Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs on Thursday after artificial intelligence darling Nvidia forecast bumper revenue, stoking investor confidence that also boosted other growth stocks.
Nvidia’s shares surged 15% after the chip designer forecast a roughly three-fold surge in first-quarter revenue on strong demand for its AI chips and beat expectations for fourth-quarter revenue.
This pushed the benchmark S&P 500 up more than 2% to an all-time high of 5,087 points. The Dow Jones industrials also hit a record, jumping about 4500 points, or 1.1% to pass 39,000. The Nasdaq Composite surged 2.9%.
Nvidia’s earnings were a major test for the AI-fueled rally on Wall Street that first pushed the S&P 500 above the 5,000-point mark earlier this month. Some analysts had cautioned that disappointing results could spark a steep selloff among technology stocks.
“The whole package of Nvidia’s reporting lends a bedrock of credibility for other AI and technology companies as it clearly appears that Nvidia and AI are here to stay,” said Andre Bakhos, president at Ingenium Analytics.
Nvidia was set to add over $250 billion to its market capitalization if gains held, beating Meta Platform’s $196 billion surge earlier this month in the biggest one-day gain by any company in Wall Street history.
The benchmark index will finish this year above the 5,000 mark, according to strategists in a Reuters poll.
Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with technology stocks leading gains with a 3.8% jump.
The S&P 500 growth index rose 2.8%, headed for its biggest one-day percentage gain since November 2022.
Shares of other companies, seen as beneficiaries of the AI boost, also got a shot in the arm. Nvidia’s rival Advanced Micro Devices, server component supplier Super Micro Computer, and Arm Holdings jumped between 7.6% and 26%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index hit a record high, jumping 4.7%.
Big Tech and growth stocks such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms rose between 1.8% and 4%.
Meanwhile, investors’ bets are tilted towards June as the starting point for the first rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said Thursday he would be looking at the totality of incoming economic data in assessing the time for the central bank to begin cutting its benchmark policy rate.
Data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a tight labor market.
Rivian and Lucid fell 27.0% and 19.5%, respectively, after the electric vehicle startups forecast 2024 production well below analyst estimates on a slowdown in demand.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
