Wall Street Indexes Advanced After Nvidia's Blowout Earnings, U.S. GDP Growth Reconfirmed at 2.3%

Barry Adams
27 Feb, 2025
New York City

Wall Street indexes opened higher amid ongoing federal policy uncertainty and growing worries about the health of the U.S. economy. 

The S&P 500 index increased 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2% after the White House confirmed its plans to impose an import tax on goods shipped from China, Mexico, and Canada. 

Stocks advanced amid worries that higher tariffs may take a bite out of consumer spending and nudge the economy towards a recession, but a surge in revenue and earnings in the latest quarter of Nvidia supported gains on Wall Street. 

An increase in weekly jobless claims also weighed on the market sentiment. 

Initial jobless claims for the week ending on February 22 rose by 22,000 from the previous week's revised level to 242,000, according to a report from the U.S. Labor Department. 

Meanwhile, continuing claims, which lag by one week, decreased by 5,000 to 1.862 million. 

The jobless claims data does not include claims filed by federal workers, who lost their jobs because of the actions of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. 

The U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 2.3% in the fourth quarter, slower than 3.1% in the previous quarter, and matched the preliminary estimate. 

For the full year 2024, GDP expanded at an annual pace of 2.8%, slightly slower than 2.9% in the previous year, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday.

U.S. new durable goods orders jumped 3.1% from the previous month to $282.3 billion in January, according to the data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

New orders for durable goods jumped from the downwardly revised drop of 1.8% in January, largely because of a 9.8% rebound in transportation orders.

New orders, excluding defense orders, increased 3.5%, and non-defense orders, excluding volatile aircraft orders, which are generally considered a proxy for business capital spending, increased 0.8%.

 

U.S. Commodities, Currencies, Indexes, Yields

The S&P 500 index increased 0.3% to 5,974.74, the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.1% to 19,094.40, and the Russell 2000 index was up 0.2% to 2,174.95.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged higher to 4.12%, 10-year Treasury notes increased to 4.30%, and 30-year Treasury bonds advanced to 4.56%.

WTI crude oil increased $1.29 to $69.92 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged higher by $0.06 to $4.02 a thermal unit.

Gold decreased by $32.24 to 2,887.09 an ounce, and silver edged down by $0.17 to $31.71.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, increased 0.70 to 107.12 and traded at a two-year high.

 

U.S. Stock Movers

Nvidia Inc. jumped 2.2% to $134.20 after the artificial intelligence chip and systems developer reported another quarter of stellar earnings and revenue growth. 

Revenue in the quarter ending in January increased 78% to $39.3 billion, and net income soared 71% to $22.1 billion.

For 2024, earnings jumped 145% to $72.9 billion, and net income soared ninefold from 2023.

Ebay Inc. dropped 9.9% to $62.65 after the e-commerce company reported weak financial results in the latest quarter. 

The company's fiscal first quarter guidance fell short of market expectations as well.

Salesforce Inc. dropped 3% to $298.50 after the customer information service company reported weaker-than-expected results in its latest quarter. 

Snowflake Inc. jumped 13% to $188.10, and the cloud-based data storage company reported a surge in revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter.

The company also estimated sharply higher sales from a year ago in the current quarter.