Dow jumps over 600 points, Nasdaq rebounds in volatile Wall Street trading

The Dow soared more than 600 points Thursday, boosted by shares of cloud company Salesforce, while Alphabet’s losses weighed on the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 590 points, or 1.4%, to 43,999, hitting a one-week high.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.7%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.2% after reversing earlier losses.

Alphabet slid 6.2% to touch a more than three-week low after the Justice Department argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its monopoly on online search.

Megacaps also took a hit, with Meta down 1.2% and Apple flat.

Amazon lost 3% after a report said it will likely face an EU investigation next year into whether it favors its own brand products on its online marketplace.

Shares of Wall Street’s biggest company, Nvidia, were choppy and were last down 0.5%. 

The chip company surpassed expectations for quarterly results, and projected fourth-quarter revenue above estimates.

However, some investors were unimpressed that the forecast was its slowest in seven quarters.

“It has a lot to do with some disappointments in terms of Nvidia’s guidance on the margins, the story on Google doesn’t help (either) and that’s bringing down the entire technology complex,” said Dan Eye, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

Nvidia has led much of the US market rally since mid-2023 on expectations that AI integration could boost corporate profits.

The stock has risen more than nine-fold in the past two years and the company boasts a market value of $3.5 trillion.

Gains on the blue-chip Dow were aided by Salesforce’s advance after three brokerages lifted their price targets on the stock.

On the data front, a weekly report on jobless claims showed they fell unexpectedly last week, suggesting a rebound in job growth in November.

Money market bets tiled in favor of a 25 basis points interest rate cut by the Fed at its December meeting, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch.

Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the United States is more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the past, according to a media report.

Comments from Federal Reserve officials Austan Goolsbee and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr are on tap.

Traders also monitored geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia, that sent crude prices higher and aided a 1.4% gain in the energy sector.

Deere shares gained 7.8% after reporting an upbeat fourth-quarter profit, while Snowflake jumped 32% after raising its annual product revenue forecast.

Crypto stocks were mixed as bitcoin prices came off session highs.

MARA Holdings jumped 7.6%, while Coinbase Global dropped 4.4%.