The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose Thursday as investors poured into cyclical stocks poised to benefit from an accelerating economy and rotated out of technology shares.
The Dow gained 461.88 points, or 1.06%, to finish at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 added 0.53% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.03% gain to end at 18,972.42.
"This is the week where everyone is rethinking the Trump trade," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert. "People are taking it a little more seriously. It's not enough to just say 'we think the sector is going to do well' — you have to have some answers."
Some of Thursday's winners included bank stocks such as Goldman Sachs, industrials giant Caterpillar and retailer Home Depot. The Russell 2000 Index, viewed as a barometer for small companies and beneficiary of a possible boost to the economy from President-elect Donald Trump, added more than 1%.
Investors assessed results for artificial intelligence chip juggernaut Nvidia, which was up more than 190% this year into the results. Shares seesawed after the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and issued strong guidance. Some traders attributed earlier declines in the stock to slowing revenue growth from previous quarters, or concerns that the chipmaker didn't exceed the most optimistic guidance estimate. Shares ultimately ended the session higher by 0.5%.
"While Nvidia's story of huge beats has underscored the dramatic rise in AI growth, investors would be prudent to consider whether Nvidia out pacing estimates to such a degree is sustainable," said AXS Investments CEO Greg Bassuk.
Money Report
He expects the ongoing "tug-of-war" between bulls and bears to fuel potential volatility in the chipmaking stock.
Some other technology stocks felt the pressure. Amazon slumped 2.2%, while Alphabet declined nearly 5%, falling for a second session on antitrust fears. Snowflake was one bright spot in the sector, popping nearly 33% after the company topped Wall Street's estimates and lifted its product revenue guidance for the fiscal year. Salesforce rallied 3.1%.
Bitcoin also hit a fresh milestone, hitting a fresh intraday all-time high and crossing the $99,000 level for the first time as investors maintained their hopes that a second Trump presidency will usher in supportive regulation for the industry.
Stocks finish higher
Stocks finished higher Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 461.88 points, or about 1.1%, to finish at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 added 0.5% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.03% gain to end at 18,972.42.
— Samantha Subin
Communications services is the worst-performing S&P 500 sector
The S&P 500's communication services sector slumped 2.3% during afternoon trading, led to the downside by a 6% slump in shares of Alphabet amid mounting antitrust concerns.
Meta Platforms and Charter Communications were the only other negative stocks in the sector.
— Samantha Subin
Salesforce leads Dow's gains
Shares of Salesforce popped more than 5%. The software behemoth was the largest contributor to the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 600-point gain.
Goldman Sachs was another big winner, adding about 3%. Sherwin-Williams and Caterpillar also added nearly 3%, while Home Depot gained 2%.
— Samantha Subin
Nvidia, Baidu, Alphabet among stocks making biggest midday moves
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
- Nvidia — Shares of the chipmaker dipped about 1% in midday trading, after gyrating earlier in the session. Nvidia beat on top and bottom lines for the third quarter, posting adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share on revenue of $35.08 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had called for earnings of 75 cents per share on $33.16 billion in revenue. Nvidia also gave a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter.
- Baidu — U.S. shares of the Chinese search engine fell about 5% after Baidu's third-quarter revenue declined by 3% compared with the year-ago period. Still, the company posted a 12% increase in its non-online marketing revenue, fueled mostly by growth in its artificial intelligence cloud business.
- Alphabet — Shares declined 5% on news that the Department of Justice is pushing a federal judge to force Google to divest its Chrome internet browser in order to create a more level playing field for competitors in the search industry. That follows a ruling in August that Google has a monopoly in the search market.
For the full list, read here.
— Pia Singh
Chicago Fed President Goolsbee sees rates 'a fair bit lower' ahead
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Thursday he is looking through recent fluctuations in employment and inflation data and still sees the need for interest rate cuts ahead.
"My view is that the long arc over the last year and a half shows inflation is way down and on its way to 2 percent. Labor markets have cooled to something close to stable full employment," he said in remarks before the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. "Things are getting close to where we want to settle on both counts."
As a result, he added, "It follows that we will probably need to move rates to where we think they should settle, too. We don't need to get to that place immediately, but if we look out over the next year or so, it feels to me like rates will end up a fair bit lower than where they are today."
However, Goolsbee added a note of caution, saying that in the face of potential uncertainty, "it may make sense to slow the pace of rate cuts as we get close."
Goolsbee will have a vote in 2025 on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
— Jeff Cox
AI and deep learning ETF headed toward strongest day in three months
The TrueShares Technology, AI & Deep Learning ETF (LRNZ) is up 3% Thursday, on pace for its best day since Aug. 13, when it advanced 3.9%.
Key movers in the ETF include Snowflake and MongoDB, which are up 28.8% and 13.1%, respectively. Snowflake is headed toward its largest daily gains since its IPO debut on Sept. 16, 2020, when it surged 111.6%.
— Hakyung Kim
Alphabet falls for a second day
Alphabet shares shed more than 6% as antitrust worries batter the tech giant for a second day.
This week, the Justice Department called for Google to divest its Chrome browser after a court ruled in August that the company has monopolized the search market.
"To remedy these harms, the [Initial Proposed Final Judgment] requires Google to divest Chrome, which will permanently stop Google's control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet," the filing said.
Shares were on track Thursday for their biggest one-day drop since Jan. 31, when they shed 7.5%.
— Fred Imbert, Jennifer Elias
Snowflake heads for best day ever, pops nearly 31%
Snowflake shares surged 31% and headed for their best day ever on the heels of a strong earnings report and product revenue outlook.
The data analytics software company topped Wall Street estimates, posting adjusted earnings of 20 cents per share on $942 million in revenue. That topped the 15 cents per share and $897 million in revenue expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
Snowflake said it expects product revenue for the 2025 fiscal year to reach $3.43 billion, up from a previous forecast calling for $3.36 billion.
— Samantha Subin
Leverage in crypto will result in correction for bitcoin, Novogratz says
Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday that the bitcoin rally will eventually give way to a correction.
"There's a ton of leverage in the system right now. ... The crypto community is levered to the gills, and so there will be a correction," Novogratz said.
The veteran crypto investor did say that he expected bitcoin to break through the $100,000 level, and the rally could continue beyond that point before the correction comes.
Bitcoin was trading at around $97,000 on Thursday morning.
— Jesse Pound
Stocks open higher on Thursday
Stocks opened in the green on Thursday, led by a turnaround in Nvidia's stock price.
The S&P 500 opened more than 0.3% higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed about 96 points, or 0.2%, shortly after the market open. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained nearly 0.5%, meanwhile.
— Pia Singh
Weekly initial jobless claims fall below forecast, signaling labor market is holding up
Initial weekly applications for unemployment insurance came in at 213,000 for the week ended Nov. 16, down from last week's revised 219,000 claims, the Department of Labor said. Wall Street economists' consensus estimate had been 220,000.
While the latest jobless claims numbers showed the labor market at least holding steady, if not strengthening, two other measures out Thursday may signal nascent economic weakness.
Continuing claims for jobless insurance climbed to 1.908 million from 1.872 million last week and 25,000 more than the Street's estimate of 1.883 million. And the Philadelphia Federal Reserve manufacturing index of activity in the region slowed to -5.5 in November against economists' estimate of +6.9 and October's +10.3.
— Scott Schnipper
Snowflake, Nvidia among the names making moves before the bell
Some stocks are making moves in the premarket:
- Snowflake – Shares surged more than 21% following the company's better-than-expected third-quarter results and strong guidance. Snowflake posted adjusted earnings of 20 cents per share on revenue of $942 million. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for 15 cents in earnings per share on revenue of $897 million.
- Palo Alto Networks – The cybersecurity stock fell 2% after the company issued fiscal second-quarter guidance largely in-line with expectations. Palo Alto Networks guided for adjusted earnings of $1.54 to $1.56 per share on revenue of $2.22 billion to $2.25 billion. That was roughly in line with the Street's forecast of $1.55 per share in earnings and $2.23 billion in revenue, per FactSet. Palo Alto also announced a 2-for-1 stock split.
- Nvidia – Shares of the chipmaker fell around 1% despite its third-quarter earnings results topping Wall Street's expectations. The company posted 81 cents in adjusted earnings per share on revenue of $35.08 billion, while analysts had penciled in 75 cents in earnings per share on revenue of $33.16 billion, according to LSEG.
Read here for the full list.
— Sean Conlon
William Blair downgrades Ulta Beauty
Ulta Beauty could have a long road to a full recovery in the cosmetics segment after management issued a "hard reset" of expectations last month, according to William Blair.
The firm downgraded the cosmetics stock to market perform from outperform in a Wednesday note.
"We also maintain that there is a longer-term risk embedded in the beauty category migration online, which is potentially in the most damning phase as it relates to retail cannibalization and drives heightened, more dynamic competition," analyst Dylan Carden said.
"At current valuation against what we believe is our more likely earnings outcome, we believe shares are relatively fairly valued ahead of several quarters of uncertainty with risk of more sustained category deceleration and longer-term online cannibalization risk," the analyst added.
— Brian Evans
Bitcoin hits a fresh record above $98,000
Bitcoin breached the $98,000 level for the first time Thursday as investors continued pricing in a second Donald Trump presidency.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency rose as high as $98,367.00 in early morning trading. Crypto exchange Coinbase advanced 3% premarket, while MicroStrategy, which trades as a bitcoin proxy, jumped 11%. Mining stocks rose as well, with Mara Holdings up 9%.
This move was triggered by a spike in funding rates and open interest on the futures market during Asia trading. Around the same time, premiums in spot markets fell, according to data from CryptoQuant. Bitcoin's recent climb has also triggered a wave of short liquidations – more than $88 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass – sending the price further up overnight.
— Tanaya Macheel
Nvidia shares drop 3% after earnings
Nvidia shares were down 3% in the premarket after the chipmaker reported fiscal third-quarter results.
The company earned an adjusted 81 cents per share on revenue of $35.08 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of 75 cents per share on revenue of $33.16 billion. To be sure, revenue growth slowed from previous quarters.
— Fred Imbert
European markets open flat
European stocks opened flat Thursday as global market sentiment dipped.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was marginally higher at 0.02% in opening trade, as major bourses and sectors diverged. Insurance stocks led gains, up 0.69%, while household goods dipped 0.62%.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index was 0.22% higher at 8,103, Germany's DAX up 0.16% at 19,034, France's CAC down 0.19% at 7,185 and Italy's FTSE MIB 0.13% lower at 33,202.
— Karen Gilchrist
Asia markets fall, with Adani Group companies plunging as investors assess Adani charges
Asia-Pacific markets fell Thursday, with investors watching tech shares in the region after chipmaker Nvidia reported better-than-expected results.
All eyes were also on Indian stocks related to billionaire Gautam Adani, after the chair of India's Adani Group was indicted with others in New York federal court on charges related to a massive bribery and fraud scheme.
Shares of Adani Group companies plunged, with flagship Adani Enterprises down 19%, while the company in the eye of the storm Adani Green Energy tanked 18.09%.
Most other markets in the region slipped, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.85% and leading losses in the region.
— Lim Hui Jie
Dow lags this week
With more than half of the trading week now in the rearview mirror, the Dow is on track to underperform.
The blue-chip index has shed 0.1% since Monday. On the other hand, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have risen 0.8% and 1.5%, respectively, week to date.
— Alex Harring
See the stocks making big moves after hours
These are some of the stocks making moves after hours:
- Nvidia — The artificial intelligence darling slid nearly 2% despite exceeding expectations for the third quarter and providing strong guidance.
- Snowflake — The cloud stock soared 18% after beating earnings expectations for the third quarter and issuing strong guidance.
- Jack in the Box — The restaurant chain tumbled 5.6% after revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter came in below expectations.
— Alex Harring
Stock futures are little changed
Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all near flat shortly after 6 p.m. ET.
— Alex Harring
