On August 19 (Tuesday) Eastern Time, US stocks experienced sideways fluctuations in pre-market trading due to a lack of clear direction. At the close, the three major indices ended mixed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.02% to 44,922.27 points; the Nasdaq Index fell 1.46% to 21,314.95 points; and the S&P 500 Index declined 0.59% to 6,411.37 points.

James Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, stated that investors appear to be hedging ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting, fearing that Powell’s remarks may be more hawkish than currently expected by the market.

Interest rate futures information indicates that the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates twice this year, each time by 25 basis points, with the first rate cut window set for September.

Large tech stocks fell across the board, dragging down the Nasdaq Index. Nvidia dropped nearly 3.50%, Meta fell over 2%, and Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, among others, all declined.

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, noted that some investors are taking profits from tech stocks and rotating funds into high-growth sectors. Given the significant weight of these tech giants in major indices, their volatility can easily spill over into the broader market.

Other market participants expressed skepticism about AI concept stocks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated bluntly in an interview last weekend that the AI sector is in a bubble.

Meanwhile, Intel surged approximately 7%. On August 19, Intel announced the signing of a final securities purchase agreement with Japan’s SoftBank Group. SoftBank will invest $2 billion in Intel at $23 per share, directly subscribing to common stock for a stake of about 2%, which will make SoftBank Intel’s fifth-largest shareholder.