by David French

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Thursday, with the S&P-500 and the Dow Jones setting records, in the wake of investor appetite for high-growth stocks and technologies after the solid results and forecasts from Nvidia, heavyweights in terms of artificial intelligence.

The Dow Jones index gained 1.18%, or 456.87 points, to 39,069.11 points.

The broader S&P-500 gained 105.23 points, or 2.11%, to 5,087.03 points.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced 460.75 points (2.96%) to 16,041.62 points.

Communicating its quarterly results on Wednesday after the close, Nvidia beat Wall Street’s expectations and also indicated that it anticipated a quarterly turnover multiplied by three over the January-March period, thanks to strong demand for its cutting-edge chips. used for artificial intelligence (AI).

The semiconductor maker’s results were anxiously awaited by the market, which saw them as a test of the enthusiasm around AI that served as a catalyst for the S&P-500 to take the index this month to – above 5,000 points for the first time in its history.

Some analysts had warned that disappointing results from Nvidia could cause a sharp decline in technology stocks.

Instead, Nvidia jumped 16.4% during the session and guided the S&P-500 and the Dow Jones to records, which exceeded 39,000 points for the first time. The S&P-500 recorded its biggest one-day gain in 13 months.

“Nvidia’s entire press release provides a foundation of credibility to other AI and technology companies, because it is clear that Nvidia and AI will be here for the long term,” commented Andre Bakhos, president of Nvidia. ‘Ingenium Analytics.

Nvidia’s valuation jumped $277 billion during the session, the largest single-day gain by a company in Wall Street history – the previous record was set earlier this month by Meta Platforms with $196 billion.

On the sidelines of the final stretch of the results season, investors took note of the minutes of the January meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed), published on Wednesday, which shows that the officials of the American central bank were concerned by the risk of lowering rates prematurely.

These “minutes” gave credence to the hypothesis that the Fed will wait until June to ease its monetary policy.

Data released today showed that weekly jobless claims in the United States fell unexpectedly, suggesting tension in the labor market.

With the exception of public services, down 0.8%, all of the eleven major sectors of the S&P-500 ended the session in the green, led by the technology sector, which gained 4.4%.

Several semiconductor manufacturers have moved forward in Nvidia’s wake, such as Advanced Micro Devices, Super Micro Computer and Arm Holdings.

Large technology stocks like Alphabet and Microsoft also advanced.

Moderna jumped 13.5% after surprising investors by reporting a fourth-quarter profit. Rivian fell 25.6% following lower-than-expected 2024 production forecasts, amid slowing demand for electric vehicles.

(Written by Jean Terzian)

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