US stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the latest earnings from Nvidia and other prominent technology companies lifting market sentiment, according to Sina Finance. The Dow rose 105.56 points, or 0.20%, to 53,569.44; the S&P 500 gained 55.29 points, or 0.72%, to 7,730.99; and the Nasdaq climbed 411.15 points, or 1.57%, to 26,541.35, marking the best day for the tech sector, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite since August 4.
Nvidia surged 8.74%, adding 442 billion dollars in market value, after the company beat analyst expectations and issued strong revenue growth guidance. Nvidia projects fiscal 2028 revenue growth will reach 70%, far above the 44% analysts expected, while its second-quarter revenue more than doubled.
Among the other Magnificent Seven, results were mixed: Tesla rose 2.60%, Microsoft gained 1.75%, and Apple added 0.36%, while Alphabet fell 0.41%, Meta declined 0.87%, and Amazon dropped 1.54%.
Semiconductor stocks broadly advanced, with Broadcom up 4.5%, and SK Hynix and Intel gaining 2.27% and 4.36%, respectively. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) rose 3%.
“There’s been a lot of talk lately about the circular financing for all these hyperscalers and whether revenues will be able to actually cover the huge costs that they’re incurring. Maybe this holds off that discussion for a little while,” said Melissa Brown, managing director of investment decision research at SimCorp, adding that other names in the AI trade are just "riding [Nvidia’s] coattails."
Beyond Nvidia and other chip stocks, Salesforce jumped more than 22% after second-quarter revenue topped Wall Street expectations. Software stocks such as Adobe and Autodesk rose 5.7% and 6%, respectively.
In cybersecurity, Okta surged nearly 29% and CrowdStrike rose 21%, its best single-day performance since its 2019 listing, after the companies beat analyst expectations and raised their outlooks on strong demand from agentic AI.
Brown noted that the sharp divergence between AI-related stocks and the rest of the market has kept correlations low among stocks, which is affecting risk.
“The volatility is high, but the correlation is low, and so that’s keeping overall volatility low,” she said. “Our concern is that that kind of lulls investors into a false sense of security.”
Traders are preparing for the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech on Friday.