Dow surges 600 points as Nvidia earnings fuel worldwide fear of tech melt-up

Relief is running through Wall Street on Thursday, and the U.S. stock market is rallying toward its best day since May after it seemed to pass a couple of crucial tests.

The S&P 500 shot up by 1.9% after a blockbuster profit report from Nvidia suggested AI superstar stocks can keep rising and mixed data on the U.S. job market kept alive hopes that the Federal Reserve can deliver more cuts to interest rates. The index is back within 2% of its all-time high set last month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 712 points, or 1.5%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.5% higher.

The market had been shaky for weeks coming into Thursday, largely because of twin worries: Stocks caught up in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology may have simply shot too high, and the Fed may be done delivering the invigorating cuts to interest rates that Wall Street loves.

But Nvidia tamped down the worries about a potential bubble for AI stocks after it reported another big profit for the summer that topped analysts’ expectations, along with a forecast for coming revenue that easily cleared analysts’ estimates. By delivering big profits and indicating more are coming, Nvidia and other stocks can justify their stocks’ price gains and make them look less expensive.

Nvidia rose 3.8% to claw back some of its losses for the month, which briefly exceeded 10%. Because it’s the biggest company in the U.S. market by value, Nvidia’s stock has more pull on the S&P 500 than any other company’s.

Given the forecasts that Nvidia gave late Wednesday, “it is very hard to see how this stock does not keep moving higher from here,” according to analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri. They also said “the AI infrastructure tide is still rising so fast that all boats will be lifted.”

Nvidia’s chips are powering the world’s move into AI, which is feeding growth for a range of other companies, and AI-linked stocks were toward the front of the market. Broadcom gained 5.9%, and Palantir Technologies rose 3.4%, for example.

For the second worry that’s been dogging Wall Street, Thursday’s jobs report from the U.S. government also offered some relief.
Financial markets seemed to pick the data apart for encouraging signals, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. The report showed hiring by U.S. employers was stronger in September than economists expected, which may suggest the economy remains solid. But it also said the unemployment rate worsened slightly, which could give the Fed reason to cut its main interest rate at its next meeting in December.

Traders still see a December rate cut as relatively unlikely, giving it a roughly 44% probability, according to data from CME Group. But that’s better than the 30% chance they saw a day earlier, before the September jobs report.

What the Fed does is critical for the stock market because prices ran to records in part because of expectations for continued cuts to rates. The Fed has already cut rates twice this year to shore up the slowing job market. But lower rates can also worsen inflation, which has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

Lower interest rates give a boost to all kinds of investments, but stocks of smaller companies can get an extra boost because of the need for many to borrow cash to grow. The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index jumped 2.2% for one of the market’s bigger gains.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Walmart rallied 6.3% after the retailer delivered another standout quarter. It reported strong sales and profits that blew past Wall Street expectations as it continues to lure cash-strapped Americans nervous about the economy and prices.

Walmart also said Thursday that it will be moving the listing of its stock to the Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange. It will keep trading under the same ticker symbol “WMT.”

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.11% from 4.13% late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rallied across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.6%, and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.9% for two of the bigger gains.