By Rian Howlett
Publication Date: 2025-11-20 16:35:00
US stocks climbed on Thursday, but a bigger rally wavered after blockbuster Nvidia (NVDA) earnings helped rekindle faith in the AI trade, and rate-cut hopes brightened after the release of the long-awaited September jobs report.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the way higher, rising roughly 0.5% after climbing as much as roughly 2.5% earlier in the session. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added nearly 0.4% after gaining as much as 1.8% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which includes fewer tech stocks, rose about 0.3%.
Nvidia stock surged as much as nearly 5% in early trading before paring those gains, 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,” easing 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 prompted a rethink in rate-cut bets. The US economy added 119,000 jobs during the month, data showed — well above the modest gain of 51,000 expected. But the US unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, up from 4.3% in August. Economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged from the previous month.
Following the report, options traders were pricing in around 42% odds of a rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in December, compared…
