S&P Rises After Four Days of Decline, Nvidia Results Fuel Growth

On Wall Street, stock indices slightly rose on Wednesday after several days of decline, but trading was cautious as investors awaited Nvidia’s quarterly business results with caution and as Fed officials expressed concerns about elevated inflation.

The Dow Jones strengthened by 0.10 percent, to 46,138 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.38 percent, to 6,642 points, and the Nasdaq index increased by 0.59 percent, to 22,564 points.

After four days of decline, the S&P 500 rose yesterday mainly due to a correction in stock prices following a significant drop in previous days.

Investors were cautious as the minutes from the last meeting of the U.S. central bank showed that Fed officials are wary about further interest rate cuts, as lower borrowing costs could complicate the fight against inflation, which remains significantly above the targeted level of 2 percent.

Following the release of those minutes, stock indices slightly fell. However, they ended the day in positive territory as shares of several large technology companies recovered after several days of decline.

Among others, Nvidia’s stock price rose by nearly 3 percent.

After the close of Wall Street, in after-hours trading, the stock price rose a further 5 percent as the chip manufacturer reported higher revenues and earnings than analysts had expected.

Additionally, Nvidia provided estimates for revenues in the current quarter that were higher than anticipated.

As a result, the futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq index are currently up more than 1 percent, suggesting that their growth could continue into Thursday.

– “The market has breathed a sigh of relief as Nvidia’s results confirm that demand related to artificial intelligence is strong. If stock prices in the technology sector hold at these levels until the end of tomorrow’s trading, it could be said that the correction in that sector has ended,” says Adam Sarhan, director at 50 Park Investments in New York.

The technology sector has been on a strong upward trend for a long time, fueled by euphoria surrounding the development of artificial intelligence, but in recent weeks some investors have deemed technology stock prices too high, thus reallocating capital from that sector to others.

As a result, the S&P 500 index is currently down about 3 percent from its record level reached in October.

Meanwhile, European stock prices fell yesterday. The London FTSE index slid by 0.47 percent, to 9,507 points, while the Frankfurt DAX weakened by 0.08 percent, to 23,162 points, and the Paris CAC fell by 0.18 percent, to 7,953 points.

On most Asian exchanges, stock prices rose on Thursday, particularly in the technology sector, as investors were encouraged by better-than-expected business results from Nvidia.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific index, excluding Japan, was up 1.2 percent around 7:00 AM, moving away from its lowest level in a month. Meanwhile, stock prices in India, Australia, South Korea, and Japan rose between 0.3 and 2.8 percent. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, however, they fell by about 0.1 percent.