NEW YORK: US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each rallying more than 1% as earnings from neocloud firm CoreWeave cooled investor concerns about the durability of the AI trade, while Nvidia stabilized after two straight sessions of sharp declines.
Battered CoreWeave shares surged 24.7%, their biggest daily percentage jump in more than three months, to close at the highest level in two weeks.
The company said it would become profitable in the first half of 2028 on an adjusted basis, seeking to reassure investors that strong demand and customer commitments could support its debt-fueled expansion.
Sentiment improvedacross AI infrastructure stocks, as Nebius Group surged 15.4% and Applied Digital shot up 7.4%.
Nvidia advanced after shedding about US$430 billion of market capitalisation in the previous two sessions as investors worried about CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with a businesswoman alleged to be a Chinese spy.
Equities have been volatile in recent days. Investors have expressed concerns about more regulation in the AI space after sweeping Democratic victories in the US midterm elections last week. That, and worries about Nvidia's leadership, pressured one of the biggest pillars of the current bull market.
Contributing to choppy stock trading, investors have been encouraged by cooling oil prices but concerned by hot inflation data that pushed Treasury yields sharply higher.
"Everybody's looking for a canary in a coal mine every single day, every minute of every day, and then they're reacting every single day," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt in Atlanta.
"What we've seen is that you've gone back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between AI is good, AI is not so good. We're worried about it, then oh, it's great."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 254.60 points, or 0.49%, to 52,486.49, the S&P 500 gained 98.45 points, or 1.31%, to 7,619.38 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 400.31 points, or 1.60%, to 25,466.19.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index jumped 5.7% to close at its highest since November 3. Every component of the index advanced.
Recent pronounced selling pressure prompted some investors to buy the dip, but early indicators show it is too soon to sound the all-clear.
Investors bought equities even during last week's selloff, with all net inflows coming through ETFs and institutional clients leading the purchases, Bank of America Global Research analysts said in a note.
The S&P 500 technology index, up 2.7%, was the best-performing of the 11 major S&P sectors and has risen in three of the past four sessions.
The CBOE Volatility Index fell for the fourth straight session to close at a one-week low of 17.49. Last week, Wall Street's fear gauge hit its highest in more than seven months.
Investors also examined the terms set by Anthropic on Tuesday for its blockbuster initial public offering. The Claude chatbot creator is aiming for a valuation of up to US$1.4 trillion in the share sale.
Vanda Research said in a note that the IPO could attract record buying by retail investors, with the potential to surpass SpaceX as one of the biggest single-day retail purchases ever.
Hotter-than-expected inflation dataon Tuesday cemented market expectations the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates next month, with traders now fully pricing in a hike of at least 25 basis points and a 10.4% chance of an increase of 50 basis points, according to CME FedWatch.
Comments from multiple Fed officials also suggested the US central bank was open to a more aggressive path of rate hikes as price pressures worsen.
The US bond market was shut on Wednesday for Veterans Day.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.48-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.77-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 77 new highs and 159 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 14.74 billion shares, compared with the 18.68 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. — Reuters
