S&P 500 closes at fresh record high Thursday on hope jobs report won't be too cold or hot

The three leading U.S. indexes closed higher on Thursday.

The broad market S&P 500 rose 0.83% to end at 6,502.08, a new closing record for the index.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.98% to finish at 21,707.69, while the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 350.06 points, or 0.77%, closing at 45,621.29.

— Sean Conlon

Sphere is not an entertainment company to overlook, according to Wolfe Research.

Analyst Logan Angress pointed to the Las Vegas venue's screenings of "Wizard of Oz" as a "major step" toward a multiyear content library expansion that can help demand.

"Sphere is likely the world's most profitable venue, and robust Wizard of Oz sales will make that clearer," Angress wrote to clients in a Thursday note.

Angress raised his revenue estimates for the company's experiences arm for both 2025 and 2026.

— Alex Harring

The high valuations in U.S. stocks is not a reason to leave the market, UBS said in a note Thursday.

"The S&P 500 now trades at around 22 times 12-month forward earnings, a top 5% reading since 1985. This has caused some anxiety about whether stocks have become too expensive," the firm's chief investment office wrote.

However, their outlook remains positive because valuations have not historically had a strong relationship with returns over the following 12 months, the note said.

"Strong earnings momentum and easing Fed policy have tended to help stocks advance despite more demanding valuations, based on our analysis," the team said. "This analysis bodes well for the current outlook, given the solid economic earnings backdrop, along with the expectation of Fed rate cuts resuming later this month."

— Michelle Fox

BTIG sees downside ahead for the S&P 500 if it falls under the key 6,400 level.

"In an almost carbon copy of the July-August monthly turn, weakness thus far has been limited to two days with SPX holding the key 6400 area. Given it has now tested and held 6360-6400 twice, it adds importance should it test a third time. Our sense is a third test later this month would give way and lead to a long overdue check of the Feb. highs around 6150," the firm wrote in a Wednesday note.

Chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky added that the index is likely to trade range-bound in the near term, although seasonal weakness might be expected in the latter half of September.

"With some meaningful data over the next 5-10 days, we suspect a choppy range-bound environment is likely until mid-September. As we discussed recently, it's really the back-half of September when seasonal patterns are the weakest, so bulls are far from out of the woods here," he added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The near-term outlook for Nvidia is getting weaker, according to Citi.

Analyst Atif Malik reiterated his buy rating on Nvidia in a Thursday note to clients, saying that his discussions at the recent Citi Global TMT Conference have affirmed strong AI market growth next year and expectations of a smooth transition from Nvidia's GB200 to GB300 chip. Malik said, however, that Google is indirectly competing with Nvidia by offering its Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, to rivals such as Meta, OpenAI and Oracle amid a broader GPU shortage.

"We expect NVDA stock to take a breather after a strong run in the past six months and see Jensen Huang's 10/28 GTC keynote as the next catalyst," Malik said in a Thursday note to clients.

Malik's $170 price target on Nvidia suggests minimal downside for the high-flying stock, which last closed at $170.62 per share.

— Pia Singh

• PayPal — The payments stock fell more than 2% after CFO Jamie Miller said the company still has "have a lot more work to do" to achieve profitable growth. To be sure, she added that she's "encouraged by a lot of the different elements of what we're seeing."
• Ciena — Shares of the optical networking systems company surged 18% on better-than-expected results for the fiscal third quarter. Ciena earned 67 cents per share on revenue of $1.22 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet estimated a profit of 53 cents per share on revenue of $.17 billion. Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue guidance also topped expectations.
• Gap — The retailer's shares gained about 5% after the firm announced it's expanding into beauty starting with its Old Navy brand. It marks a strategic shift for the apparel retailer as it enters one of the most resilient segments of retail in recent years.

Read the full list here.

— Fred Imbert

Credo Technology just posted the strongest set of financial results among its AI-leveraged peers, including Nvidia, according to Bank of America.

Shares rose more than 10% during Thursday's trading session, a day after Credo reported better-than-expected financial results in its first quarter. The company, based in the Cayman Islands, earned 52 cents per share on revenue of $223.1 million, while analysts polled by FactSet expected 36 cents per share on $190.6 million.

Analysts led by Vivek Arya on Thursday reiterated a buy rating on Credo, a maker of active electrical cables (AEC), and hiked his price by $45, or 38%, to $165 from $120 previously. That new target suggests the stock could gain another 32%. Shares have soared 130% in just the past six months.

"Reiterate Buy on CRDO, a top SMidcap and key part of our top 4 AI-levered stocks (along with NVDA, AVGO, AMD), as its active electrical cables (AEC) are delivering on the sweet spot of high-speed and low-cost/low-power connectivity in AI clusters," Arya wrote in a 14-page report to clients. Read more in CNBC Pro here.

— Pia Singh

Wall Street is seeing a big revenue opportunity ahead for Amazon after this week's mega-funding round for Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup backed by the e-commerce giant.

Shares of Amazon jumped more than 3% on Thursday, making it one of the S&P 500's best-performing stocks of the day. The stock is up more than 6% year to date after making a roughly 10% rebound over the past month, fueled by several catalysts including its relationship with quickly growing Anthropic, expansion of its same-day grocery delivery offerings and its newly minted deal for its satellite-internet business.

Of all these opportunities, Barclays sees the gold mine in Amazon's deep-rooted relationship with Anthropic. The startup trains its flagship generative AI Claude models primarily on Amazon Web Services, using Amazon's Trainum and Inferentia chips used for training and inference, respectively.

"The quick take is that Anthropic is only adding 100bps to AWS growth currently (in 2Q25), but that might ramp up to as much as 400bps per quarter once Claude 5 training and the existing inference revenues are both flowing ... this assumes the bulk of Anthropic training continues on AWS," Analyst Ross Sandler wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

More here.

— Pia Singh

Homebuilder stocks ran circles around the broader market on Thursday.

The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) and iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) each rose more than 2% in midday trading. By comparison, the S&P 500 ticked up 0.3%.

Helping drive the sector up was Floor & Decor Holdings, which surged more than 6%. Beazer Homes added around 5%.

The funds are also outperforming the index week to date.

— Alex Harring

Retailer Gap is looking to sell beauty products as a new line of revenue, the Wall Street Journal said in a Thursday report. Gap shares jumped more than 4% on the news.

Gap's Old Navy stores will begin rolling out a wider assortment of beauty products this fall, with some being sold directly Old Navy brand. According to the report, the products will include skin care, makeup, hair products and nail polish, and most will be priced under $25. Gap-branded stores will add beauty products next year, starting with fragrances, the report said.

"We have the credibility with consumers to start to venture into categories adjacent to our core," Gap chief executive Richard Dickson told the WSJ.

Gap shares are down about 0.4% year to date, but have jumped more than 20% over the past month.

— Pia Singh

Evercore ISI sees a balanced setup for Broadcom into its earnings report after the bell Thursday. The firm reiterated its outperform rating and raised its price target to $342 from $304, implying 13% upside from Wednesday's close.

"We view AVGO set-up heading into its JulQ-25 earnings report … with positive fundamentals being partially offset by high expectations," analyst Mark Lipacis said in a note Wednesday.

Wall Street is expecting Broadcom's third-quarter earnings to come in at $1.66 per share on revenue of $15.83 billion, according to FactSet.

Notably, Broadcom will continue to benefit from its partnership to make artificial-intelligence chips for Google, as well as the high demand for high-speed data center connectivity and networking chips, Lipacis wrote.

Shares of Broadcom are up more than 31% year to date.

— Michelle Fox

Investors are rotating out of ether and back into bitcoin this week, ETF data shows.

Funds tracking the price of ether have outperformed bitcoin ETFs since May. This week, however, they've logged about $173 million in net outflows so far, according to SoSoValue, while bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows of about $634 million.

Since late Sunday, the price of spot ETH has fallen nearly 2%, compared to bitcoin's 1% gain.

Bitcoin underwhelmed over the summer as ether took the spotlight, but investors say the OG crypto's dominance could return in September amid seasonal choppiness and a market flush with newly tradeable assets, as traders await the Federal Reserve's next rate decision.

— Tanaya Macheel

The ISM non-manufacturing purchasing managers index showed a bit of an increase in August.

The reading came in at 52.0, just above the 50.8 that economists polled by Dow Jones had estimated.

That's also above July's reading of 50.1.

— Sean Conlon

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite opened in positive territory on Thursday morning.

The broad market index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively, just after 9:30 a.m. ET.

In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76 points, or about 0.2%.

— Sean Conlon

These are the stocks moving the most in premarket trading:

• Salesforce — The cloud company slipped 7% after Salesforce guided for third-quarter revenue to come in between $10.24 billion and $10.29 billion, lower than the $10.29 billion analysts polled by LSEG had estimated.
• American Eagle — Shares surged 26% after the apparel retailer posted second-quarter earnings of 45 cents per share on revenue of $1.28 billion.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise — The enterprise information technology company added 4% after its fiscal third-quarter earnings came in at 44 cents, above the 43 cents analysts polled by LSEG had expected.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Another sign of deteriorating momentum in the U.S. jobs market emerged Thursday, with weekly jobless claims rising more than expected.

Initial unemployment claims totaled 237,000 in the week ended Aug. 30. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase to 230,000 from 229,000 the week prior.

— Fred Imbert

Private sector hiring slowed in August, with payrolls increasing by just 54,000, according to ADP data published Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 75,000.

In July, private payrolls expanded by 106,000. "The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty," said Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, in a press release.

— Alex Harring

Oil producer ConocoPhillips will cut up to 25% of its workforce with most of the layoffs taking place this year, a company spokesman told CNBC.

The cuts at Conoco come as oil prices have fallen more than 10% this year, putting financial pressure on some producers. Chevron announced in February that it was laying off up to 20% of its workforce.

Conoco shares closed more than 4% lower on Wednesday in response to the development. Reuters first reported the news.

— Spencer Kimball

Salesforce shares declined more than 7% in the premarket on Thursday after the software company's third-quarter revenue disappointed investors.

Salesforce expects its revenue for that quarter to come in between $10.24 billion and $10.29 billion, while analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $10.29 billion.

However, the company did post an earnings and revenue beat for the second quarter, reporting adjusted earnings of $2.91 per share on revenue of $10.24 billion. That's above the consensus estimate of $2.78 in earnings per share on revenue of $10.14 billion.

— Sean Conlon

President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to quickly rule on an appeal that would overturn lower court decisions that deemed most tariffs illegal.

Filings by Trump say that "delaying a ruling until June 2026 could result in a scenario in which $750 billion-$1 trillion in tariffs have already been collected, and unwinding them could cause significant disruption."

— Fred Imbert

Bank of America thinks that tariffs might remain in place even if the Supreme Court strikes them down, echoing similar sentiments on Wall Street.

A federal appeals court deemed most of President Donald Trump's tariffs illegal last week. Days later, the president said that he's going to ask the Supreme Court for an "expedited ruling" to overturn the decision.

"If the Supreme Court rules against the Administration, we expect tariffs to be implemented using other authorities," economist Stephen Juneau wrote Wednesday, citing Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 as possible options. "While this could result in a lower effective tariff rate, any gains to economic activity could be partially offset by an extended period of elevated uncertainty and higher borrowing costs."

"Aside from these the White House could go back to its first term playbook and implement tariffs with Section 232 and 301," he continued. "While legally sound, it would take more time than 122 and 338."

— Sean Conlon

With the S&P 500 reaching 20 all-time highs through August this year, Piper Sandler's Craig Johnson believes the market may be poised for sizable gains during the remainder of 2025, if history is a guide.

"Since 1928, there have been 19 previous occurrences of 20 new highs in the SPX from January through August. The average and median gains were +5.4% from September to December, finishing higher in 89% of these instances," the chief market technician wrote.

Johnson pointed out that there are some notable exceptions, namely 1987 and 1986, where the market saw a decline of 25.1% from August to December and a 4.3% drop in the same period, respectively. That emphasizes that "late-cycle rallies can be susceptible to sharp corrections, particularly amidst high valuations or unanticipated macroeconomic developments," he said.

"Despite these outliers, the prevailing trend indicates that such downturns are infrequent, and positive momentum is generally rewarded," Johnson added.

— Sean Conlon

Wall Street will glean more insight into the labor market Thursday.

The ADP private payrolls report is expected to show a softer print. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast private employers added 75,000 jobs in August, down from 104,000 jobs previously. The report is due out at 8:15 a.m. ET.

The latest jobless claims data is expected to show a slight uptick. The number of first-time applicants for unemployment insurance is set to total 230,000 for the week ending Aug. 30, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates. That would be up from 229,000 previously. The data is set to release at 8:30 a.m. ET.

— Sarah Min

Check out the companies making headlines after hours.

American Eagle Outfitters — The clothing retailer surged almost 24% in extended trading. American Eagle Outfitters topped expectations in the second quarter thanks to a partnership with actress Sydney Sweeney that the company called its "best" advertising campaign to date. The company earned 45 cents per share on revenue of $1.28 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected it to earn 21 cents per share on revenue of $1.24 billion.

Salesforce — The stock dropped more than 4% after Salesforce issued third-quarter revenue guidance of $10.24 billion to $10.29 billion, a little light of the $10.29 billion LSEG consensus estimate. Otherwise, the software company posted a beat in its second quarter, with adjusted per-share earnings of $2.91 on revenue of $10.24 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected per-share earnings of $2.78 on revenue of $10.14 billion.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

U.S. stock futures opened little changed on Wednesday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 76 points, or 0.17%. S&P 500 futures were flat, while Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.01%.

— Sarah Min