U.S. stocks rose after Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and gave a positive outlook.
Dow futures rose 24 points, or 0.07%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5%.
Trading has been choppy this week with the major averages mostly wavering around the flat line, but the S&P and Nasdaq are still on track for a positive week and are sitting less than 1% from their records. The Dow is 1.7% from its record.
Nvidia shares popped more than 8% in premarket trading after beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results and issued a bullish revenue forecast for the current quarter ending in January. The chipmaker reporter a 55% gain in data center sales from the same period a year ago and its biggest market, gaming, reported a 42% sales increase.
Those gains helped lift other chip stocks in early morning trading. Advanced Micro Devices gained 2% while Skyworks and Micron Technology added more than 1%.
Shares of Macy’s jumped 11% and Kohl’s shares added 7%, after both companies smashed quarterly profit and revenue estimates. Big retailers’ quarterly results have been on a roll this week, though some stocks like Walmart and Target haven’t shown that in their price action. Nevertheless, most major retailers have reported same-store sales gains from the previous year and investors are optimistic going into the holiday shopping season.
Elsewhere, Deere & Company saw shares rise more than 1% after it came to a resolution with workers who had been on strike since Oct. 14.
Dow component Boeing also saw its shares rise another almost 2% following on upgrade from JPMorgan, which said the aerospace giant has significant upside as it clears up several issues that have dogged the company.
Going in the other direction, Cisco Systems fell 5% due to weaker revenue guidance and a revenue miss. Kraft Heinz shares also dropped more than 2% after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 211 points, dragged down by a 4.7% loss in Visa shares. The S&P 500 dipped 0.26%. The Nasdaq Composite ticked 0.33% lower, despite most mega-cap technology companies closing in the green.
The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 was the relative underperformer on Wednesday, dropping 1.2%.
“Recent economic reports remain strong, but today’s stock market action highlights that it is already discounting another Covid cycle,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for Leuthold Group.
“Concerns about Covid also caused the 10-year bond yield to decline for the first time in 6 days and kept downward pressure on commodity prices including another sizable drop in crude oil prices. If inflation keeps rising while another Covid surge again stalls real economic activity, we may find out how the stock market handles a pseudo-stagflationary episode,” he added.
A slew of retail earnings moved several names on Wednesday. Lowe‘s and TJX Companies gained after reporting better-than-expected results. Target shares dipped despite strong earnings.
Investors await more retail earnings on Thursday with Applied Materials and Palo Alto Networks reporting after the bell.
The Labor Department will report last week’s jobless claims data at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting initial filings for unemployment insurance fell to 260,000 for the week ending November 13, from the previous week’s 267,000 claims.
