Tech stocks lead Wall Street after Nvidia, Salesforce and others report big profits

Tech stocks lead Wall Street after Nvidia, Salesforce and others report big profits

NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks are leading Wall Street on Thursday after Nvidia, Salesforce and others reported even fatter profits for the spring than analysts expected.

The S&P 500 added 0.2% and inched closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 12 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

Nvidia was the strongest force pulling the market higher and rose 6% after the chip giant once again delivered much stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. More importantly, it also gave forecasts for upcoming revenue growth that topped analysts' estimates, pointing to continued demand for chips to power artificial-intelligence projects.

"AI has reached its inflection point," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. "It's doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable."

That helped calm some of the worries that have built around AI stocks generally, which have been under pressure recently. After rocketing higher for years in the frenzy around AI, stocks in the industry are confronting skepticism that they shot too high and that booming demand for AI chips may fade if the AI revolution does not produce as much profit as promised.

Another big tech company, Salesforce, jumped 14% after it said that AI helped it deliver one of its best quarters in history. It reported stronger profit than analysts expected, and CEO Marc Benioff said it's "seeing incredible demand for our AI and data products" and that it's "turning AI into customer success at unprecedented scale."

Salesforce, which helps companies manage their customers' data, also raised its forecast for revenue over the full year. It's notable because Salesforce's stock struggled earlier on worries that competitors powered by AI could ultimately steal away customers from Salesforce and other software companies.

Elsewhere, though, trends were more mixed across big U.S. companies.

HP fell 8.2% even though it topped analysts' expectations for profit and spring in the latest quarter. Analysts pointed to worries about its sales of personal computers, as well as how higher prices for computer memory and other commodities are pressuring its profit margins.

Best Buy and some other retailers also sank amid continued worries that U.S. shoppers could be stretched because of high inflation and discouragement about the economy. Best Buy sank 8.3% even though it topped analysts' expectations for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter.