Nasdaq closes 1.7% higher Thursday as Nvidia's surge powers tech rally: Live updates

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 finished higher on Thursday as technology stocks rallied on the heels of a strong quarterly report from Nvidia.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq popped 1.71% to settle at 12,698.09, while the S&P climbed 0.88% to finish at 4,151.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 35.27 points, or 0.11%, to end at 32,764.65.

— Samantha Subin

With political leaders reportedly making progress on a debt ceiling deal, investors are underplaying the risk of other hurdles before any deal becomes officially, said Matthew Brenner, managing vice president of investments and product management at MissionSquare Retirement.

"The focus is on the deal, but it's not about the deal. It's about the vote," Brenner said. "While our baseline assumption is consistent with most market players that a deal will be ratified, we think that the risk of a problem with the vote is higher than the market is giving credit to right now."

Brenner pointed to a 2008 bailout package that was initially voted down in the House of Representatives as a historical analog of the risks facing the market.

— Jesse Pound

Nvidia's jaw-dropping quarter won't resolve some "worrisome divergences" occurring within broader markets, according to Wolfe Research's Rob Ginsberg.

"Not even their blowout quarter and guidance will be enough to stem the slowly deteriorating action we continue to see across the board," he wrote in a Wednesday note to clients.

These "worrisome divergences" include many equity, credit and commodity charts taking out key near-term supports. He also noted that both transports and the equal-weighted S&P sit on the precipice of some crucial levels.

— Samantha Subin

S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite traded 0.8% and 1.5% higher, respectively, as the final trading hour kicked off.

Elsewhere, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, or 63 points.

— Samantha Subin

Nvidia's upswing could bring the stock above $400 per share, according to Fairlead Strategies founder and managing partner Katie Stockton.

"The targeted objective that we can arrive at from this kind-of break out, we use something called a 'measured move projection,' [which] essentially assumes that the trajectory of the existing long-term uptrend will maintain itself," she told CNBC's "The Exchange" on Thursday, noting that bring Nvidia to an objective of about $409.

Nvidia stock added more than 25% on Thursday, bringing the company within reach of a $1 trillion market cap after a stellar quarterly print.

Stockton also added that Nvidia's big Thursday move could signal that the stock "might be overdone at least in the short-term."

— Brian Evans

The S&P 500 is up 8% on the year, with Thursday marking the 100th trading day of 2023. History shows the index has a strong full year when it finishes the 100th session with a year-to-date gain of more than 7%.

When the S&P 500 has risen more than 7% over the first 100 trading days in an average year going back to 1950, the index rallies another 9.4% over the balance of the year, for a total annual return of 23.6%. By comparison, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 9.8% annually since its inception in 1928, according to Investopedia.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read about how the index has performed historically when up that much.

— Alex Harring

While volatility in regional bank stocks remains much lower than it was several weeks ago, the stocks are once again underperforming as yields move higher.

Shares of PacWest Bancorp. fell about 6% on Thursday, while Western Alliance shed more than 1.9%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) slid 1%.

— Jesse Pound

The AI stock boom is new and narrow, meaning that there is not yet a major ETF that serves as a pure-play on the trend, but several funds are outperforming this year with a focus on AI and related areas, like robotics.

For example, the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ) had a total return of more than 27% entering Thursday, and the fund has added nearly 3% today thanks to its large weight in Nvidia.

Check out more AI ETFs on CNBC Pro.

— Jesse Pound

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has continued trading down in Thursday's session despite Nvidia's rally pulling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite up.

The 30-stock, blue-chip index was last down about 0.4%, while the broader S&P 500 added about 0.8%. Intel weighed on the Dow as the average's biggest laggard with an approximately 6.5% slide. Walgreens and Verizon also helped bring the Dow into negative territory as each slipped about 3%.

Less than a third of Dow members traded up in Thursday's session. All were up 1% or less, besides Microsoft, which gained almost 3.5%.

— Alex Harring

A key takeaway from Nvidia's blow-out forecast is what it has to say about data center demand, Andrew Rosivach, an analyst at Wolfe Research, wrote in a research note Thursday.

The size of Nvidia's data center unit now tops its gaming division, thanks to demand for AI chips. And CEO Jensen Huang said data center operators are retooling computing infrastructure to address AI opportunities as we speak.

"We wish we could quantify the importance to data center REITs, but it would appear the activity seen by NVDA would lead to increased workloads in a data centers, which would be positive for DLR and EQIX," he said.

Both Digital Realty Trust and Equinix shares are trading up more than 3% on Thursday.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

The S&P 500 tech sector jumped 4.2% on Thursday, putting it on pace for its biggest one-day gain since Nov. 30 — when it rallied 5%. The surge comes as investors cheered Nvidia's quarterly results and revenue guidance for the current quarter.

— Fred Imbert

Decliners at the New York Stock Exchange had the upper hand over advancers Thursday despite the gains seen in the S&P 500. Overall, roughly 2,000 NYSE-listed stocks traded lower while just 746 advanced. In other words, nearly three stocks fell for every advancer at the NYSE.

— Fred Imbert

Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden were close to a preliminary agreement to raise the debt ceiling on Thursday, according to a report from Reuters citing people familiar with the matter.

Progress between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pinned to $70 billion in discretionary spending, the report said.

— Brian Evans

Yields on short-term Treasury bills momentarily popped to levels last seen more than two decades ago.

The rate on the 1-month T-bill jumped to a high of 6.09%, the highest level on record going back to 2001. Meanwhile, the yield on the 6-month T-bill jumped to 5.48%, the highest level dating back to Jan. 3, 2001.

By mid-morning Thursday, the rates on these short-term Treasurys came off their lows. The 1-month T-bill yielded 5.736% and the 6-month T-bill inched back to 5.462% around 11:40 a.m. ET.

The recent spike in short-term Treasury yields occurs as tense debt ceiling negotiations in Washington continue. Rating agency Fitch added fuel to the fire late Wednesday by placing the United States' AAA status on "rating watch negative."

-Darla Mercado, Gina Francolla

Gold fell to its lowest level in two months as hopes of a debt ceiling deal weakened demand for bullion. U.S. gold futures hit a low of 1,939.2, or the lowest level since March 22nd when gold traded as low as 1,936.5.

Gold is lower by 1.7% this week, headed for its third straight week of losses. It's down 2.62% this month, on pace for its first down month in three.

— Sarah Min, Gina Francolla

The 3% bump in Best Buy shares is a big sigh of relief from investors, says Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem. He noted that sentiment was weak heading into the report, but in-line same-store sales and an improving quarter to date was welcome news. That said, he cut his fiscal year estimates and plans to stay on the sidelines.

Another note of caution: the retailer is once again revamping its membership program, shifting into three tiers, cutting costs and altering the benefits. That's a sign the model wasn't working, Fadem said.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Nvidia's mind-blowing rally Thursday NVDA is helping to hold up the entire U.S. stock market. How so? Consider:

1. According to FactSet, NVDA is responsible for all of the S&P 500's gains and nearly 90% of the Nasdaq-100's advance. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average — which isn't graced with NVDA's presence —is lower and underperforming the rest of the market. (Intel is in the Dow and is off by almost 6% Thursday.)

2. If NVDA were in the Dow, it would be pushing up the average by 525 points all by itself (77 x 6.8).

3. In the first 20 minutes of trading Thursday, NVDA volume surpassed an entire average day (40 million shares). That totaled more than $15 billion worth of shares.

4. Only seven months ago, Nvidia closed at a two-year low of $112. Since then it has soared a staggering 235%. No S&P 500 stock has come close over that span, with Facebook-parent Meta, for example, the second best, jumping 97%.

— Robert Hum, Scott Schnipper

Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins thinks the central bank where it stop increasing interest rates.

In a speech delivered Thursday to graduates from the Community College of Rhode Island, Collins indicated she's seeing "signs of moderation" from inflation that could negate the need for future hikes.

"I believe we may be at, or near, the point where monetary policy can pause raising interest rates. This will provide an opportunity to more fully assess the impact of the actions taken to date and the general tightening of credit conditions on economic activity," she said in prepared remarks.

Markets pricing, however, has shifted, with the expectation now that the Fed will raise a quarter percentage point by the July meeting.

—Jeff Cox

Multiple semiconductor ETFs reached new 52-week highs Thursday morning, led by Nvidia shares rallying more than 24% following its earnings and current quarter forecast announcement.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF was up 6.5% Thursday, on pace for its strongest day of the year back to Nov. 10, 2022. The iShares Semiconductor ETF was up 4.4%.

The broader Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) Fund also gained 2.3% and reached a new 52-week high.

— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla

Vipshop shares rose 0.6% Thursday following an upgrade from JPMorgan.

The bank upgraded the stock to overweight following Vipshop's first-quarter earnings announcement earlier in the week.

"We believe Vipshop (VIPS) will be the best defensive play in the China ecommerce space in the next six months on earnings visibility/upside risks … and the share price correction over the past week (-13% vs. KWEB -6%) offers an entry point for investors," analyst Andre Chang wrote in a Thursday note. 

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about his upgrade here.

— Hakyung Kim

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.6% and 1.5%, respectively, to start the trading day. The Dow, meanwhile, dipped about 100 points.

— Fred Imbert

In the wake of Nvidia's near one-third increase in market value premarket Thursday, Wall Street is betting on these other semiconductor manufacturers in the early going, looking only at stocks in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

These are some of the gainers:

Advanced Micro Devices +9%
Monolithic Power Systems +8%
Taiwan Semiconductor +7%
Marvell +7%
ASML, Coherent +5% 

— Scott Schnipper

The largest stocks in the market are driving positive returns for investors even as the "average stock" struggles, Strategas strategist Chris Verrone said in a note to clients on Thursday.

"Roughly 4x as many issues in the Russell 1000 traded to a relative low (118 names) vs. relative high (29 names) yesterday, yet remarkably the combined market-cap of each group was about the same. Again it speaks to the concentration of performance at the top and the indifference from the 'average stock' – also evident with just 33% of S&P constituents above the 50-day and only 43% above the 200-day average," Verrone said.

With Nvidia surging in premarket trading, the market could look even more concentrated after Thursday.

— Jesse Pound

The U.S. economy grew more than previously thought in the first quarter, according to a revision Thursday from the Commerce Department.

Gross domestic product from January through March rose at a 1.3% annualized pace, 0.2 percentage point above the first estimate. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a 1.1% reading.

The upward revision came primarily from an adjustment in private inventory investment.

In other economic news, initial jobless claims totaled 229,000 for the week ended May 20, below the estimate for 245,000 but an increase of 4,000 from the previous reading's downward revision.

Another report showed that economic activity in the U.S. expanded further in April, according to a gauge from the Chicago Federal Reserve. The National Activity Index rose to 0.07, from -0.37 in March. A reading above -0.35 is considered a sign of expansion.

RBC Capital Markets upgraded Toll Brothers shares to outperform from sector perform in a Thursday note, citing "overly negative" sentiment around the stock.

"We expect outsized order growth through 1Q′24 given easy comps, while we also view TOL's long land bank as providing a margin advantage," said analyst Mike Dahl.

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers' shares gained 1.3% Thursday before the bell.

To read more about the upgrade, click here.

— Hakyung Kim

Several Wall Street research firms cheered Nvidia's latest quarterly report, which included a stronger-than-expected outlook, by raising their estimates on the chipmaker.

Nvidia shares were up more than 27% Thursday during premarket trading.

JPMorgan set its price target to $500 on Wednesday, double its previous estimate and among the highest out of the big banks.

CNBC Pro subscribers read more about the various upgrades here.

— Hakyung Kim

Best Buy gained more than 4% in premarket trading after the company posted first-quarter financial results that were about in line with analysts' estimates.

The electronics retailer posted earnings of $1.15 per share excluding items on revenues of $9.47 billion. Analysts expected $1.11 per share in earnings on revenues of $9.52 billion, according to Refinitiv.

The company missed sales estimates and reiterated expectations for weaker spending on consumer electronics this year. It also affirmed the outlook it shared in March. It expects full-year revenue of between $43.8 billion and $45.2 billion, a decline from its most recent fiscal year, and a comparable sales decline of between 3% and 6%.

— Melissa Repko, Tanaya Macheel

Traders at JPMorgan think investors are better off not being too exposed to the stock market.

"Even aside from the debt ceiling issue, we maintain that the risk-reward for equities is poor given elevated risk of recession, stretched valuations, high rates and tightening liquidity, and we favor cash over equities at the former's ~5% yields," they wrote.

"A divergence remains between rates markets that expect the Fed to cut this year, equity markets that interpret those potential cuts as positive for risk, and the Fed's more hawkish rhetoric," they added. "This gap is likely to close at the expense of equities, as rate cuts will likely only transpire from a risk off event, and if rates stay higher they should weigh on equity multiples and economic activity."

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

European stocks extended the previous session's sharp losses early Thursday, with the Stoxx 600 index 0.13% lower.

Sectors were mixed, with technology 1.65% higher but few other gains. Media and retail stocks led losses, both down around 1.2%.

Germany's DAX fell 0.4% after statistics showed the country entered a technical recession in the first quarter. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 lost 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively.

— Jenni Reid

Reserve Bank of New Zealand's governor Adrian Orr said the current interest rate of 5.5% will be "sufficiently restrictive" to bring down the country's inflation to its target of 1-3%.

The central bank on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.5% while indicating that rates will be on hold at the current rate.

Reuters added that the central bank signaled that the RBNZ's rate hikes are done with its hiking cycle.

Orr told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia," explained that "central banks will never say [they're] done."

"What we're saying is our projection ahead is for a very flat 5.50% Official Cash Rate for the foreseeable future. But we retain options," Orr said.

He said that New Zealand's inflation expectations and economic growth is slowing, and "that gives us confidence that we can watch worry and wait, hopefully, and achieve our inflation target."

Despite the country's inflation rate standing at 6.7% in March, Orr predicts that inflation will reach 3% by the middle of 2024, and then to 2% by the middle of 2025.

"From now on, we hope to see headline CPI inflation to continue to fall and the economy achieve a relatively soft landing, although it probably won't feel like that for most people, because we like to spend," he quips.

— Lim Hui Jie

The Bank of Korea is expected to start cutting its benchmark interest rate early next year, Deutsche Bank's head of APAC Economic Research Juliana Lee said.

Lee added that she expects the central bank's policy pivot to come in tandem with the U.S. Federal Reserve.

"There are some signs that it's (exports) have hit the bottom in terms of contraction, but in terms of the rebound, we're not expecting until the fourth quarter, hence why we have a more bearish view" for growth than the central bank, Lee told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia."

Lee added that she expects the South Korean won to remain widely unchanged until the central bank starts cutting rates.

— Jihye Lee

The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate for the third consecutive time at 3.50% on Thursday.

The decision was in line with a consensus forecast by economists surveyed by Reuters that expected the central bank to pause.

The central bank governor earlier this month told CNBC that it was 'premature' to be discussing a rate cut, citing inflation rates in the nation that are still above the Bank of Korea's target of 2%.

South Korea is slated to release its consumer price index for May next Friday.

— Jihye Lee

Dow futures briefly slipped by about 100 points, or 0.3%, around 6:40 p.m. ET.

Top losers in the index include Cisco Systems, which fell 0.95%, and Intel, which dropped 0.9%.

Prior to the action, Fitch placed the United States' AAA rating on negative watch, citing debt ceiling brinksmanship around the debt ceiling negotiations and the approaching X-date, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said could be as early as June 1.

-Darla Mercado

Check out the companies making headlines after hours.

• Nvidia — Nvidia shares surged 19% in extended trading. The chipmaker gave stronger-than-expected revenue guidance for the fiscal second quarter, while also reporting beats on the top and bottom lines in its fiscal first quarter. The stock has already more than doubled this year.
• Snowflake — Snowflake tumbled 11% after hours. The cloud computing company gave weaker-than-expected second-quarter product revenue guidance, according to StreetAccount. Snowflake beat analysts' expectations for earnings and revenue in the first quarter, per Refinitiv.
• American Eagle Outfitters — Shares slid 15% after American Eagle Outfitters said it expects second-quarter revenue to fall in the low single digits, instead of up 1.6%, according to consensus expectations from Refinitiv. The clothing retailer reported a mixed quarter, with per-share earnings coming in line with estimates, while revenue beat expectations.

Read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

Based on extended trading Wednesday, Nvidia's market cap neared $1 trillion after its strong earnings report.

The AI beneficiary hit $975 billion, adding $220 billion during the after-hours trading session. That's about the entire market cap of Advanced Micro Devices alone. As of Wednesday's close, AMD's market cap was $174 billion. Meanwhile, Salesforce is worth $209 billion.

Investors should be aware that even though Nvidia shares surged 26% in after-hours trading, there is no guarantee that those gains will carry into regular trading Thursday morning and result in a real market cap of that magnitude.

For Nvidia, the earnings beat was its biggest since May 2018, and its biggest revenue beat since November 2017.

— Robert Hum, Sarah Min

Nasdaq 100 futures rallied Wednesday night after a strong earnings beat from Nvidia.

Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 1.7%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.66%.

— Sarah Min