Traders react as shares of Bullish, a cryptocurrency exchange operator, begins trading during the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 13, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 scored another record close 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 finished 0.32% higher at 6,501.86 after hitting a new all-time intraday high above the 6,500 level. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day up 0.53% at 21,705.16, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 71.67 points, or 0.16% to end at 45,636.90, which was also a record.
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.
Except for a brief pop around the open, shares remained under pressure throughout the day, and ultimately closed down 0.8%. 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 semiconductor analysts became even more bullish about Nvidia, 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 closed 2.8% higher, while Micron Technology added 3.6%, signaling that many investors believe Nvidia’s results gave the greenlight for the AI trade to continue.
Meanwhile, shares of AI play Snowflake jumped 20% 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.
Read More: Stock market news for Aug. 28, 2025