Indexes rise after Nvidia’s earnings report

• The company’s shares jumped on Thursday, with investors feeling optimistic following the release of Nvidia’s big first-quarter earnings report.

• The chipmaker beat revenue and earnings estimates and announced a 10-to-1 stock split.

• Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will speak later on Thursday.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as investors cheered another earnings report from chip giant Nvidia.

The company whose chips are at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom is booming in both revenue and profit. It reported revenue of $26.04 billion compared to analyst estimates of $24.65 billion and earnings per share of $6.12 compared to estimates of $5.59.

Nvidia also gave strong guidance for the current quarter, pointing to strong demand for its chips even as customers wait for the debut of its next big GPU, dubbed Blackwell.

“The biggest piece in putting together this AI puzzle that everyone on the street and in the world was watching was the message from AI godfather Jensen and Nvidia that demand for AI was growing,” Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said Thursday.

He added: “Nvidia and Microsoft are the first offshoots of the AI ​​revolution, and the second, third and fourth offshoots of AI are now starting to take shape in this market, supporting our 2024/2025 tech bull thesis.”

Nvidia shares rose 7% in early trading Thursday, setting a new record high at $1,017 per share.

Also on investors’ radars are comments that Atlanta Federal Reserve Chairman Raphael Bostic will make later in the day. Several Fed speakers offered fresh perspectives on the economy and inflation this week, with most of them expressing a cautious tone on interest rate cuts, noting that price increases have not yet cooled enough to justify easing monetary policy.

Stocks fell during Wednesday’s session after the release of minutes from the Fed’s latest policy meeting, reigniting concerns among investors that the central bank will remain hawkish. Some commentators, however, noted that the minutes reflected the Fed’s sentiment ahead of the April inflation report, which contained more encouraging data than in previous months.

The story continues

Here’s where the U.S. indexes stood shortly after the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday:

Here’s what else is happening:

For commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies:

• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.7% to $78.27 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.8% to $82.62 a barrel.

• Gold fell 1% to $2,365 an ounce.

• The 10-year Treasury bond remained unchanged at 4.435%.

• Bitcoin fell 0.5% to $69,271.

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