Stock market today: S&P 500, Nasdaq rise in countdown to Nvidia earnings
Quick Take
S&P 500 and Nasdaq gain ahead of Nvidia's earnings report.
Key Points
- Investors are optimistic about Nvidia's performance.
- Tech stocks lead the market rally.
- Earnings reports influence market trends.
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~8 min readUpdated 2 min read
US stocks mostly rose on Wednesday as Wall Street awaited Nvidia (NVDA) earnings, looking for a strong signal on AI demand to provide some relief from ongoing inflation concerns.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) moved up 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) jumped 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which includes fewer tech stocks, fluctuated between positive and negative territory and was flat at last check. On Tuesday, stocks declined as techs pulled back and Treasury yields surged.
Investors are counting down to the release of quarterly results from Nvidia. While shares in the world's most valuable company have continued to rise this year, chipmaker rivals are closing in. Markets are pricing in a move of about 5.5% for Nvidia shares in either direction following the results, per Bloomberg.
Investors are looking to the results to gauge whether AI demand will continue to boom, as the chipmaker is a linchpin of the industry and could offer clues about whether Big Tech is still spending massively on AI build-outs.
Concerns that sticky inflation will force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates have dampened interest in growth stocks, including AI, as US bond yields surged to levels not seen in almost two decades. Minutes of the Fed’s April meeting, set for release on Wednesday, will reveal the depth of the differences among policymakers on the path of rates.
The Iran war — a major driver of rising prices — continues with no end in sight. President Trump threatened to attack the Middle Eastern country in the coming days if a peace deal isn’t reached soon and again asserted the war with Iran will end "very quickly,” while Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed to widely retaliate.
Elsewhere on the earnings front, Target’s (TGT) blowout first quarter results highlighted a flurry of reports from retailers on Wednesday as energy price hikes strain wallets. Lowe’s (LOW), like Target, beat expectations on the top and bottom line.
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Intuit stock trims losses on report the company is laying off 17% of workforce
Intuit (INTU) is cutting approximately 17% of its global workforce, or roughly 3,000 employees, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
The financial software company, best known for products like TurboTax and QuickBooks, is restructuring operations and increasing its focus on artificial intelligence initiatives, according to the memo.
Intuit stock pared earlier losses after the report, falling about 3%. The shares are now down roughly 38% year to date.
Intuit is the latest in a wave of companies announcing layoffs, with some pointing to efficiency gains from artificial intelligence as a contributing factor, including Block (XYZ), Meta (META), Amazon (AMZN), and Coinbase (COIN).
Treasury yields steady, but bond markets remain on edge
The global bond sell-off appeared to ease slightly in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes and as oil prices fell.
The 10-year yield (^TNX) and 30-year yield (^TYX), which have been closely monitored by investors after jumping to recent highs, ticked down by 1 basis point. The 10-year yield is at 4.65%, and the 30-year yield is at 5.18%. Both bond yields remain above the key psychological levels of 4.5% and 5%, respectively.
Higher yields have put downward pressure on stocks in recent days. But as oil prices declined on Wednesday amid hopes of a resolution to the Middle East conflict (Brent at $108 per barrel; WTI crude at $101), investors’ fears of inflation may be tentatively easing.
In order for rates to stop moving higher, “we would … need to see oil prices come down sharply,” Piper Sandler chief investment strategist Michael Kantrowitz told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. “The other thing that we could see, which I would argue would be bullish for equities, is some softer labor data. Anything that brings down interest rates … is bullish, even some softer employment.”
SpaceX expects to buy AI startup Cursor 30 days after IPO: Bloomberg
SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) is planning to buy the AI startup Cursor shortly after Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company goes public, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
SpaceX’s acquisition of the AI coding platform would be expected to proceed 30 days after it begins publicly trading, per Bloomberg. With SpaceX expected to file for its IPO as soon as Wednesday and begin offering shares on June 12, the company would be on track to buy Cursor in July.
SpaceX said in April that it had entered into an agreement with Cursor that would allow it to purchase the startup for $60 billion. If the deal falls through, SpaceX will pay Cursor a $10 billion breakup fee, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
If the acquisition goes through, Cursor will add to SpaceX’s AI capabilities, following Musk's merger of SpaceX and his AI startup xAI earlier this year.
US stock market opens higher on Wednesday
US stocks turned green on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to Nvidia (NVDA) earnings, due after the closing bell, which has become a quarterly bellwether for the AI trade.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) picked up roughly 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose by a stronger 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ticked above the flatline.
Nvidia, the world’s largest company and largest chipmaker, will provide a key read on the state of the AI industry, and whether spending and demand are holding up. Investors will also look for the results to relieve some of the upward pressure in bond markets, which have sent yields on 30-year Treasurys (^TYX) above 2007 levels.
Elsewhere in the market, Target (TGT) results beat estimates on both revenue and earnings per share, and the company reported its largest sales gain in years. Lowe’s (LOW) also beat expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Goldman Sachs set to get top billing as lead bank on SpaceX IPO
Shares in Goldman Sachs (GS) ticked up by 1% in premarket trading on Wednesday after news that the investment is set to take the lead role on the upcoming initial public offering of Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPAX.PVT).
While Morgan Stanley (MS) is also expected to act as a lead bank on the offering, Goldman Sachs is expected to get the “lead-left” position on the prospectus, which gives it top billing — and often access to higher fees — on the IPO, per the Wall Street Journal.
JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C), and Bank of America (BAC) are expected to participate as well in what is likely to be the largest IPO on record. SpaceX is reportedly targeting a $75 billion IPO, dwarfing Saudi Aramco’s (2223.SR) $29.4 billion IPO in 2019.
Major IPOs typically pay out large fees for the banks leading the offering process.
Oil prices pull back as Trump and Vance signal diplomatic progress, Iran warns of retaliation
Oil prices fell on Wednesday after President Trump said he believed the war would end “very quickly,” even as Iran threatened widespread retaliation if the US attacked.
Futures on Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost roughly 2.4% to trade below $109 per barrel, while those on US WTI crude fell 2% to trade at $102.
Adding to the president’s comments — even as Trump warned the US may need to “give them another big hit” — Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that the US had “made a lot of progress” in negotiations with Iran, and that "We think the Iranians want to make a deal.”
In Iran, the regime warned on Wednesday of “crushing blows in places you do not expect” throughout the Middle East if the US were to resume military action against the Islamic Republic, according to the state-owned Tasnim news agency.
“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the regional war that had been promised will this time extend beyond the region,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday.
The comments from the IRGC come after President Trump said he had canceled a large wave of strikes against Iran planned for Tuesday at the request of Gulf state leaders, who he said had assured him a deal was near.
As the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, analysts continue to warn that drawdowns in global oil stocks could approach dangerously low levels in the next few months if traffic through the waterway doesn’t normalize.
Intel, Micron, and other semiconductor stocks extend bounce ahead of Nvidia earnings
Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:
Intel (INTC), Micron (MU), and Sandisk (SNDK) stocks bounced back for a second day in a row on Wednesday. AMD (AMD), Marvell (MRVL), and Arm Holdings (ARM) also gained in premarket.
Semiconductor stocks rose in anticipation of Nvidia’s (NVDA) quarterly results as shares of the artificial intelligence chip heavyweight rebounded by more than 1%.
The semiconductor complex came back from a broader sell-off driven by rising bond yields and growing inflation fears. Memory and storage stocks like Micron and Sandisk also recovered from recent profit-taking by investors following an epic run.
Target CEO on earnings blowout: We saw broad-based strength in consumers
Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:
Somehow, Target (TGT) defied US consumer trends in the first quarter.
Gas price spikes across the country have hammered shoppers’ wallets and driven inflation higher. Consumer sentiment has plunged, while interest rate cut expectations have dropped.
One would have thought Target — with its well-documented operating struggles in 2025 — would have reported a horrid first quarter.
Instead, it reported a $0.28 earnings beat on Wednesday. Sales increased in all merchandise departments, led by beauty, hardlines, and food. Store traffic increased.
The company even jacked up its full-year sales outlook and said it expects sales to increase in each quarter of the year.
“No doubt there's a lot to pay attention to there [with consumers], because the consumer's got headwinds and some tailwinds, and so we're paying a ton of attention to how consumers are finding value on our site and on our shelves, and some of the changes that we've made are with that in mind. Now, for us, it will always be about being sharp on price,” Target CEO Michael Fiddelke told Yahoo Finance.
Customers shop at a Target store on Feb. 10, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) · Scott Olson via Getty Images Global long bond yields hit highest in almost two decades
The sell-off in longer-maturity government bonds has pushed up yields to levels last seen during the global financial crisis, and market participants are warning the move has room to run.
From Bloomberg:
A surge in global inflation expectations has brought the average yield on sovereign debt due in a decade or more to the highest since July 2008, a Bloomberg gauge shows. It comes as the war in Iran chokes off the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, sending Brent crude above $110 a barrel.
Global long-dated bonds have been under pressure on concern the jump in energy costs will feed into everything from plastic bottles for soda to gasoline for tractors needed to harvest crops.
Add in worries over government spending in Japan, the UK and the US, as well as an artificial intelligence boom supporting growth in the world’s biggest economy, and investors have been seeking greater compensation to own longer-maturity debt.
“We’re seeing a broader repricing of duration driven by fiscal realities, persistent inflation risks and some political uncertainty, as well as a more demanding investor base,” said Patrick Coffey, head of a research group at Barclays Plc in London. “It’s hard to point to a near-term catalyst outside of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz that could fully reverse the current selloff.”
— Originally published at finance.yahoo.com
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