Stocks Climb After Nvidia, Snowflake Beat Profit Forecasts

— U.S. stocks climbed Thursday after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they’re making even fatter profits than expected.

Major U.S. stock indexes ended higher on Thursday, helped by gains in Nvidia and a batch of other companies that reported better-than-expected profits, while bitcoin briefly topped $99,000 and crude oil continued to rise.

The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, after seesawing between gains and losses several times during the day. Financials, smaller companies and other areas of the stock market that tend to do best when the economy is strong helped lead the way.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 461.88 points, or 1.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up 0.03%.

Nvidia rose just 0.5% after beating analysts' estimates for profit and revenue yet again, but it was still the strongest force pulling the S&P 500 upward. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most analysts' expectations due to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology.

Its stock initially sank in afterhours trading Wednesday following the release of the results. Some investors said the market might have been looking for Nvidia’s revenue forecast to surpass expectations by even more. But its stock recovered in premarket trading Thursday, and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said it was another “flawless” profit report provided by Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang, whom Ives calls “the Godfather of AI.”

The stock meandered through Thursday as well, dragging the S&P 500 and other indexes back and forth. How Nvidia’s stock performs has more impact than any other because it’s grown into Wall Street’s most valuable company at roughly $3.6 trillion.

The frenzy around AI is sweeping up other stocks, and Snowflake jumped 32.7% after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, whose platform helps customers get a better view of all their silos of data and use AI, also reported stronger revenue growth than expected.

BJ’s Wholesale Club rose 8.3% after likewise delivering a bigger profit than expected. That may help calm worries about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain, given high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates.

A day earlier, Target tumbled after reporting sluggish sales in the latest quarter and giving a dour forecast for the holiday shopping season. It followed Walmart, which gave a much more encouraging outlook.

Nearly 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 ended up rising Thursday, and the gains were even bigger among smaller companies. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks jumped a market-leading 1.7%.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, helped keep indexes in check. It fell 4.7% after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break up the tech giant by forcing it to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser.

In a 23-page document filed late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice called for sweeping punishments that would include restrictions preventing Android from favoring its own search engine. Regulators stopped short of demanding Google sell Android but left the door open to it if the company’s oversight committee continues to see evidence of misconduct.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 31.60 points to 5,948.71. The Dow gained 461.88 to 43,870.35, and the Nasdaq composite added 6.28 to 18,972.42.

In the crypto market, bitcoin eclipsed $99,000 for the first time before pulling back toward $98,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s more than doubled so far this year, and its climb has accelerated since Election Day. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to make the country “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin.

Bitcoin got a further boost after Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Thursday he will step down in January. Gensler has pushed for more protections for crypto investors.

Bitcoin and related investment have a notorious history of big price swings in both directions. MicroStrategy, a company that’s been raising cash expressly to buy bitcoin, saw an early Thursday gain of 14.6% for its stock quickly disappear. It finished the day with a loss of 16.2%.

In the oil market, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 2% to bring its gain for the week to 4.8%. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.8%. Oil has been rising amid escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war.

In stock markets abroad, shares of India’s Adani Enterprises plunged 22.6% Thursday after the