Tech Stocks Lead Rally on Wall Street

Stocks rose on Wall Street on Thursday as bond yields eased further and a rally in big technology companies helped the market recoup its losses from earlier in the week.

• The S&P 500 rose 81.11 points, or 1.1%, to 7,747.71.
• The Dow climbed 624.16 points, or 1.2%, to 53,686.11.
• Th Nasdaq composite rose 366.23 points, or 1.4%, to 26,584.

Big technology and communication services stocks accounted for a large share of the rally. Microsoft rose 2.7%, Apple gained 1%, and Meta climbed 3%. Nvidia rose 1.8% after the giant chip company said it would buy the artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for $13 billion, the AP reports. Oil prices, which rose sharply earlier this week, closed little changed.

Traders had their eye on several companies following their latest quarterly snapshots. Snowflake jumped 17% after its quarterly profit and revenue blew past analysts' estimates. The company noted that artificial intelligence continues to be a strong driver for its business. Other tech companies echoed the theme of strength in AI-related demand, but that wasn't enough to send their stocks higher. Broadcom's results beat Wall Street's estimates and the chipmaker forecast that its AI chip revenue would double in its fiscal year that ends in 2028. But its stock fell 2.7% after its revenue outlook fell short of expectations.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise also raised its guidance for cloud and AI demand strength as it reported quarterly results that topped analysts' estimates. But the company's shares slipped 0.2% on worries about supply constraints and other concerns. Elsewhere in the market, Tyson Foods fell 7.3% after the meat company lowered its guidance for revenue and operating income for its fiscal year, citing margin compression due to volatile cattle prices amid a severe US cattle shortage. And Victoria's Secret slumped 13.2% after its latest quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates, but its revenue fell short of expectations.

In economic news, the Labor Department reported Thursday that more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs are still rare and jobless claims remain at historically low levels. On Friday, the crucial US employment report for August is released. The previous report for July showed that the jobs market stalled, with employers cutting positions.

• Both inflation and the jobs market have been key focuses for Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. The Fed is trying to balance its tasks of supporting employment and taming inflation. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise interest rates before the year ends in an effort to cool inflation, which remains well above 3%. The Fed has a stated goal of cooling inflation to a target of 2%. The government will release August inflation figures Sept. 11, shortly before the Fed's policymaking committee's next meeting, which ends on Sept. 16.