The New York Stock Exchange is likely to pause for a moment on Wednesday, following a spectacular rebound by the Nasdaq, spurred by the recovery of Nvidia shares.

Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the major New York indices fell by between 0.2% and 0.4%, pointing to an opening in the red.

The Nasdaq had rallied by just under 1.3% on Tuesday evening, boosted by the cheap buyback of Nvidia (+6.8%), whose capitalization thus rose back above the $3,000 billion threshold.

As has often been the case in recent times, each pullback proved short-lived, with investors taking advantage of bouts of weakness in equities to return to buying the big tech stocks.

Critics, however, point to the excessive concentration of the US market and the indexes' dependence on mega-cap tech stocks.

With just a few days to go before the end of the first half of the year, the Nasdaq has posted an annual gain of 18%, while the Dow Jones has advanced by less than 4% since January 1.

"This raises questions about the diversity and stability of the market", says Xavier Laurent, US equity manager at Ofi Invest Asset Management, who refers to a "skewed" picture of overall health.

For the time being, investors seem to be looking to catch their breath before embarking on what promises to be a busy weekend.

On Friday, investors will be paying close attention to the release of the PCE price index, a measure of inflation that is particularly closely watched by the Fed.

Market operators will also be paying close attention to tomorrow's first televised debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the run-up to November's presidential election.

Later this morning, investors will learn of new home sales figures.

On the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds has risen back above the 4.28% mark, after having been stuck for days in a range from 4.22% to 4.26%.

On the energy front, crude oil prices remain on an upward trend as we await this afternoon's release of figures from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).

WTI, a barrel of Texas crude, is up 0.5% at $81.2.

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