Wall Street at Record Levels, Focus on Nvidia

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices reached all-time highs on Thursday as technology stock prices surged following better-than-expected earnings results from Nvidia.

The Dow Jones rose 1.18 percent to 39,069 points, while the S&P 500 jumped 2.11 percent to 5,087 points, and the Nasdaq index increased by 2.96 percent to 16,041 points. The new record levels of the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices are attributed to strong stock price growth in almost all sectors, particularly in technology, averaging 4.4 percent.

The market euphoria followed Nvidia’s report of higher-than-expected revenues and earnings in the last fiscal quarter and its forecast that revenues would rise significantly in the current quarter. As a result, Nvidia’s stock price soared more than 16 percent, increasing the company’s market value by $277 billion. This marks the largest single-day increase in market value for any company in Wall Street history.

Due to Nvidia’s results, which show that demand for artificial intelligence chips is extremely strong, stock prices of several other chip manufacturers also rose. The chip sector index jumped 5 percent, reaching record levels.

The positive market sentiment also boosted stock prices in most other sectors. Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 index, prices only fell in utilities. Consequently, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices recorded their largest daily gains in a year.

Positive sentiment in European and Asian Markets

Stock prices also rose on European exchanges yesterday. The London FTSE index increased by 0.29 percent to 7,684 points, while the Frankfurt DAX jumped 1.47 percent to 17,370 points, and the Paris CAC rose 1.27 percent to 7,911 points.

On most Asian exchanges, positive sentiment prevailed on Friday, riding the wave of euphoria surrounding technology stocks, while on the foreign exchange markets, due to a holiday in Japan, there were no significant fluctuations in currency rates amid lower trading volumes.

MSCI Asia-Pacific index was up 0.5 percent around 6:00 AM, reaching its highest level since March 2022.

Most Asian exchanges are in the green, with the Australian ASX 200 up 0.43 percent and the South Korean Kospi up 0.16 percent. The Tokyo exchange is closed today due to a holiday, while Chinese exchanges stagnated with a negative sign.

Chinese exchanges, however, lack the strength to continue rising today, as data showed a decline in new property prices in China in January, marking the seventh consecutive month of decline. Despite this, the Shanghai stock index is on track for a weekly gain of over four percent.

On the foreign exchange markets, trading was modest on Friday, and rates did not show significant fluctuations as the Japanese market was closed.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the US dollar against six major world currencies, stood at 103.91 points on Friday, a slight increase of 0.06 percent compared to the previous day. Meanwhile, the euro exchange rate was 1.0823 dollars, a modest decrease of 0.09 percent from the previous day, and the yen exchange rate was 150.48 yen per dollar, or 0.13 percent lower.