The S&P 500 closes higher Thursday as chip, bank stocks rally: Live updates

Stocks closed higher Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 292.81 points, or 0.60% to 49,442.44. The S&P 500 rose 0.26% to 6,944.47, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.25% to 23,530.02.

— Sarah Min

When Salesforce replaced Exxon Mobil in August 2020, it looked like a routine swap in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But because the Dow is price-weighted and contains only 30 stocks, constituent changes can materially affect performance. Since joining the index, Salesforce shares have fallen more than 14%, while Exxon has climbed more than 200% since departing the index.

We built a version of the Dow in which Exxon was never removed and Salesforce was never added. In that counterfactual, the Dow climbed to more than 51,000 earlier this week.

The result underscores how a committee decision can influence outcomes in a price-weighted benchmark, and reminds us that index construction choices matter alongside underlying market returns.

--Nick Wells

UBS strategist Michel Lerner worries U.S. investors may be getting too comfortable. "For all the prevailing optimism, not all is healthy beneath the surface, suggesting caution before chasing a further market melt-up."

He laid out four reasons investors should "stay vigilant:"

1. "There is a wide gap between Wall Street exuberance and Main Street caution;"
2. "US Valuations look rich and the marginal buyer is becoming less obvious;"
3. "The US market is becoming a geared bet on AI—with uncertain payoffs;"
4. "Financial leverage to fund AI projects increases company-specific andsystemic risks."

— Fred Imbert

Bernstein believes Costco Wholesale is undervalued.

The warehouse giant is what is known as a "compounder," the firm said. These types of companies have grown earnings and free cash flow at a steady rate, analyst Zhihan Ma said in a note Thursday. They also have often expanded their return on invested capital, she added.

"COST is the ultimate compounder," wrote Ma, who reiterated her overweight rating on the stock.

She expects the company to sustain 12% to 13%, or higher, earnings-per-share growth at steady return on equity over the long term.

"This implies a justified multiple potentially above the 45-50x P/E range," Ma said. "The stock has recovered somewhat from the trough to 46x, and we see further upside from here."

Her $1,146 price target suggests the stock can rally 20% from Wednesday's close.

— Michelle Fox

Hesai is must-watch name in the quickly growing field of robotics, according to Bank of America.

Analyst Jessie Lo reiterated her buy rating on buy rating on U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese tech company in a Thursday note to clients and initiate coverage on Hesai's Hong Kong listing with a buy rating as well.

Behind her bullish thesis on the stock is Hesai's significant growth in lidar shipments in 2025 and the company's plans to double its annual production capacity from 2 million units in 2025 to over 4 million units in 2026, which it announced at the CES show earlier this month. Hesai develops and manufactures lidar, or light detection and ranging, sensors used for autonomous driving and robotics.

"Looking ahead, we expect more good news to come as the company unveils new business beyond lidar into 2026, marking the first year of tapping in new era as a physical AI-enabler," Lo wrote.

— Pia Singh

Optimism about the outlook for stocks over the next six months surged to 49.5% of respondents this week, the highest since late November and up from 42.5% last week, in the latest poll by the American Association of American Investors. Bullishness has run above the historical, long-run average of 37.5% for six out of the past seven weeks, and missed by just 0.1% in the outlying week.

Bearish sentiment among investors dropped to 28.2% from 30.0% last week and remained below the historical average of 31.0% for a third week. Neutral opinion about the short-term outlook for stocks tumbled to 22.3% from 27.5% last week, and hasn't risen above the historical average of 31.5% in a year, since January 2025.

Contrarian investors view excessive optimism as a lousy sign for stocks because it suggests investors have already bought most of the stock they want and that there's less cash sitting on the sidelines available to go back in to stocks.

Almost half, or 47% of investors said their portfolios performed better than they expected in 2025, in answer to a special, one-time question the association asked investors. Almost 22% said they did much better than they expected and another 20% said their gains were close to what the expected. Only 11% said their portfolios performed worse or much worse than they'd expected.

— Scott Schnipper

Piper Sandler believes that this year's tax season will put at ease any investors worried about waning consumption in U.S. households.

"Households will very likely spend at least 70% of their nearly $200b 2026 tax windfall (of higher refunds & lower withholding) — with consumption risks skewed to the upside," wrote Nancy Lazar, the firm's chief global economist, in a Tuesday note.

Lazar added that this spending surge should hit right after tax refunds roll in and be concentrated in February and March.

She also noted that even ahead of these refunds, spending has exceeded income growth.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Global markets rallied Thursday, with the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) hitting an intraday all-time high going back to its inception in 2003. The ETF was last higher by about 1% at 58.34.

Taiwan Semiconductor alone accounts for nearly 11% of the ETF. The chipmaker was up more than 6% during midday trading, following its latest earnings.

— Sarah Min, Gina Francolla

Shares of Eli Lilly, Disc Medicine and Sanofi were under pressure on Thursday after Reuters reported that the Food and Drug Administration is delaying reviews of several drugs that had been granted fast-track status under a Trump Administration program. The report cited internal documents the news agency reviewed.

A treatment for a rare blood disorder developed by Disc Medicine is being delayed to review its trial data, while a diabetes treatment developed by Sanofi is being reviewed for safety concerns, the report said. Disc Medicine shares fell more than 6%, while Sanofi slipped 1%.

Decisions on a closely watched weight loss pill from Eli Lilly and a lung cancer drug from privately held Boehringer Ingelheim have also been delayed, Reuters said, without citing a reason.

The Lilly decison is now due April 10, the report said. Lilly shares were trading down about 5%.

The company has said that the drug's approval could occur in the second quarter.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Nvidia remains one of the strongest pick in semiconductors, according to RBC Capital Markets, which just initiated the chipmaker with an outperform rating.

Analyst Srini Pajjuri initiated coverage of the semiconductor group with a neutral view, citing an unprecedented surge in artificial intelligence spending from hyperscalers that he believes should keep the sector's growth strong for the next two years.

Nvidia is one name Pajjuri believes is a winner among semis, partly given its attractive valuation compared to its tech peers. His $240 price target suggests more than 31% potential upside for the stock from its recent close.

"We expect any hyperscaler capex spending slowdown to be gradual and believe that valuation is already discounting a potential slowdown to an extent (5-yr avg P/E 50x prior to AI boom vs current 24x). We see limited threat to NVDA's full-stack AI dominance despite the recent progress by ASICs/AMD. Next-gen Rubin system is in production which should help sustain the performance lead while Groq acquisition offers roadmap optionality," Pajjuri wrote in a Wednesday note to clients.

"We have higher conviction in NVDA's order book vs that of peers, and view the balance sheet strength as an added advantage given the tight supply chain," he added.

Pajjuri is one of several analysts that have gotten increasingly bullish on Nvidia stock in recent weeks and now view its current levels as an increasingly attractive bet. Shares of Nvidia have been largely sideways even as it has announced a slew of products and partnerships and reiterated robust demand.

— Pia Singh

Thursday's rally was broad-based, with eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors higher during midday trading. Information technology led the market, climbing 1.5%. Industrials and utilities outperformed, up by 0.9%, each. Health care was the biggest laggard in the index, down nearly 1%.

At around noon, there were 349 gainers in the S&P 500.

— Sarah Min

Small caps outperformed Thursday. The Russell 2000 rallied 1.4% during midday trading, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7%.

— Sarah Min

Citi sees upside for Asana, the task management tool. The bank upgraded the stock to buy from neutral and set a price target of $16. This suggests a 40% increase from Wednesday's close.

Asana struggled retaining customers last quarter. However, Citi analyst Steven Enders expects Asana's new CEO and promising AI workflow builder to help generate momentum for the company.

"We view the hiring of new CEO Dan Rogers favorably, seeing opportunity to drive significant improvements in S&M efficiency, particularly in the enterprise segment," noted analyst Enders.

Alongside improving marketing efficiency, Citi expects Asana's AI Studio, a no-code task tool, to accelerate revenue.

"While still early, our conversations with implementation and consulting partners indicates solid initial adoption of AI Studio with positive feedback on delivered ROI and differentiation," Enders wrote. "We anticipate a steady progression of ARR contributions, up to $16M by the end of FY27."

— Itzel Franco

Wells Fargo believes Broadcom's recent pullback is a buying opportunity, upgrading the stock to overweight from equal weight on Thursday. The firm also sees the potential for meaningful incremental catalysts in 2026.

The stock has lost nearly 2% so far this year, after 2025's nearly 50% gain.

"In addition to Broadcom's announcement that Anthropic has ordered $21 billion in Google TPUs
+ rack-scale systems, we think indications of potential Google TPU deployments with Meta …, xAI, Apple, SSI, and others would be potentially meaningful incremental upside catalysts," analyst Aaron Rakers said in a note to clients.

He also believes concerns about Broadcom's gross margins are overdone.

Rakers raised its price target to $430 from $410, implying 26.5% upside from Wednesday's close.

Shares were last up 2%.

— Michelle Fox

The S&P 500 closed at 6,926.60 on Wednesday, arm's reach within the 7,000 level. But as records show, the index has often struggled right before scaling a "big round" number, BTIG chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky said.

The benchmark was under pressure historically when approaching the 6,000 level in 2024, the 5,000 level in 2022, the 3,000 level in 2018 and the 2,000 level in 2014.

Instead, Krinsky believes that the benchmark's next stop is its 50-day moving average.

"The big round 7k number, at least initially, is providing some turbulence. SPX sitting on its 20 DMA (6,889), but at this point a test of the 50 DMA (6,823) looks quite likely," he wrote in a Wednesday note to clients.

— Lisa Kailai Han

BlackRock shares jumped 4% Thursday after the Wall Street giant said its assets under management topped $14 trillion for the first time.

The asset manager also reported stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue for the latest quarter. BlackRock posted $13.16 a share to exceed the average estimate of $12.21 from analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue of $7.01 billion came in higher than the $6.69 billion estimate.

— Yun Li

Shares of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley opened higher following their latest earnings results.

Goldman Sachs was last up by 1.7%, while Morgan Stanley jumped more than 3%.

— Sarah Min

Stocks rose Thursday, as Wall Street tried to recover from back-to-back losing sessions.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq advanced 0.9%. The Dow added 165 points, or 0.3%.

— Sarah Min

Weekly unemployment claims fell last week while the manufacturing outlook in both the New York and Philadelphia regions was much better than forecast, according to economic data Thursday.

Here's how the numbers broke down:

• Jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 198,000 for the week ending Jan. 10, down 9,000 from the prior week and below the Dow Jones estimate for 215,000, according to the Labor Department. The four-week moving average fell to 205,000, the lowest since Jan. 20, 2024.
• The Empire State Manufacturing Index for January came in at 7.7, up 11 points from December and better than the estimate for 1.0, according to the New York Fed.
• The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index was at 12.6, up from -8.8 the prior month and far better than the forecast for -4.5.

—Jeff Cox

Here are some of the names moving before the opening bell:

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — Shares jumped 5.7% after the chipmaker posted a record quarter. Taiwan Semiconductor saw a 35% increase in fourth-quarter profit, beating estimates amid demand for its artificial intelligence chips.
• ASML Holding — The chip-equipment manufacturer soared 6.7% after customer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing announced larger-than-expected capital spending plans.
• BlackRock — The world's largest asset manager gained 2%. Its adjusted earnings came in at $13.16 per share, topping the $12.21 a share expected from analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue came in at $7.01 billion, above the $6.69 billion consensus estimate.
• Rocket Lab — The space company fell 2% following a downgrade to sector weight from overweight at KeyBanc, which said the stock's growth catalysts have become realized.

To see more premarket movers, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Morgan Stanley shares advanced 2% in the premarket, after the bank reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded expectations on the back of strong revenues from wealth management.

Here's what the company reported compared with what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting:

• Earnings per share: $2.68, vs $2.44 expected
• Revenue: $17.89 billion, vs. $17.77 billion expected

— Yun Li, Sarah Min

Goldman Sachs shares gained 0.2% in the premarket, after the bank topped profit estimates in its most recent quarter.

Here are the results reported versus estimates:

• Earnings: $14.01 a share, may not compare with $11.67 estimate
• Revenue: $13.45 billion, may not compare with $13.79 billion estimate

— Hugh Son, Sarah Min

Spotify rose more than 1% after the audio streaming giant said it would raise its subscription price in the U.S. to $12.99 per month from $11.99.

— Fred Imbert

A meeting at the White House between officials from Greenland, Denmark, and the U.S. Wednesday ended with "fundamental disagreement" over the ownership of the island, a Danish official said following the meeting, but that both sides would continue to talk.

Ahead of the talks, Trump doubled down on acquiring the territory, stating on social media that anything less than Greenland becoming a part of the United States was "unacceptable."

— Tasmin Lockwood

European stocks opened higher Thursday, led by AI chip stocks which surged following record earnings by TSMC.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 advanced 0.33% moments after the opening bell in London.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML popped 7% in early dealmaking as investors responded to stronger-than-expected earnings from Taiwan's TSMC.

ASM International was last seen up 9.7% and BE Semiconductor gained 5.4%.

— Tasmin Lockwood

While the three major averages posted a second consecutive losing session on Wednesday, small caps emerged as a bright spot in the market.

The Russell 2000 climbed 0.7%, posting its fourth positive session in the past five. The index also touched a fresh all-time high during the day and closed at a record.

Wednesday's gains put the small-cap index on pace for its second straight positive week. The Russell is up 1% week to date.

—Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that his administration will approve China sales of Nvidia's H200 chip for artificial intelligence, but the U.S. government will take 25% of sales, one day after formal regulations were published by the U.S. government.

Unlike Nvidia's previous China-targeted chip, the H20, the H200 is a version of the company's Hopper generation that is also sold in the U.S. and in other markets. The H200 was not specifically designed and slowed down for export. Trump pointed out in remarks on Wednesday that the H200′s performance has been exceeded by two generations of Nvidia chips currently in production, naming Nvidia's Blackwell and Rubin AI chips.

"It's not the highest level, but it's a pretty good level, and China wants them and other people want them and we're going to be making 25% on the sale of those chips, basically," Trump said.

Trump initially announced the approval of H200 chips and the 25% government cut a month ago.

Read more here.

— Kif Leswing

Shortly after 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures each lost about 0.1%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 48 points, or 0.1%.

— Pia Singh