NEW YORK, June 18, 2026, 05:06 EDT
- Nvidia ended Wednesday at $204.65, off 1.3%. The company’s market cap finished a little below $5 trillion.
- A $25 billion bond sale is in focus as investors look at a broader tech retreat. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped over 1% on Wednesday.
- U.S. stock markets will be open on Thursday. Markets shut on Friday, June 19, for Juneteenth.
Nvidia stock faces more pressure Thursday. The AI-chip maker dropped in the last session. Traders are again eyeing rates, AI spending, and rivals, largely ignoring the recent signs of demand for Nvidia in the credit market.
Nvidia shares closed at $204.65 Wednesday, down 1.3%. The drop put Nvidia’s market cap near $4.99 trillion. The chipmaker remains one of the biggest weights in the Nasdaq and S&P 500, so even small swings in Nvidia can shift both indexes.
Wall Street dropped Wednesday after the Fed kept rates steady, but said more hikes could still be on the table this year. The Nasdaq slid 1.34%, S&P 500 dropped 1.21%. Every S&P 500 sector closed in the red. Michael James at Rosenblatt Securities described it as a “hawkish tilt” from the Fed, meaning a move toward tighter policy. Reuters
Nvidia’s debt deal is still the main company headline. The chip giant said Monday it plans to raise $25 billion with a U.S. corporate bond sale, turning to debt instead of selling new shares. It’s the first time since 2021 that Nvidia has tapped the investment-grade bond market. Reuters put investor demand at $85 billion. The sale is split into seven parts with the longest debt maturing in 2056.
Nvidia said the money is for general corporate needs, with plans to use it for debt repayment and refinancing. But according to Reuters, a person familiar claimed the real aim is to set a liquid benchmark on Nvidia’s credit costs, not to fund new capital spending. That’s a key point for investors, who are already split over the future cash needs of the AI push.
U.S. chip supply chain developments stayed in focus as the Commerce Department handed SandboxAQ, which has Nvidia backing, a $500 million award. The money goes to work on new chemicals and materials for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing—covering things like PFAS alternatives and ways to avoid importing rare earths. SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary told Reuters there are “opportunities across that workflow” for picking new chemicals and breaking down PFAS at the plant. Reuters
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang kept a high profile this week, telling the Associated Press in an interview out Wednesday that society needs “new social norms” for artificial intelligence and encouraging the public to “Just go engage it.” Investors now treat Nvidia as more than just a chipmaker, using it as a stand-in for the speed of AI adoption across the economy. AP News
Nvidia is stepping up its push into server CPUs. Reuters said last week that Nvidia has told Chinese buyers its Vera central processing unit could be ready as soon as August. The Vera chip takes Nvidia head-to-head with AMD and Intel in the server CPU market. It also pushes Nvidia further into inference, which is used when AI systems handle queries instead of training.
The risk is the AI trade gets too crowded or costs too much for the market. Higher rates can push down the value of future earnings. Big cloud firms may stick with building more of their own chips to save money. China is still a question mark—Nvidia’s share there is basically zero now after U.S. export limits and Beijing’s drive for self-reliance, Reuters said.
Nasdaq could see choppy action Thursday ahead of the long weekend. Regular trading goes from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, with premarket hours starting at 4 a.m. The exchange will be closed Friday for Juneteenth.
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