S&P 500 rises as cyclicals shine offsetting Alphabet slump By Investing.com

Investing.com — The S&P 500 closed higher Thursday, led by cyclical stocks including financials and industrials boosting the broader market at a time when tech lagged as Google slumped on regulatory concerns.

At 4:00 p.m. ET (2100 GMT), the rose 461 points, or 1.1%, the index added 0.5%, and the rose 0.04%. 

Initial jobless claims fall; cautious Fed speak continues

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, with initial claims dropping 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 213,000.

Signs of a rebound in job gains after abruptly slowing last month amid hurricanes and worker strikes come as Federal Reserve members continued sound cautious on the rate-cut outlook. 

“[i]f we look out over the next year or so, it feels to me like rates will end up a fair bit lower than where they are today,” Goolsbee said in prepared remarks for an event at the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership in Indianapolis, Ind., on Thursday. 

Nvidia rises despite weak guidance ; Alphabet sinks

Nvidia (NASDAQ:) shares closed slightly higher after the tech giant beat expectations in the third quarter, though its fourth-quarter revenue forecast underwhelmed some traders hoping for a much bigger beat. 

The revenue forecast presented a sharp slowdown in Nvidia’s quarterly revenue growth, given that the company guided much stronger year-on-year increases in revenue for the past three quarters.

Nvidia, which recently overtook Apple (NASDAQ:) to become the world’s most valuable listed company, also flagged supply constraints, especially in its upcoming Blackwell line of next-generation AI chips, while adding that demand for its advanced AI chips remained robust. 

Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:) fell more than 4% as the Department of Justice late Wednesday demanded Google sells its Chrome web browser as part of series of remedies to cut the tech giant’s monopoly in online serach.

Starbucks looking at China options – report

In other corporate news, Starbucks (NASDAQ:) stock rose nearly 2% after Bloomberg reported the coffee chain is considering options for its China business, including a potential stake sale, as it attempts to revitalize sales under new CEO Brian Niccol.

Snowflake (NYSE:) stock soared about 33% after the data analytics software maker reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat estimates.

Baidu (NASDAQ:) stock fell 6% after the Chinese tech giant posted an annual drop in third-quarter revenue.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)