U.S. Stocks Seeing Further Upside After Early Rally

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply higher early in the session on Thursday and continue to turn in a strong performance in afternoon trading. With the upward move, the Dow and the S&P 500 have reached new record intraday highs.

The major averages have seen further upside in recent trading, reaching new highs for the session. The Nasdaq is up 442.77 points or 2.8 percent at 16,023.64, the S&P 500 is up 99.13 points or 2.0 percent at 5,080.93 and the Dow is up 399.31 points or 1.0 percent at 39,011.55.

The rally on Wall Street largely reflects a positive reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), with the chipmaker spiking by 15.1 percent to a record intraday high.

Nvidia is soaring after reporting better than expected fourth quarter results amid strong demand for its chips to power artificial intelligence. The company also provided upbeat revenue guidance.

Shares of Nvidia have skyrocketed this year amid optimism about demand for its AI chips, and traders had been questioning whether its results would support further upside.

Ahead of the earnings news, Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell said Nvidia's results could be "make or break time for markets" and said the company needed to "smash it out of the park and show that the AI boom still has momentum."

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Labor Department showed an unexpected dip in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended February 17th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 201,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level of 213,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 218,000 from the 213,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The National Association of Realtors also released a report showing a significant rebound in existing home sales in the month of January.

Sector News

Semiconductor stocks are soaring on the heels of the upbeat Nvidia earnings, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index skyrocketing by 5.0 percent to a record intraday high.

Substantial strength also remains among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 4.8 percent spike by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Software and networking stocks are also seeing considerable strength, contributing to the surge by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Outside the tech sector, retail, pharmaceutical and transportation stocks have moved notably higher, while gold and telecom stocks have moved to the downside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 2.2 percent to a record high, while China's Shanghai Composite Index jumped by 1.3 percent.

Most European stocks also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index surged by 1.5 the 1.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 1.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have shown a lack of direction over the course of the session. Currently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is unchanged at 4.325 percent.