Stock Market Live November 20: S&P 500 (VOO) Surges on Strong Jobs, Nvidia Reports

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

Everything that could go right to drive the stock market higher today, appears to be going right, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is up 1.5% premarket — that’s the long and the short of how things stand Thursday morning.

Last night, Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) beat by a nickel on its fiscal Q3 2026 earnings report, reporting $1.30 per share in profit and sales of $57 billion — $2.1 billion more than Wall Street expected. Nvidia went on to guide investor higher on Q4 as well, saying revenue will be $65 billion, plus or minus, which if true will far exceed analysts’ expected $61.6 billion.

Nvidia stock is up more than 5% this morning.

Just a few hours later, the U.S. government did its part to keep the stock market rally going, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 119,000 new jobs created in September. This reversed the 4,000 jobs lost in August, and was more than 50,000 jobs economists had predicted.

BLS also noted that average hourly earnings increased 3.8% year over year.

Granted, all this is old data from before the government shutdown, and none of it tells us how much damage the shutdown itself did to the economy, to wages, or to the job market. But for today, it’s all more than enough good news to send the stock market higher.

• AI bellwether Nvidia reported an earnings beat last night and gave strong guidance, encouraging investors.

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics says the economy added 119,000 jobs in September.

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In non-Nvidia earnings news, S&P 500 component company Walmart (NYSE: WMT) beat Q3 earnings by two cents this morning, reporting a $0.62 per share profit and sales of $179.5 billion, about $2 billion more than analysts were expecting. Walmart also raised guidance for full-year earnings to a range of from $2.58 to $2.63.

Walmart stock is up 3% premarket.

S&P 500 component Jacobs (NYSE: J)  rounded out the morning’s good news with an eight-cent earnings beat. The engineering and construction firm earned $1.75 per share in its fiscal Q4, and revenue was $3.2 billion, $50 million more than expected. Guidance for full-year fiscal 2026 is for $6.90 to $7.30 in profit, also ahead of forecasts.

Jacobs stock is up more than 3%.

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