Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on July 30, 2025.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The S&P 500 reached new heights on Thursday as traders pored over Nvidia’s earnings results and forecast. Investors largely looked at the numbers as affirming the AI boom.
The broad market index was last 0.2% higher and had hit a new all-time intraday high. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded around the flatline.
Nvidia – which makes up about 8% of the S&P 500, per FactSet – reported second-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s estimates with booming revenue growth of 56%. There were a couple initial concerns: first, revenue for its data center business was a hair under estimates. Second, the company guided overall revenue for this quarter of $54 billion, only slightly above expectations of $53.1 billion of analysts polled by LSEG.
The stock initially saw declines but came back by the open. It’s currently more than 1% lower. Many traders and analysts noted that the revenue guide does not assume any H20 chip sales to China. If a deal can be worked out involving China and the Trump administration on those sales, then revenue this quarter could be much better than forecast.
“They didn’t include China in their guide, and some people were hoping there were some China sales in there, maybe a little firmer stance that China sales could get going,” Ben Reitzes, head of technology research at Melius, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“The core growth outside of China was really good,” he added. “There should be more great growth in the fourth quarter, so I think we’re all systems go.”
Several analysts covering Nvidia became even more bullish on Nvidia after the report, raising their price targets on the stock. JPMorgan, Citi and Bernstein were among the Wall Street firms that now see even greater upside for the chipmaker.
Other chipmakers that initially fell began recovering. Broadcom traded about 3% higher, while Micron Technology advanced about 4%, signaling that many investors believe Nvidia’s results gave the greenlight for the AI trade to continue.
“The negative stock reaction feels like a bit of an incorrect knee-jerk reaction,” said David Wagner, head of equity at Aptus Capital Advisors, adding that investors should be “buying the pullback.” “The company is still growing over 50% on their guidance at a $50B quarterly revenue run rate – that’s remarkable, even for the current valuation,” he said.
Meanwhile, shares of AI play Snowflake jumped around 21% after its second-quarter results surpassed expectations.
The market is coming off a winning session Wednesday, with the S&P 500 notching a record in anticipation of strong Nvidia results. Investors have also been shrugging off threats to the Federal Reserve’s independence from the Trump administration after President Donald Trump told Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook that she’s fired earlier this week, a move that Cook has officially challenged after filing a lawsuit Thursday. A judge has set a hearing for Friday.
Supporting sentiment, the Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product grew at a 3.3% annualized pace in the second quarter. That was better than the initial estimate of 3.0% estimate and the Dow Jones forecast for 3.1%.
The market’s next obstacle will be an inflation report Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are forecasting that the personal consumption expenditures price index’s reading for July will show a rise of 0.2% for the month and 2.6% for the year.
