4:12pm: Alphabet’s DOJ troubles weigh on tech
The Dow Jones rose over 450 points (1.1%), leading gains to finish at 43,870 points. Meanwhile the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to reach 5,949 and the Nasdaq ended slightly positive at 18,972 after recovering earlier losses.
Investors reacted to Nvidia's earnings and Alphabet's decline following the Department of Justice's push to break up the company.
Nvidia's modest guidance beat fell short of investor expectations for larger surprises, but the stock rebounded to close 0.5% above opening levels.
CEO Jensen Huang reaffirmed confidence in the artificial intelligence (AI) market, highlighting that demand continues to outpace supply in the early stages of the generative AI revolution.
3:30pm: Nvidia’s AI leadership intact, BofA says
Bank of America reiterated its 'Buy' rating and $190 price objective for Nvidia, citing the company’s dominant position in AI infrastructure despite delivering fourth-quarter guidance that fell short of bullish investor expectations.
While fiscal third-quarter results were solid, Nvidia’s Q4 revenue forecast of $37.5 billion, slightly above consensus, disappointed those anticipating closer to $40 billion.
Still, Bank of America views the long-term outlook as strong, driven by Nvidia’s leadership in transitioning $1 trillion in legacy infrastructure to accelerated systems and free cash flow potential exceeding $200 billion across 2025 and 2026.
Analysts highlighted sustained demand for Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs, which is expected to outstrip supply for several quarters, and resilient sales of Hopper chips. Gross margins are projected to dip to the low 70% range during the Blackwell ramp but recover to the mid-70s in fiscal 2026.
1:55pm: Antitrust worries have resurfaced for Alphabet
Alphabet shares continued to be weighed down after US regulators pushed for the giant to divest its Chrome search engine.
"Combined with last night’s Nvidia earnings, which surprisingly failed to lift a stock that has gained 50% in almost three months, the news has been enough to prevent the Nasdaq and S&P 500, with its heavy tech weighting, joining in the gains by the Dow and the small cap Russell 2000," said Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at online trading platform IG.
"Crypto stocks like Coinbase have also suffered a check after recent strong gains.”
12:50pm: Wall Street heads into the green
Markets headed into the green by midday as investors reacted to Nvidia's (NVDA) earnings and a more than 6% drop in Alphabet following a Department of Justice move to break up its business.
The Dow Jones rose around 1.3%, the S&P 500 added 0.6%, and the Nasdaq reached opening levels despite tech stocks weighed on the index.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims fell to 213,000, signaling a stronger labor market. Meanwhile, traders are increasingly betting the Federal Reserve will maintain current interest rates at its December meeting, with odds rising to 44%, up from 28% a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Investors are also watching for updates on Donald Trump's Treasury secretary pick, assessing the potential economic implications of his Cabinet choices.
11:40am: Home sales still below pre-pandemic rates
Sale of existing homes in October rose over 3% from last month, but the pace of sales is still significantly below pre-pandemic rates, noted Jeffery Roach of LPL Financial.
Housing affordability improved in October, surpassing a value of 100 for the first time since early March, indicating that a buyer with a median income can now qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home. Despite this improvement, consumers face limited options due to the continued low supply of available homes on the market. Investors accounted for 17% of total purchases, slightly higher than the same period last year, while the share of all-cash deals fell to 27% from 30% in September, though it remains elevated.
"The residential market has some headwinds from low supply and high borrowing costs, but the rise in consumer wealth has allowed more households afford the median priced home," Roach commented.
10.22am: Nvidia drops, but reaction ‘unusually mild’
NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD) investors appeared to refrain from any major reaction to the chip-making giant’s Wednesday evening third-quarter earnings.
While shares were down 0.8% as Wall Street trading got into full flow on Thursday, XTB analyst Kathleen Brooks highlighted the reaction had been “unusually mild” for Nvidia.
“The average move in Nvidia’s share price in the day after earnings has been 8% in the last eight quarters,” she pointed out.
Earnings and revenue came in ahead of expectations for the quarter, though guidance for the final three months of the year had appeared to threaten sentiment.
“The company’s conservative forecast for [fourth quarter] revenues could be a deliberate attempt to lower the bar and make outperformance more likely down the line,” Brooks added.
“Or, it could be a sign that the company is concerned about supply constraints that could limit their ability to fulfil all the demand for Blackwell chips.
“This may explain the market’s lukewarm reaction to these results.”
Nasdaq was down 0.5% on Thursday morning, while the Dow Jones added 0.4% and S&P 500 moved slightly higher.
9.57am: Wall Street off to mixed start
Wall Street faced a mixed start on Thursday as NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD) shares struggled for direction following its latest earnings.
The Nasdaq fell 0.3% in early trading, as the S&P 500 also dipped below the mark, but the Dow Jones gained 0.2%
Nvidia investors appeared to be weighing the company’s Wednesday after-hours results, as shares bounced between positive and negative territory on the market's open.
Shares were up 0.3% early on, having fallen below the mark initially and after a drop overnight in the wake of the third-quarter update.
Elsewhere, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) was among the big fallers following confirmation the Department of Justice had demanded subsidiary Google sell its Chrome web browser business.
The proposal was filed in court late on Wednesday in a bid to stop the technology giant from maintaining its online search monopoly after a landmark ruling earlier in the year, prompting shares to drop 4.8% as trading got underway.
8.52am: Warner Music strikes wrong note as shares fall on profit plunge
Warner Music Group Corp (NASDAQ:WMG) fell over 4% in pre-market trading after unveiling an increase in revenue but a drop in profit for its fourth quarter.
Net income came in at $48 million for the quarter, down from $154 million a year earlier, the label for Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé and Cardi B reported.
Total revenue climbed by 3% on a constant currency basis in the meantime... Read more
Shares fell 4.1% to $32.29 ahead of Thursday’s open.
8.44am: Jobless claims come in below expectations
New unemployment benefit claimant numbers across America fell last week, Department of Labor figures showed on Thursday.
Some 213,000 new initial claims were filed over the course of last week, marking a 6,000 decline on the previous week’s 219,000.
Expectations had been for 220,000 initial jobless claims, implying fewer layoffs than anticipated were made and in turn suggesting the US job market remains healthy.
However, the total number of those seeking unemployment benefits hit the highest level since November 2021, at 1,908,000 following a 36,000 increase.
8.30am: Wall Street set for gain as Nvidia reverses on decline
Futures had Wall Street heading higher ahead of Thursday’s open as jitters around NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD)’s earnings appeared to wear off.
Nvidia backtracked on a decline overnight to sit 1.1% higher before the bell, as investors mulled Wednesday’s post-market news of a 94% surge in third-quarter revenue to $35.1 billion.
The Nasdaq was seen climbing 0.3% as Thursday’s open approached, while futures had the Dow Jones and S&P 500 up 0.4% each.
8.24am: PDD slumps as Temu sales growth drops, costs climb
Temu owner PDD Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PDD) headed almost 10% lower in pre-market trading on Thursday after third-quarter figures showed slowing sales growth and surging costs.
Although year-on-year revenue ramped up 44% to 99.35 billion Chinese yuan ($14.16 billion), this was significantly lower than the 94% increase in revenues in the previous third quarter.
The revenue slowdown also came with a 39% increase in operating expenses, totalling more than $5 billion.
PDD’s finance vice president Jun Liu pointed to “intensified competition and ongoing external challenges” as responsible for further moderating growth over the quarter... Read more
Shares dipped 9.8% ahead of Thursday’s opening bell.
6.44am: Snowflake surges by a fifth as sales jump
Snowflake Inc shares soared by a fifth in pre-market trading after the cloud-based data-storage company impressed with third-quarter results.
Total sales reached $942.1 million in the quarter, representing a 28% year-over-year increase, the company reported overnight.
Snowflake remains heavily lossmaking though, having posted a $365.5 million loss at the operating income level due to elevated marketing and R&D costs... Read more
Shares gained 21.2% in pre-market trading.
5.54am: Wall Street to drop as Nvidia slides
Wall Street faced a negative start on Thursday in the wake of NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD) earnings, which saw the chip-making giant slip almost 3% in pre-market trading.
Futures had the Nasdaq down 0.4% ahead of the opening bell, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were seen 0.3% and 0.2% lower respectively.
Nvidia’s highly anticipated earnings after Wednesday’s close failed to drum up excitement, despite showing third-quarter revenue and earnings ahead of expectations once again.
Shares fell 2.9% in pre-market deals, with Nvidia having reported a 94% increase in revenue to $35.1 billion and jump in per-share earnings to $0.81 from $0.40.
Fourth quarter guidance of $37.5 billion in revenue “raised some concerns” though, according to Saxo analysts, which added “it could fall short” of expectations.
“Additionally, the rollout of its new Blackwell chips lacked specifics, with the company admitting supply issues that would prevent meeting demand in the near term,” Saxo said.
Attention on Wednesday turned to earnings from Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU), Deere & Company (NYSE:DE, ETR:DCO) and Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU, ETR:ITU).
US-listed shares in Chinese internet search provider Baidu slipped 3.2% ahead of Thursday’s open after third quarter figures showed a 3% drop in revenue as it grappled with soft advertising spend on the back of wider economic weakness.
Deere & Co and Intuit gained slightly in the meantime ahead of their updates.