US close: Stocks higher following Nvidia earnings

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street stocks closed higher on Thursday as market participants thumbed over Q3 earnings from tech giant Nvidia. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.06% at 43,870.35, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.53% to 5,948.71 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.03% firmer at 18,972.42.

The Dow closed 461.88 points higher on Thursday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

Thursday's primary focus was on earnings from AI-darling Nvidia, with which the chipmaker beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines with its Q3 numbers. However, Nvidia shares still headed south, principally due to sky-high expectations for the world's largest company by market capitalisation.

On the macro front, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at a decelerated pace in the week ended 16 November, according to the Department of Labor. Initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 week-on-week to 213,000, the lowest reading since April and well and truly missing expectations for an increase to 220,000. The four-week moving average, which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,750 to 217,750, while the non-seasonally adjusted claim count fell by 17,750 to 213,035. Outstanding claims, on the other hand, rose to 1.90m - the highest reading seen for the last three years.

Elsewhere, the Philly Fed's manufacturing index unexpectedly declined to -5.5 in November, down from 10.3 in October and well below expectations for a reading of 8. This month's print marked the second negative reading since January, indicating that manufacturing activity had softened across the region. The new orders index came to 8.9 and the shipments index was 4.5, down from 14.2 and 7.4, respectively.

On another note, Existing home sales increased by 3.5% in October, according to the National Association of Realtors, up from September's 14-month low. Existing home sales hit a seasonally adjusted annualised rate of 3.96m in October, slightly ahead of market expectations for a reading of 3.93m. Existing home sales prices were also higher, up 4% at $407,200 to put a stop to a three-month-long streak of declining home prices.

Finally, the Kansas Fed's manufacturing activity index fell to -4 in November, down from a reading of 0 in October. New order volume fell to -9, while backlogs were unchanged month-on-month at -14.

In the corporate space, PayPal experienced a brief worldwide outage on Thursday after a "systems issue". Paypal said withdrawals, express checkout, cryptocurrency services, its peer-to-peer payments app, Venmo, and its foreign-currency division, Xoom, had all been affected.

In terms of Friday's earnings, Gap beat expectations with its Q3 results and raised its full-year guidance, while Intuit reported strong Q1 numbers on the back of solid AI-driven tool demand.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $222.40 3.63% Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $335.78 3.09% Home Depot Inc. (HD) $410.45 2.61% Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $100.03 2.48% Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $596.21 2.44% Nike Inc. (NKE) $75.10 2.37% Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $389.59 2.12% Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $44.78 2.00% American Express Co. (AXP) $293.00 1.84% Intel Corp. (INTC) $24.44 1.79%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Boeing Co. (BA) $143.41 -1.83% McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $288.44 -0.84% Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $412.87 -0.63% Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $597.49 -0.50% 3M Co. (MMM) $127.24 -0.41% Apple Inc. (AAPL) $228.52 -0.21% Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00% Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $57.56 0.10% Chevron Corp. (CVX) $161.63 0.19% Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $114.72 0.40%

S&P 500 - Risers

Deere & Co. (DE) $437.54 8.05% Gap Inc. (GAP) $22.04 6.89% Arista Networks Inc. (ANET) $404.97 6.09% Carmax Inc. (KMX) $80.82 5.18% Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $102.76 4.46% Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $73.13 4.40% Intuit Inc. (INTU) $678.70 4.32% Fluor Corp. (FLR) $54.72 4.17% Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $65.76 4.08% Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $136.99 4.03%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $167.63 -4.74% Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $169.24 -4.56% Transdigm Group Inc. (TDG) $1,238.45 -4.10% Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI) $8.16 -3.19% Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $198.38 -2.22% Boeing Co. (BA) $143.41 -1.83% American Airlines Group (AAL) $14.20 -1.80% Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) $52.30 -1.58% Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $383.84 -1.36% ConocoPhillips (COP) $111.90 -1.35%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $102.76 4.46% Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $73.13 4.40% Intuit Inc. (INTU) $678.70 4.32% Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $65.76 4.08% Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $136.99 4.03% Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) $5,210.92 3.88% PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $114.05 3.69% Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $268.07 3.33% Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $65.88 3.20% Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $175.75 3.09%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $81.63 -5.90% Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $167.63 -4.74% Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $169.24 -4.56% Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $198.38 -2.22% American Airlines Group (AAL) $14.20 -1.80% Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $383.84 -1.36% Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA) $338.78 -1.31% Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $8.84 -1.12% Incyte Corp. (INCY) $70.39 -0.93% Tesla Inc (TSLA) $339.64 -0.70%