Wall St gains on Nvidia boost, caution sets in ahead of Powell speech
By Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) — Wall Street's main indexes rose on Thursday, following a stellar forecast from chip designer Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) though caution ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech later this week kept gains in check.
The chip designer late on Wednesday forecast quarterly revenue that far exceeded expectations, boosting investor confidence in an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and said it would buy back $25 billion in stock.
Shares of Nvidia were last up only 3%, slipping from a fresh record high of $502.66 earlier in the session, with some analysts pointing to profit-taking after a strong run of gains heading into the second-quarter results.
«When you look at an equity that's up 220% on a year to date basis, there's always room for profit taking,» said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
Nvidia's results also lifted Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which were up 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively. Both companies have been rushing to incorporate generative AI into their web search platforms.
However, shares of other technology-linked stocks such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) reversed course from premarket moves, falling between 0.6% and 1.7%.
Investors were hoping that Nvidia results would revive a rally in broader stock markets which had stalled recently due to concerns about interest rates staying higher for longer.
A Labor Department report showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits stood at 230,000 for the week ended Aug. 19, against expectations of 240,000 as polled by Reuters, suggesting a still-tight labor market.
Separate data showed new orders for key
Read more on investing.com
