Thursday was a strong day for U.S. equities, led by a powerful rally in technology stocks that pushed the Nasdaq up 1.37% to close at 26,176.29. The S&P 500 added 0.66% to finish at 7,718.71, comfortably holding above the psychologically significant 7,700 level, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up a more modest 0.19% to 53,184.81.
The headline story of the session was unmistakably Nvidia. Shares of the AI chipmaker rocketed 8.74% to $227.98, making it the single largest contributor to the Nasdaq's outsized gain. The move dwarfed the rest of the market and underscored how much weight Nvidia carries in the current technology landscape, where demand for AI infrastructure remains a dominant investment thesis.
Small-cap stocks also participated in the rally, with the Russell 2000 rising 0.29% to 2,986.11 — a sign that risk appetite extended beyond just mega-cap tech. Gold continued to reflect a complex macro backdrop, with prices sitting at $4,614.79, suggesting that while equities rallied, some investors maintained their defensive hedges.
Amazon was the notable laggard among large-caps, declining 1.54% to $256.26. The divergence between Nvidia's explosive gain and Amazon's pullback highlighted a broader rotation dynamic within tech, as investors concentrated firepower in the semiconductor and AI hardware space over e-commerce and cloud platforms.