Stocks moved higher Thursday morning as investors digested a strong earnings report from AI investor favorite Nvidia and a federal court decision to strike down most of the Trump administration’s tariffs.
The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite were recently up 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average tacked on 0.2%. The major indexes finished slightly lower on Wednesday as investors braced for the highly anticipated quarterly results from Nvidia (NVDA), which has become the poster child for the AI boom.
Shortly after the closing bell yesterday, Nvidia reported that its fiscal first-quarter revenue surged 69% from the year-ago period to $44 billion, while CEO Jensen Huang said that demand remains “incredibly strong” and is likely to accelerate as AI adoption becomes mainstream.
Nvidia shares jumped more than 5% this morning, trading at their highest level in three months and pacing broader gains for mega-cap tech companies. Tesla (TSLA) was up 2%, while Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta Platforms (META) and Broadcom (AVGO) also advanced. With its gains this morning, Nvidia has surpassed Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
Market participants are also closely tracking developments on the trade front after a federal court said late Wednesday that President Donald Trump had overstepped his authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose massive tariffs on leading U.S. trade partners. Uncertainty about trade policy has roiled financial markets in recent months, though the stock market has largely recovered from its early-April tariff-related swoon as Trump has appeared to soften his stance.
Shares of Best Buy (BBY) were down more than 9% in recent trading, pacing S&P 500 decliners, after the electronics retailer cut its outlook due to the expected impact of tariffs. HP Inc. (HPQ) dropped 5% after the PC manufacturer lowered its full-year guidance, also citing the impact of trade-related costs. Among other noteworthy movers, Salesforce (CRM) shares were down 6% to lead Dow decliners after the cloud software giant reported its results.
Bitcoin was at $107,700 in recent trading, up from an overnight low of $106,800. The digital currency hit an all-time high of $112,000 last week, its first record since just before Trump’s inauguration in January.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of consumer and corporate loans, was at 4.45% this morning, down from 4.48% at yesterday’s close. The yield moved as high as 4.63% last week, its highest level in more than three months, amid rising concerns about the federal deficit as the GOP tax and spending bill moved through Congress.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was down 0.4% at 99.45.
Gold futures were up 0.4% at $3,310 per ounce, rebounding from two straight days of declines, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, slipped 1.4% to $60.95 per barrel, giving back the previous session’s gains.
