A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during morning trading on Aug. 24, 2026 in New York City.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
The Nasdaq Composite was higher on Thursday as the latest earnings reports from Nvidia and other well-known technology companies boosted sentiment.
The tech-heavy index rose 1.57% to 26,541.35, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.72% end at 7,730.99. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 105.56 points, or 0.2%, and closed at 53,569.44.
It was the best day since Aug. 4 for the tech sector, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.
Nvidia shares jumped 8.7% after it beat analyst expectations and forecast strong revenue growth. Notably, the chipmaker is projected to see revenue growth hit 70% in fiscal 2028, far higher than the 44% that analysts surveyed by LSEG expected. Its revenue for the fiscal second quarter more than doubled.
Shares linked to the semiconductor industry rallied, with Broadcom adding 4.5%, and SK Hynix and Intel up 2% and 4%, respectively. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) rose 3%.
“There’s been a lot of talk lately about the circular financing for all these hyperscalers and whether revenues will be able to actually cover the huge costs that they’re incurring. Maybe this holds off that discussion for a little while,” said Melissa Brown, global head of investment decision research at SimCorp. Other names in the AI trade are “just riding [Nvidia’s] coattails,” she added.
Outside of Nvidia and its fellow chip stocks, Salesforce rallied more than 22% after revenue came in ahead of Wall Street’s forecast for the second quarter. Software stocks such as Adobe and Autodesk climbed 5.7% and 6.2%, respectively.
Within cybersecurity, Okta soared more than 28% and CrowdStrike gained 20.5% after surpassing analyst expectations and raising their outlooks as the companies see booming demand due to agentic AI. Other cyber stocks such as Palo Alto Networks rose alongside them. That stock in particular popped almost 13%.
Brown noted that because there’s such a divergence between stocks related to the artificial intelligence trade and those in other areas of the market, there’s a low correlation across stocks that’s impacting risk.
“The volatility is high, but the correlation is low, and so that’s keeping overall volatility low,” she said. “Our concern is that that kind of lulls investors into a false sense of security.”
Traders are readying for the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is slated to deliver a keynote speech Friday.