US stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors weighed AI chipmaker Nvidia’s earnings report and took stock of the economy amid President Trump’s latest tariff pledges.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped 0.2% after both indexes eked out closing gains on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.5%.
Investors are digging into Nvidia’s quarterly earnings beat, which signaled plenty of scope for growth as it eased worries about DeepSeek and faltering AI demand. The results initially met a muted response as its profit outlook raised doubts on Wall Street, and Nvidia’s stock was down about 1% in early trading to lose hold of premarket gains.
The US economy grew at an unrevised 2.3% annualized pace last quarter, on par with consensus estimates. Meanwhile weekly initial jobless claims jumped to 242,000, higher than the 221,000 expected by economists in a sign of a softening labor market.
As of 9:53:55 AM EST. Market Open.
^DJI ^GSPC ^IXIC
Friday’s release of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index will be the next data point investors will focus on for economic clues as the path to interest rate cuts is seen as increasingly uncertain.
Meanwhile, eyes were on the latest escalation of President Trump’s tariff threats after he said in a social media post that levies against Mexico and Canada will go into effect as scheduled on March 4. This follows the President’s pledge on Wednesday to impose 25% tariffs on the European Union.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices — seen by some as a gauge of faith in Trump — continued to pull back from a post-election peak, falling 2%. But the cryptocurrency pared earlier overnight losses that saw it drop below $85,000 to hit its lowest point since November.
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