U.S. equities rose on Wednesday, supported by Nvidia and Oracle, as stocks look to build on the gains from the prior trading day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 224 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 added 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up about 0.7%.
Shares of Nvidia were up nearly 1% ahead of its earnings report, which is scheduled to be released after the bell along with results from software giant Salesforce and Snowflake, due after Wednesday’s market close. Nvidia’s report comes at a time when investors are recalibrating lofty tech stock valuations and growing skeptical on hyperscalers’ high AI capital expenditures.
“Whether such market confidence can be sustained in the coming days will partly depend on NVIDIA’s earnings,” wrote Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, head chief investment officer for global equities, in a note. “With hyperscalers having announced another step-up in capex in recent weeks, markets expect the chipmaker to forecast revenue above consensus estimates alongside strong sales growth.”
Fellow artificial intelligence player Oracle jumped more than 2%, leading the continued bounce in software stocks, after the name was upgraded at Oppenheimer, which sees a “favorable” risk-reward profile in the wake of its recent pullback.
Circle surpassed Wall Street expectations for fourth quarter revenue on Wednesday, as income from reserves got a boost from a rise in circulation of its stablecoin token, sending its shares surging over 21%.
