Gaining 0.71% to 7,730, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) advanced alongside a 1.57% jump to 26,541 for the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) as chip strength led the rally, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES:^DJI) rose 0.20% to 53,569.
Today’s biggest moves
Shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) climbed 8% following its blowout earnings report. Meanwhile, enterprise software firms Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD)also soared 23% and 21% after delivering excellent earnings.
The biggest loser among the three major U.S. indexes today was Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL), which whiffed on earnings and declined 10%.
What this means for investors
Nvidia gave the market a major boost, reporting after-hours earnings yesterday with sales and EPS up 106% and 128%, respectively. The company’s data center unit grew sales by 117%, helping Nvidia top its own guidance for the 13th straight quarter. If there were any remaining fears of an AI slowdown taking shape this quarter, they didn’t materialize. Despite its incredible growth, Nvidia currently trades at just 25 times forward earnings.
The other major development in the tech world today came from Salesforce. First, the company outpaced Wall Street’s expectations and guided to 11%-12% sales growth this year. However, the headline-stealer was the company’s announcement that it was partnering with Anthropic to launch Claudeforce.
CEO Marc Benioff added some depth on the partnership, explaining, “By fusing Claude’s extraordinary reasoning with the trusted data, workflows, and governance every enterprise runs on, we’re delivering a dynamic interface that thinks, reasons, and acts. This is how every business will run.”
This news, paired with strong earnings from CrowdStrike and Veeva Systems (NYSE:VEEV), may have temporarily quelled SaaS-pocalypse fears, as many software stocks are retooling to be beneficiaries rather than disruptees of AI.
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