US Tech Stocks Up In Late Hours On Nvidia’s Q4 Results: Markets Wrap

Shares of the world's largest technology companies climbed in late hours on speculation that Nvidia Corp.'s earnings will help reignite the artificial intelligence-driven rally.

A $330 billion exchange-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) rose after the close of regular trading. The giant chipmaker that's seen as a barometer for AI gave an upbeat view of its highly anticipated Blackwell lineup, helping reassure investors after delivering good-but-not-great quarterly numbers. The shares climbed after whipsawing in the immediate aftermath of the results.

The company got $11 billion of revenue from Blackwell in the fourth quarter, something Nvidia described as the “fastest product ramp” in its history. The outlook comes at a shaky time for the AI industry, with investors concerned about whether data center operators will slow spending.

“Nvidia has swept aside concerns about production of its Blackwell chips, and threats to the boom in demand for computing power with top and bottom line beats for the fourth quarter, and guidance for the current quarter ahead of expectations,” said Derren Nathan at Hargreaves Lansdown.

In the run-up to Nvidia's results, stocks churned as traders processed a barrage of statements from President Donald Trump on trade policy. Bonds climbed after a solid $44 billion auction of seven-year notes.

The S&P 500 was little changed. The Nasdaq 100 added 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.4%.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell four basis points to 4.25%. The dollar rose 0.1%.

The dominance of big tech made life miserable for stock pickers in recent years. With the group reaching a double-digit drop from its peak, opportunities to uncover the next market vanguards have arisen, says Morgan Stanley's Lisa Shalett.

Shalett sees “money to be made” in owning standouts within financial services, domestic industrials, energy and materials mining companies, as well as consumer services like media and entertainment. She also likes health care, one of last year's worst laggards, pointing to interesting generative AI applications for the sector.

Stock pickers are holding their smallest allocations of megacap names since the global financial crisis, boosting their funds' performance in a year that has kicked off with a slide in technology shares.

That under-allocation is turning out to be a blessing in disguise. With the so-called Magnificent Seven faltering this year, active investors' are seeing a performance boost: Roughly 49% of actively managed mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that compare themselves to the S&P 500 are beating the index in 2025, according to Morningstar Direct. That's up from 38% during the same time last year and far above the 17% outperformance level of the last decade.

US stock gains are likely to continue broadening beyond the technology sector, according to Savita Subramanian at Bank of America Corp.

“There are a lot of attractive opportunities within the S&P 500 that may not be the Magnificent Seven,” the strategist told Bloomberg Television. “The theme is not necessarily ‘rest of world over US,' but broadening trends outside of just mega cap tech.”

Key events this week:

• Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday

• US GDP, durable goods, initial jobless claims, Thursday

• Fed's Jeff Schmid, Beth Hammack, Patrick Harker, Michael Barr, Michelle Bowman speak, Thursday

• Japan Tokyo CPI, industrial production, retail sales, Friday

• US PCE inflation, income and spending, Friday

• Fed's Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time

• The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%

• The MSCI World Index rose 0.2%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%

• The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0487

• The British pound was little changed at $1.2676

• The Japanese yen was unchanged at 149.03 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 5.1% to $84,209.1

• Ether fell 7.3% to $2,327.21

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.25%

• Germany's 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.43%

• Britain's 10-year yield was little changed at 4.50%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $68.78 a barrel

• Spot gold was little changed