DJIA up 0.19% (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 21 Jun - US shares opened cautiously as investors took a breather ahead of business survey and housing data.

Wall Street remains on pace for a winning week despite the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq retreating from record highs yesterday as losses for AI darling Nvidia took their toll.

The semiconductor giant, which has grown more than 160% this year after nearly tripling its value last, is down nearly 2% in early trade after shedding 3.5% yesterday to cede the crown of most valuable stock back to Microsoft.

The stock has boomed thanks to growing demand for chips that train and run generative AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT and investors are upbeat the rally could have further to run.

On the data front, June's purchasing managers survey will provide a picture of how services and manufacturing activity is faring with high borrowing costs.

Manufacturing has been hit particularly hard by high interest rates meant to get high inflation under control.

Existing home sales data later is expected to confirm weakness already seen in the building industry as mortgage rates remain stubbornly high.

As inflation and the jobs market show signs of cooling, hopes are rising the Federal Reserve might have the room to ease monetary policy later this year. But yesterday Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari warned it would take a year or two to get inflation back to 2%, as wage growth might still be too high.

On the stocks front, shares in Sarepta Therapeutics soared 31% after the FDA approved its Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy for patients aged 4 and older.

Just after the opening bell the Dow Jones was up 76.21 points, or 0.19%, at 39,210.97, the S&P 500 was down 5.75 points, or 0.11%, at 5,467.42 while the Nasdaq was down 43.14 points, or 0.24%, at 17,678.45.

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(RADIOCOR) 21-06-24 15:42:51 (0452) 5 NNNN