change. I don't think it really fundamentally changed anything. The market, the major indexes rose, the weak breadth we saw, you know, NVIDIA, Google, Amazon clearly were driving things, you know, a little bit. But the leading stocks were fine, too. I mean, I think the leading stocks were mixed, but most of the declines, with a few exceptions, were modest losses, under 1 % or up to 2%, but after some pretty big gains. So, you know, again, it looks pretty solid.

4:10We've had a really strong run toward record highs. And again, just four days ago, it was not looking good. I mean, the mixed market was starting to get mixed to weak and real transformation to see the S &P at a record close four days after going below the 50-day line. Obviously, there's not a huge gap between those two things. But, you know, I'd say generally the bullish trend has continued here today. Yeah, I heard you on IBD Live this morning when you were hosting IBD Live. just mentioning just not that long ago last week, there was a pretty violent plunge for the NASDAQ and the S &P below the 50-day moving average and now four straight gains.

4:53We had a record closing high for the S &P 500 today. Interesting, again, that breadth was negative on both exchanges, less than two to one, but breadth was negative on both exchanges today. But We did see, again, more good action below the surface, including a very strong move. Well, let's take a look at SMH because SMH had another nice day of outperformance today, kind of following the NASDAQ here. The SMH also last week had a pretty violent break of that 50-day moving average, up four days in a row. seen some damage in the chip space from a name like Broadcom, AVGO, recently reported earnings, initially a positive response to that earnings report, but a bad break of the 50-day moving average.

5:52This one is really struggling, but a name like NVIDIA, which is the first stock that you wanted to talk about today, NVIDIA made a very bullish move above the 50-day moving average today also crossed that recent high of 188. We would call this a pretty bullish technical move for NVIDIA today, Ed. This message is brought to you by Nuveen. How would you invest if you knew the future was watching? At Nuveen, this isn't a theoretical question. It's a perspective that comes from navigating 125 years of market cycles, using foresight to innovate and adapt to the changing needs of investors and remaining steadfast in the pursuit of lasting performance.

6:35newveen invest like the future is watching visit newveen.com slash future to learn more investing involves risk principal loss is possible yeah really needed to get above the right side of the track this is the first time it's been above the 50-day line uh in i think over a month now uh at least you know at least certainly closing so that was nice got above the 50-day line i mean it is a downwards sloping 50-day line a little bit but it also got above the short-term high of 188 So I think people could have used this. It's clearly above the 50-day line. So you could have used this, I think, as an early entry.

7:09There is the short-term high of 196. That was from the November 10th or November 20th downside reversal. And not only is that the November 20th, that's basically not only the November 20th downside reversal, but that's basically the same price as it was on that October 10th reversal for the market. So the 196 area seems like a very important area. So you could buy it here. You could also either start a position or wait till one day six or add, however you want to do it. But yeah, there seems to be some just optimism back. It's just really positive to see this. I'd also note that Taiwan Semi, which makes NVIDIA chips, that was already above the 50-day line, and it's got a messier chart.

7:50It's not, you know, but I think you could have used today's action as an early entry. Definitely messier here because of the prior breakout. But there are some positives. But boy, is it nice to have NVIDIA and Taiwan Semi moving up above the 50-day line now. Yeah, no doubt about it. A lot of buys on NVIDIA. Today I was talking to my office mate, David Saito Chung, who's been a longtime holder of NVIDIA. And still just talking about the valuation here with NVIDIA selling at 45 times trailing earnings and 24 times forward earnings, too. Sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle here that NVIDIA, based on its growth prospects, fiscal 26 earnings, that's its current fiscal year, expected to rise 56 percent with growth accelerating in fiscal 27, 64 percent growth, arguably still selling at a fairly cheap valuation.

8:50So maybe NVIDIA is going to finally start growing into its valuation here. We shall see. But a pretty compelling move for NVIDIA today, reclaiming that 50-day moving average, which has been a resistance level for a little while now. Yeah, and I would say the volume was pretty good, too. The volume was pretty good, given that I got to figure trading volume is pretty much dying off at this point. I mean, I think actually NASDAQ volume might have been higher today than the prior session, but we're not going to see much volume now. But, you know, there was the triple witching day. That was great. That's nice.

9:27But this is pretty solid volume all in all, given the time of year. So, again, so I think even that's fairly positive. Yeah, volume today was below average, but quite a bit higher than the prior session. And then this was the volume Friday when options expired. That was a quadruple witching. So we saw a much, much higher volume on Friday. So NVIDIA was a very nice gainer in the S &P 500 today, a nice gainer in the NASDAQ 100. We also saw Amazon and Google outperforming in the NASDAQ 100 today. Google, leaderboard stock, a very, very strong performer, one of the best performing magnificent seven stocks at this point.

10:13Also up four days in a row, back near all-time highs. Looking at the weekly chart for Alphabet here, really has been an outstanding performer. Obviously, it's Gemini 3. AI model has been gaining a lot of market share. What are you seeing in Alphabet here, Ed? Just going back to the weekly for a moment, you can just see how the volume has been so strong in many of these cases. you know, like on the upside, you know, like a lot of skyscrapers the last few months and just nothing really, you know, maybe last week, but last week was a support week on the downside. It was one of the rare week to see above average volume and barely, but that was a support week.

10:57So you can't even say that was really negative. So a lot of support there. This needs like another week and a half or so that it could be a flat base. Going back to the daily, it's bounced off the 21-day line. I suppose people could have used the last day or so to start a position, but you could also draw a trend line from the top of this short consolidation, and it's either right there or just below it. So that would be another place where you could add or even initiate a position. It depends on how tight you do it. So there, it's above. So it's not too far from the 21-day line. It's not even that far from the 50-day line, really.

11:34So this is one thing the switch. Google kept on trying to make, kept on making the case. This is going to work for us. AI is going to work for us. And people didn't believe it. They said, you know, you're going to lose ground here. And then it's like a switch came on several months ago, but it's like, oh, okay, you're really going to be doing just fine here. And that was, boy, it is just, it's really gone up a lot. It's doubled over the last several, you know, over the, you know, action. And again, you were talking about the valuation. The valuations are like Ford P of 28. It's not that high. We'll see if the growth is supposed to slow a lot next year.

12:16We'll see if that can continue. But they just seem to be healthier. AI is working for them in a way that it's not working for Meta. It's not working for Microsoft. So that's great news. Yeah. And while spending concerns may be dogging companies like Oracle, Microsoft, Meta. Yeah, listen, Alphabet's spending a lot of money too, but the spending concerns don't seem to be hitting Alphabet like they are Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle. That's the bottom line, and you can see that reflected in the stock appreciation for Alphabet. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, let's move on and take a look at Intuitive Surgical.

12:58These three stocks brought to you by the NASDAQ 100. We've got three solid NASDAQ 100 names here. Intuitive Surgical in the healthcare space,$204 billion market cap company. This is the company known for the DaVinci robotic surgical system. They're still selling a lot of these systems, as far as I can tell. This is a weekly chart here. Big, long consolidation, holding support here at the 10-week moving average. Ed, I think we'd have to call this an institutional quality stock in the healthcare sector. Absolutely. And you can see there was nice action, nice volume last week. It came down on light volume, but then came back up on heavy volume, the heaviest volume in a while.

13:46There's been some nice action here. On a weekly chart, it's a little smoother. I mean, because there was a weekend there, there was a little high, but, you know, but you could treat this whole area this last several weeks as sort of a handle to this huge consolidation, or you could treat it as it's almost like a flat base. It doesn't quite work as a flat base technically, but it's basically there on a daily. I certainly wouldn't want a surgeon to be making stitches that way because it's been up and down a little bit. But still, ultimately, on a daily, it found support. you know it's it's sort of found support around the 50-day line you know the 10-week line for sure and found support above the 50-day line and you know you can see ultimately it's held that gap up and and moving sideways so you can see how that 580-582 level could be a place that that you could you can you could enter this position like it would clear a lot of resistance here so yeah I think that's looking looking good the earnings and sales have picked up that's not supposed to continue.

14:45So that is one thing, but it was, but certainly some nice, nice, solid fundamentals as it has been for a long time. Yeah, no doubt. And again, a$200 billion market cap company that is delivering acceleration in earnings and revenue. So pretty impressive company here and a very good long-term record of price performance here. So we'll see if intuitive surgical can break out of this long consolidation. Still seeing a lot of good setups out there in the market, Ed. Maybe a little bit of uncertainty for the Fed as we head into 2026. Fed is kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. They're trying to balance this employment picture and sort of some uncertainty about inflation.

15:39But when you look at the The stock market up near all-time highs and a lot of stocks out there still acting well. I think there are reasons to be optimistic going into 2020-26. I agree. I mean, it could all change in a few days, just like it changed for the better. But right now, I think people could be adding some stock. Either it's to modestly increase exposure to sub out some laggards. It's a weird time. There's often a Santa Claus rally after Christmas where the market does well. Often that's followed by some tax selling as people sell some winners in the new year. So the next few weeks are a little odd.

16:22You know, the volume's a little light and everything going on. But yeah, the general picture is very healthy. Leadership is broad. I know we looked at some medical tech stuff, but there's a lot of sectors that are doing well. You know, gold, finance, biotechs, some retail. Also, there's lots of things out there doing well. So definitely be doing that with your watch list. Definitely be looking at all those things because it's definitely a time to have a broad portfolio and definitely being active in the market. Most definitely. Okay, well, what do we need to know for the rest of the week? Tomorrow is Wednesday, Christmas Eve day.

17:03The market will be open for a half day of trading. Ed and I will be here for the stock market today video. The stock market will be closed at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern time. So actually, let me let me stop my stop my share here. Yeah. And so Ed and I will be back tomorrow at 10, 10 a.m. Eastern time. That will be when the stock market today video will happen. And then we will not be here Thursday because the stock market will be closed for the Christmas holiday. And then we will be back Friday. Help me out, Ed. Friday will be a full day of trading, correct? Full day of trading. Full day of trading.

17:51So, yeah. We'll be back for a full day of trading on Friday. So, Ed, thank you very much. Thank you very much for your input as usual. And I will see you back here. Don't show up at 1 o 'clock tomorrow. I'll be a little late. Okay, you'll be a little late. So we'll see you at 10 o 'clock tomorrow for the stock market today. Thanks, as always. All right. That'll do it for today, everyone. Thanks very much for watching. We are going to be very wet in Southern California here later today and tomorrow. So wish us luck. We do not do very well with rain here in SoCal, but we've got some pretty heavy rain on the way.

18:34So wish us luck. We will see you back here tomorrow for another Stock Market Today video. Have a great afternoon, everyone. Take care.

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