S&P 500 struggles for a second day, Nvidia leads gains in tech shares

U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors grappled with seasonal Covid worries and ongoing inflation concerns even as companies continued reporting blowout earnings.

The Dow fell 48 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were each 0.3% higher. The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 traded lower by about 0.5%.

“For a second consecutive session the underlying price action is a lot weaker than the headline indices make it seem with a handful of large stocks masking selling elsewhere,” according to Vital Knowledge’s Adam Crisafulli. “It seems the same worries are before are still present – COVID, the debt ceiling, Fed staffing uncertainty, the Fed will tighten too soon, the Fed isn’t tightening fast enough. Actual news is relatively bullish … Even ‘bad’ reports, like Cisco, still have bullish implications for the underlying economy.”

Trading has been choppy all week with the major averages wavering at the flat line, and Thursday was no exception. But the S&P and Nasdaq are still on track for a positive week and are sitting less than 1% from their records. The Dow is nearly 2% from its record.

The markets are in a normal seasonal lull coming off earnings season, according to Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Management. Refreshed Covid concerns weighed on short-term trades too, he added, particularly in travel stocks and other reopening plays.

Even with those mixed market moves, company earnings continue to show strength. Nvidia shares advanced about 8.5% after the company reported beats on the top and bottom lines and issued a bullish revenue forecast for the current quarter ending in January. The chipmaker saw a 55% gain in data center sales from the same period a year ago and a 42% increase in gaming, its biggest market.

Those gains helped lift other chip stocks trading. Advanced Micro Devices moved than 2% higher. Qualcomm and Micron Technology ticked up. Separately, GlobalFoundries saw a big pop after revealing it entered a partnership with Ford to help the automaker increase its chip supply. It was last about 3% higher.

In other tech moves, Apple jumped 2.5% to an all-time high after Bloomberg reported the company is refocusing its electric vehicle efforts on self-driving capabilities. Amazon gained 3% as its first cashierless coffeeshop, which it partnered on with Starbucks, opened in New York. It also got a lift from continued positive momentum in retail, particularly in digital.

Earnings reports from big retailers continued to lift stocks. Macy’s and Kohl’s kicked the day off smashing quarterly profit and revenue estimates, much like their peers who reported earlier in the week.

Macy’s surged more than 21%, after the company showed same-store sales grew 35.6% and digital sales increased by 19%. It also teased the launch of a digital marketplace next year, and said 41% of its 4.4 million new customers in the quarter came through the digital channel.

Similarly, Kohl’s saw gains in same-store sales growth and digital. Its shares added more than 7%. JD.com, China’s largest online retailer, advanced about 5% on strong revenue and earnings.

Shares of Bath & Body Works and Gap increased 6% and 4%, respectively, and were the top S&P gainers behind Nvidia. Victoria’s Secret also jumped more than 16%.

Elsewhere, CVS advanced about 2% after announcing it would close 900 stores over the next three years to roll out a more digital strategy for shoppers and turn brick-and-mortar locations into destinations for healthcare services like flu shots and diagnostic tests.

Deere got a 2% lift too after it came to a resolution with workers who had been on strike since Oct. 14.

Going in the other direction, Cisco Systems fell almost 8% due to weaker revenue guidance and a revenue miss. Kraft Heinz shares also dropped more than 3.5% after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock.

Initial filings for unemployment insurance fell slightly to 268,000 for the week ending Nov. 13, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was the lowest level since March 2020, and the seventh straight weekly decline. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected them to have fallen to 260,000, compared to the previous week’s adjusted 269,000 claims.