Updated 2 min read
US stocks advanced on Thursday as Wall Street weighed signs of a resilient economy and the move by Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to sue President Trump, while also taking a closer look at Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings for signs the tech-fueled market rally has more room to run.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) ticked up 0.5%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.2% after setting a new all-time high on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) edged up 0.1%.
Investors were watching the ongoing dispute between President Trump and Fed governor Lisa Cook. On Thursday, Cook sued President Trump after refusing to bow to his termination letter earlier this week — the biggest test yet of the central bank’s independence from executive branch influence.
Meanwhile, the initial cloud over Nvidia lifted a little as investors dug into its quarterly report, seen as a test of the AI trade driving stock gains this year. The chipmaker’s shares were down about 1% in early trading after dropping about 4% after the bell on Wednesday as Nvidia’s disappointing data center sales overshadowed its earnings beat.
Nvidia stressed that demand for its AI chips — which power applications like ChatGPT remotely from data centers — is healthy, countering recent fears of an AI bubble about to burst. CEO Jensen Huang touted “extraordinary” demand for the company’s Blackwell AI GPUs (graphics processing units).
Huang also told Yahoo Finance that the company is getting “fired back up” to sell chips into the $50 billion China AI market following a short-lived export ban, though geopolitical uncertainty remains an overhang on that opportunity.
Focus shifted to two key pieces of economic data out on Thursday. The government said US GDP rose 3.3% in the second quarter, a bump up from its first estimate and a broad rebound from the 0.5% dip in Q1. That was mainly due to a decrease in imports that followed a Q1 import surge to “front-run” tariffs. Meanwhile, jobless claims fell as layoffs remained low.
But this week’s big test comes on Friday, with the July reading on PCE consumer inflation, closely watched by the central bank.
Elsewhere in earnings, cloud analytics firm Snowflake (SNOW) shares soared as its results indicated the company is benefitting from AI investments. HP (HPQ) stock took a wild ride before stabilizing as investors assessed the tech company’s ability to withstand new tariffs. And CrowdStrike (CRWD) shares fell after its results signaled cautious clients amid economic uncertainty.
