By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer
Modest gains on Wall Street lifted the stock market to an all-time high Wednesday ahead of a highly anticipated earnings update from computer chip giant Nvidia.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, good enough to nudge the benchmark index past the record high it set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% higher.
Technology companies led the way higher, outweighing declines in communication services and other sectors.
After the market closed, Nvidia reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated. The stock fell 3.2% in after-hours trading after having slipped 0.1% during the regular session.
Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market.
“Saying this is the most important stock in the world is an understatement,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “The stock’s average move after an earnings release is plus or minus 7.4%, so just an average move will make an impact on the entire market.”
Several big software companies — CrowdStrike Holdings, ServiceNow, Palo Alto Networks, Intuit and Salesforce — rose ahead of the Nvidia results.
The stocks have been mostly in the red so far this quarter amid worries that AI is going to make software creation much easier at the expense of big software companies’ competitive edge.