Nvidia and other tech stocks lead Wall Street higher

Snow falls outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose Wednesday and erased their losses for the week so far, as Nvidia and other technology companies led the way.

The S&P 500 added 0.8 per cent for a second straight gain following Monday’s swoon, when stocks dropped as investors tried to separate potential losers  from winners in the artificial-intelligence  boom.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 307 points, or 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3 per cent.

Nvidia was one of the strongest forces lifting the market and rose 1.4 per cent ahead of its highly anticipated profit report, which arrived after trading ended for the day. The company whose chips are at the center of the AI revolution once again reported profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. It also said it expects to make roughly US$78 billion in revenue this quarter, when analysts had been forecasting less than US$72.3 billion.

Because Nvidia has grown to become the U.S. market’s largest stock by value, it has more influence on the S&P 500 than any other company.

Nvidia’s profit reports have become a bellwether for the market, not only because it’s so big but also because of how influential the AI boom has broadly become over the market’s moves. In past years, the AI frenzy helped stocks run to record after record amid hopes that it would revolutionize the economy and make it more productive.

More recently, though, concerns have climbed about whether companies like Alphabet and Amazon are spending so much on chips from Nvidia and other equipment that they’ll never be able to make back the investments through future gains in productivity. If that leads to a pullback in spending, it would hit Nvidia directly.

Investors have also begun focusing on companies and industries that could get undercut by AI-powered competitors. That has led to sudden and swift sell-offs for stocks seen as potentially under threat, and spasms have rolled through industries as seemingly disparate as software, trucking logistics and legal services.

That’s on top of other worries already weighing on the market, including new tariffs  announced by President Donald Trump to replace ones struck down by the Supreme Court.

“While those concerns are real, we believe investors would be wise to balance them out with offsetting trends that may be underappreciated in the current wall of worry headline cycle,” according to Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer for Wealth & Investment Management at Wells Fargo.

Among them is the solid growth in profit that U.S. companies have been reporting so far for the end of 2025. That has helped strengthen corners of the U.S. stock market that had earlier been overshadowed by AI mania and Big Tech, including stocks of smaller companies.

Cava Group, the fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain, jumped 26.4 per cent after delivering better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue for a fiscal year also topped US$1 billion for the first time, up 22.5 per cent from the year earlier.

Axon Enterprise leaped 17.6 per cent after the seller of Tasers and body cameras with AI voice-activated assistants likewise reported bigger profit and revenue than analysts expected.

They helped offset a 13.6 per cent drop for First Solar, which reported a weaker profit than analysts expected.

Lowe’s fell 5.6 per cent and was one of the heaviest weights on the market even though the home-improvement retailer reported a bigger profit than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on its forecast for profit over the course of 2026, which fell short of analysts’ estimates.

CEO Marvin Ellison said the broad housing market remains pressured, and stocks for rival Home Depot and homebuilders also fell.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 56.06 points to 6,946.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 307.65 to 49,482.15, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 288.40 to 23,152.08.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 2.2 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.9 per cent for two of the bigger moves.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.05 per cent from 4.04 per cent late Tuesday.

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Stan Choe, The Associated Press. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.