NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes staged a turnaround on Thursday after higher oil prices lifted energy shares even as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s exit stirred concerns about the future of the AI heavyweight.
The chip giant’s shares were last down 4.2 percent, having bounced off session lows. Retail investors bought Nvidia shares worth about USD111 million in the first half hour of trading, the biggest opening bid on record for the stock, according to data from Vanda Analytics.
Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were in positive territory, with energy leading gains with a 1.3 percent jump.
Oil prices rose after US President Donald Trump said “we don’t need a deal with Iran.”
At 11:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 125.85 points, or 0.24 percent, to 52,612.34, the S&P 500 added 13.09 points, or 0.17 percent, to 7,632.47 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 34.77 points, or 0.14 percent, to 25,500.96.
“We’ve spent two years in a market where the indexes sat at record highs while most of the companies inside them traded well below theirs,” said Bill Mann, chief investment strategist at Motley Fool Asset Management.
Still, some investors warned that questions will persist about the future of AI companies that have deep ties with Nvidia.
The company has backed several firms, including its own customers, through financing arrangements that now face greater scrutiny after Huang’s departure.
“Nvidia doesn’t just sell chips. It also stands behind some of the financing that helps customers build the data centers those chips go into,” said Matthew Tuttle, founder and CEO of Tuttle Capital Management.
“How much demand comes from customers who can pay on their own? How much needs an Nvidia investment or guarantee? And what happens to profits if that support gets more expensive?”
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index rose 0.2 percent.
Neocloud company Nebius said its 2026 revenue would come in at the low end of its previous forecast, pulling its shares down 17 percent. Peer CoreWeave dropped about 6 percent.
Other data center-related firms IREN and Applied Digital fell 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
However, shares of some Magnificent Seven firms advanced, with Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon up over 1 percent each.
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