U.S. Stocks Seeing Considerable Volatility As Nvidia Fluctuates

After recovering from early weakness to end the previous session little changed, stocks have seen considerable volatility over the course of the trading day on Thursday. While the Dow has climbed firmly into positive territory, the S&P 500 has been bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

Currently, the major averages are turning in a mixed performance. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 78.49 points or 0.4 percent at 18,887.65, but the S&P 500 is up 13.46 points or 0.2 percent at 5,930.57 and the Dow is up 366.85 points or 0.9 percent at 43,775.32.

The advance by the Dow comes amid a 4.4 percent surge by shares of Salesforce (CRM) along with strong gains by IBM Corp. (IBM) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

Meanwhile, the volatility being shown by the broader markets comes as traders track the performance by shares of AI darling Nvidia (NVDA).

Nvidia came under pressure after failing to sustain an initial upward move but has regained ground since then and is currently down 1.2 percent.

The fluctuations by Nvidia come after the chipmaker reported better than expected third quarter earnings and revenues, but some traders expressed concerns about slowing revenue growth and a quarter-on-quarter decline by gross margins.

The choppy trading on Wall Street also comes as traders digest the latest U.S. economic data, including a Labor Department report unexpectedly showing a modest decrease by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended November 16th.

The report said initial jobless claims slipped to 213,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 219,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 220,000 from the 217,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected dip, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 209,000 in the week ended April 27th.

Meanwhile, a reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by slightly more than expected in the month of October, the Conference Board revealed in a separate report.

The Conference Board said its leading economic index slid by 0.4 percent in October after dipping by a revised 0.3 percent in September.

Economists had expected the leading economic index to fall by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.5 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month.

“Apart from possible temporary impacts of hurricanes, the US LEI continued to suggest challenges to economic activity ahead,” said Justyna Zabinska-La Monica, Senior Manager, Business Cycle Indicators, at The Conference Board.

Sector News

Computer hardware stocks have shown a strong move back to the upside following yesterday’s pullback, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index surging by 3.0 percent to its best intraday level in a month.

A sharp increase by the price of crude oil is also contributing to substantial strength among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent jump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index.

Networking stocks have also shown a significant move to the upside, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 2.1 percent.

Banking, natural gas and housing stocks are also seeing considerable strength, while some weakness is visible among airline stocks.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.9 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by 0.5 percent, although China’s Shanghai Composite Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.3 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both up by 0.8 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 4.406 percent.