By STAN CHOE (AP Business Writer)
NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks are climbing Thursday following another blowout earnings report from Nvidia, as euphoria builds only higher for the profit potential of artificial intelligence.
The S&P 500 was up 0.4% in early trading and on track to top its record set earlier this week. Technology stocks were leading the way, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher and likewise on pace for another all-time high, as of 9:38 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, was lagging the market and down 129 points, or 0.3%.
Nvidia soared 9.2% after it delivered its latest knockout profit report late on Wednesday. Its revenue surged 262% in the latest quarter from a year earlier, and its profit leaped an eye-popping 629%. The company’s chips are helping to train AI systems, and demand for them has been voracious.
Nvidia also increased its dividend as its CEO, Jensen Huang, touted how “the next industrial revolution has begun.”
Concern has grown that Wall Street’s frenzy around the potential for AI has created a bubble where prices have grown too high and expectations have become too tough. But the continued skyrocketing growth for Nvidia, which has grown into one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks, helped lift others only further.
AMD rose 3.7%, along with other chip companies rose. Super Micro Computer, which sells server and storage systems used in AI and other computing, jumped 10.6%.
News Corp. rose 1.3% after it announced a deal to bring its content from The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and other news businesses to OpenAI.
They helped to more than offset a 9.8% drop for VF Corp., the company behind The North Face, Vans, Timberland and other brands. It reported a loss for the latest quarter, along with weaker revenue than analysts expected.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were holding relatively steady following the latest report to show the U.S. job market remains solid despite high interest rates. Fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, an indication that layoffs remain relatively low.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.42% from 4.43% late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Federal Reserve, edged up to 4.88% from 4.87%.
The Fed is trying to pull off the difficult feat of slowing the economy enough through high interest rates to get inflation fully under control but not so much that it forces a painful recession.
Hope has been growing on Wall Street that such a feat is possible, with many even looking for a scenario where not even a slowdown for the economy occurs.
In stock markets abroad indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.3% in part on strength for semiconductor-related companies following Nvidia’s powerful profit report. Indexes fell 1.7% Hong Kong and 1.3% in Shanghai amid questions about whether a fresh flurry of policies to help China’s troubled property sector will suffice to end the industry’s crisis.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.