Investing.com - Nvidia rallied heading into the close Tuesday, helping the broader tech sector hold gains after Wall Street served up an upbeat assessment of the chipmaker ahead of its quarterly results due Thursday.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose more than 4% after the Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland upgraded its rating on to positive from neutral and hiked its price target on the stock to $230 from $250, citing the odds of a chipmaker delivering weaker guidance are priced in.
Nvidia's near-term issues should pass in a quarter (or two), while valuation supports greatly reduced estimates and longer-term opportunities abound, Rolland said.
The rally in Nvidia helped offset mixed trading in FANG stocks, which weighed on the border tech sector.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) erased earlier gains as investors mulled over reports that the company was set to test a lower price for its content streamed in some countries in an effort to boost sales. Its shares fell 0.65%.
The move comes as Netflix seeks to address slow growth in Asia, where it has yet to amass 2 million subscribers in any country, according to estimates by Media Partners Asia.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was flat and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose more than 1% on signs that both companies continued to suck in the bulk of advertising dollars in the first half of the year.
"We calculate that the digital advertising industry's two biggest players [Facebook and Google] were responsible for around 75% of all digital advertising growth in the quarter, both excluding and including search in the U.S.," Pivotal Research said in a note to clients, citing data released Tuesday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.