Nvidia Delivers and the Nasdaq Jumps 1.3%
Key Points
The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.31%, well ahead of the S&P 500 at 0.66% and the Dow at 0.33%.
Nvidia and Salesforce crushed analyst estimates, powering today's market rally without much help from smaller stocks.
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said now is the time to raise rates, sharpening focus on Friday's Jackson Hole speech.
U.S. stocks are higher on Thursday, led by the technology-heavy indexes. AI chip giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) delivered another quarter of accelerating growth and the market's attention turned to these blowout results.
The Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) leads at 1.31% as of 12:10 p.m. ET, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is up 0.66%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) trails at 0.33%. The spread between the surging Nasdaq Composite and the stable Dow index is the whole story: a few giant names are doing the heavy lifting while the rest of the market is taking a break.
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Why the Nasdaq is far outpacing the Dow
Nvidia posted $96.2 billion in Q2 2027 revenue, up 106% from the year-ago period. The company also beat bottom-line estimates and issued rosy guidance for the third quarter. The next couple of quarters will see lower gross margins as Nvidia absorbs some of the rising memory chip costs, followed by a recovery in 2028.
Wall Street was suitably impressed by Nvidia's financials and candor, and the stock rose 8.4%. That's worth $461 billion of extra market value, easily making Nvidia the driving force behind S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite moves today.
Image source: Nvidia.
The price-weighted Dow slotted Nvidia's contribution in second place. Software titan Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) took the lead after another earnings-powered jump of 19%. The company crushed analysts' bottom-line estimates with in-line revenues, citing strong interest in the agentic AI tools. Salesforce also announced a partnership with Anthropic, and the just-launched Claudeforce platform could keep Salesforce's AI rally going.
Beyond these market-moving earnings reports, most stocks trended lower on Thursday morning. 23 of the 30 Dow components saw negative price moves, and only 156 of the 503 S&P 500 stocks were up.
Investors faced another day of unclear diplomacy and near-frozen oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, and oil prices rose by 1%. Furthermore, the Trump administration is reportedly planning another volley of heavy tariffs, this time applied to semiconductors and computing systems.
Why this rally has so few participants
When two or three names carry an entire index, the up days are exciting and the down days are unforgiving. The macro backdrop hasn't gotten any friendlier, either. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said the central bank should raise rates now to address inflation, raising the stakes for tomorrow's Fed statements from the annual Jackson Hole symposium. Slower rate cuts are one thing, but a return to rising interest rates could weigh on lofty stock valuations.
For long-term investors, Nvidia's report answered the question the market had been waiting on: AI infrastructure demand is still accelerating, and Nvidia doesn't mind footing the bill for soaring memory costs -- at least for a couple of quarters. And with Nvidia's results in the books, all eyes will be on Fed chair Kevin Warsh on Friday.
Anders Bylund has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.