Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rally fizzles after Nvidia earnings, jobs report

A US stock rally lost steam Thursday in an abrupt turnabout, as investors assessed blockbuster Nvidia (NVDA) earnings and rate-cut hopes after the release of the long-awaited September jobs report.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) flipped, last down around 0.3% after climbing as much as roughly 2.5% earlier in the session. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost around 0.2% after gaining as much as 1.8% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which includes fewer tech stocks, hovered around the flatline.

Nvidia stock surged as much as nearly 5% in early trading before also turning negative, after the chipmaker delivered an earnings beat and issued a stronger-than-expected revenue outlook for the fourth quarter. CEO Jensen Huang said demand for the company’s Blackwell processors is “off the charts,” helping — at least initially — to ease concern that the recent cooldown in AI-linked stocks signaled a longer-term slowdown.

Meanwhile, Thursday morning’s September nonfarm-payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the US economy added 119,000 jobs during the month — well above the modest gain of 51,000 expected. But the US unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, up from 4.3% in August.

Following the report, options traders were pricing in around 38% odds of a rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in December. Those odds were increased from Wednesday but still reflected the emerging narrative of a Fed divided on its next move.