Shares of the world’s largest tech companies rallied in late hours on speculation that

Nvidia Corp.

’s blockbuster outlook will help reignite Wall Street’s

artificial intelligence

-driven rally.

A roughly US$390 billion exchange-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 advanced one per cent after the close of regular trading. The giant chipmaker that’s seen as a barometer for the revolutionary technology gave a strong revenue forecast for the current period, helping counter concern that a global surge in AI spending is poised to fizzle. The shares spiked about five per cent.

Worries over everything from the durability of the AI trade to the Federal Reserve’s policy path have contributed to a recent equity rout. With investors increasingly skittish about tech spending, how Nvidia’s results are interpreted will be key.

“Market psychology has been negative this month as investors worried that the artificial-intelligence infrastructure build out was a bubble,” said Chris Zaccarelli at Northlight Asset Management. “In the meantime, the largest technology companies in the world are extremely profitable.”

While a market pullback can happen at any time, Zaccarelli says that as long as the economy can stay out of a recession, he expects the bull market to resume and hit new all-time highs later this year and into next year.

In the run-up to results from the giant chipmaker, the S&P 500 halted a four-day slide. The dollar rose, with traders nearly pricing out a rate cut next month as the Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t publish an October jobs report, but will incorporate the payrolls figures into the November data due after the Fed’s final meeting of 2025. Bitcoin sank below US$90,000.

Meantime, many Fed officials said it would likely be appropriate to keep rates steady for the remainder of 2025, according to minutes of the October meeting. The document came out on the eve of the September jobs report.

“Uncertainty is running high because of the lost data and the unclear impact of tariffs,” said David Russell at TradeStation. “There’s no consensus at the Fed with policymakers flying blind, but these minutes lean hawkish overall.”

The S&P 500 rose to around 6,642. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 4.13 per cent. Oil sank after a U.S. government report showed rising inventories of fuel and other refined products, easing supply concerns.

Nvidia’s sales will be about US$65 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, which runs through January, the chipmaker said in a statement Wednesday. Analysts had estimated US$62 billion on average, with some predictions ranging as high as US$75 billion.

Compute demand keeps accelerating,” chief executive Jensen Huang said in the statement. “AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.”

Nvidia’s numbers remain extremely strong now, but there are inevitably questions whether Huang’s company has already reached its high-water mark in terms of growth and market share, noted Russell at TradeStation.

“Ongoing investments in AI, the strong financial health of today’s leading tech firms, and both the potential and growing evidence of returns on investments give us confidence in the next leg of the global equity rally in the months ahead,” Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management said before Nvidia’s results.

“We continue to believe that concerns over an AI bubble bursting are overblown at least for now,” Chris Senyek at Wolfe Research said before Nvidia’s results. “We remain buyers of AI-related stocks on share-price weakness.”

To Andrew Tyler, head of global market intelligence at JPMorgan Chase & Co., the recent rout in equities represents a “technical washout” that may have already ended.

“Given that there have not been any changes to the fundamental story, nor does our investment hypothesis rely on the Fed easing, we are dip-buyers,” Tyler wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.

Bob Diamond, the former chief executive officer of Barclays Plc who now runs investment firm Atlas Merchant Capital, said turmoil in global markets in recent days resembles a “healthy correction” as investors grapple with how to assess elements of technological change.

“We would characterize the November pullback in stocks as a breather, as the market is settling into a more realistic view of the world,” said David Trainer at New Constructs.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

  • The S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent as of 4 p.m. New York time
  • The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6 per cent
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent
  • The MSCI World Index was little changed
  • Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.8 per cent
  • UBS US AI Winners Index rose 1.1 per cent
  • The Russell 2000 Index was little changed

Currencies

  • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.5 per cent
  • The euro fell 0.5 per cent to US$1.1526
  • The British pound fell 0.7 per cent to US$1.3048
  • The Japanese yen fell one per cent to 157.01 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

  • Bitcoin fell 2.9 per cent to US$89,747.51
  • Ether fell 4.6 per cent to US$2,955.92

Bonds

  • The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.13 per cent
  • Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.71 per cent
  • Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 4.60 per cent
  • The yield on two-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 3.59 per cent
  • The yield on 30-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.75 per cent

Commodities

  • West Texas Intermediate crude fell two per cent to US$59.54 a barrel
  • Spot gold rose 0.1 per cent to US$4,073.31 an ounce
  • Investors brace themselves for earnings report that could make or break market’s winning streak
  • Brookfield targets US$10 billion for AI fund in Nvidia pact

Bloomberg.com