US stocks whipsawed Thursday as investors digested Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings and a more than 6% tumble from Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) amid a Department of Justice move to break up its empire.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained more than 500 points, or 1.2% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) pared earlier losses to hover near the flatline.
Investors gravitated towards Industrials (XLI) and Financials (XLF) while selling off Big Tech.
Nvidia beat on profit in the third quarter, but the chipmaker forecast its slowest revenue growth in seven quarters as it noted supply chain issues. Those constraints will limit deliveries of the new flagship Blackwell chip, the company said — but will also lead to demand outstripping supply into 2026.
That suggests a revenue boost is just being pushed down the road until the issues ease, some analysts suggested, given the dearth of sizable competitors in AI chipmaking.
Shares seesawed early Thursday, with Nvidia initially opening at an intraday record before erasing those gains. At last check, the stock was down about 1%.
Elsewhere in tech, Alphabet’s slide came after the DOJ asked a judge to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser.
On the macroeconomic front, weekly jobless claims released on Thursday morning came in at 213,000, a decline from the prior week. Investors are weighing the Federal Reserve’s appetite for interest rate cuts. Traders are now pricing in a 44% chance of the Fed holding pat at its December meeting, up from about 28% a week ago, per the CME FedWatch tool.
Investors are also on alert for Donald Trump to end the drawn-out wait for his Treasury secretary pick as they assess the likely impact of the president-elect’s Cabinet choices on prospects for the economy.
Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) briefly climbed to a fresh all-time high just above $98,000. The biggest cryptocurrency is closing in on the key $100,000 milestone amid reports that Trump’s team is debating whether to appoint a White House crypto policy chief.
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