The New York Stock Exchange is set to open without much direction on Monday morning, on the eve of a week that will be marked mainly by Nvidia's quarterly results.

Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the major New York indices are all trading around equilibrium, a harbinger of an unchanged or almost unchanged start to the session.

Wall Street has just racked up five consecutive weeks of gains, enabling the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq to set one all-time record after another last week.

But these performances are making it increasingly difficult to justify further gains, given that the P/E of US equities now stands at 20.7, above its five-year (19.2) and ten-year (17.8) averages.

Against this backdrop, investors will be paying close attention to the results of Nvidia, the last of the 'Magnificent Seven' to publish its quarterly figures.

The Nasdaq index could well sign new all-time highs if the specialist in processors for applications linked to artificial intelligence doesn't disappoint on Wednesday evening.

Beyond the group's results and forecasts, investors will be paying particular attention to the company's ability to surprise expectations by unveiling promising new projects.

It's worth remembering that the AI craze began exactly one year ago, when Nvidia soared by more than 20% in one session after its results, tripling its value in 12 months", recalls Jim Reid, market analyst at Deutsche Bank.

Investors may also be cautious ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting, also scheduled for Wednesday evening

. The minutes could provide further clues as to the timing of future interest rate cuts in the US.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch barometer, the probability of a September rate hike in the US is now just under 50%, a sign that the slight slowdown in inflation .

On the bond front, the ten-year yield is still hovering around 4.45% after falling last week to 4.32%, the lowest in over a month, but is still down 20 basis points since the end of April.

On the oil market, the price of US light crude continued to trade in a narrow range, falling by 0.5% to $79.6 in the absence of any impetus.

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