The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major stock indexes finished with a bullish bent Thursday as all three shook off early jitters and ended up positive. Nvidia was among those that proved resilient, paring early losses down to minimal dips. And a few retailers, particularly those on the deep-discount side like Burlington Stores, rallied on the stock market today.
Wall Street digested better-than-expected GDP numbers and weekly jobless claims. And indexes even gained a bit more buying oomph during the final hour of trade.
The large-cap S&P 500 sparkled with an all-time high as it finished a touch above 0.3% at 6,501.86. That was the index's first close above 6,500. The day's gain slightly lagged a 0.5% lift by the Nasdaq composite to 21,705.16. The Nasdaq is close to surpassing its all-time high of 21,803.75.
The Nasdaq has sprinted higher in four of the past five sessions and is now up 12.4% year-to-date with one more trading day left in August. The stock market is closed Monday for Labor Day.
Also, the Nasdaq-100 index moved up 0.6%, finishing near session highs. Further, the Dow pulled a positive reversal, turning losses into meager gains of 0.2%. At least nine of the 30 Dow blue chips advanced 1 point or more.
Volume increased roughly 3% vs. Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange and eased by that much on the Nasdaq exchange. Expect volume to cool on Friday, however, as traders take off for the long Labor Day weekend.
New In IBD Long-Term Leaders: This Telecom Giant Joins The Watchlist
Nvidia Pares Its Losses
Nvidia started out roughly 3% in the hole but ended the day off 0.8%. The artificial intelligence giant found bullish support at its rising 21-day exponential moving average. It has yet to challenge holders at the 50-day line since early May, and shows a 14.4% gain since the start of the third quarter.
Please read this IBD tech story for extended analyst commentary on the chip system giant's fiscal Q2 results.
In stocks, key retailing and consumer spending-focused companies to watch include Urban Outfitters — which plunged nearly 11% and sharply undercut its 50-day moving average — and cosmetics innovator ELF Beauty, which was up nearly 4%.
3:51 p.m. ET
Five Below Moves Above Ground
Also worth noting was Five Below, which posted strong July-quarter results — earnings up 50% to 81 cents a share, sales up 24% to $1.03 billion. Five Below, which sells most of its goods at $5 apiece, ran more than 4% higher. Shares had encountered upside resistance near 140 for two months.
Go to a weekly chart and the recent action resembles a handle on an extremely deep consolidation base. Hence, a 143.88 buy point seems justified, and Five Below is in a 5% buy zone. The stock, which has an enviable 97 Composite Rating, also has found bullish buying support along its 10-week moving average since late July. In general, focus on high-growth stocks that rank a 95 or higher in terms of the IBD Composite Rating.
The Philadelphia-based retailer sports an $8.3 billion market cap based on 55.1 million shares outstanding. It finished the fiscal second quarter with 1,858 stores in 44 states. It added a net 32 new stores, or up 11.5% year over year.
"We have been maniacally focused on executing with excellence, specifically curating 'Wow!' newness in our assortment, simplifying our pricing while maintaining extreme value," Five Below Chief Executive Winnie Park said in a news release.
Park added that Halloween and Christmas are very important selling periods coming later in the year. According to MarketSurge, Wall Street sees earnings of 19 cents per share for the October-ending third quarter and $3.20 in the January-ending fourth quarter.
Futures: 7 Stocks Flash Buy Signals After Nvidia Test
2:42 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Burlington Stock Gaps Up
Burlington gapped up at the open and reached as high as 309 before surrendering some of the day's gains as it staged a fresh breakout. Still, the discount retail chain for clothing and home goods has robustly pushed past a 288.59 handle entry within its eight-month cup-style base.
Burlington posted 33% earnings growth and a 10% rise in sales to $2.71 billion, with the better-than-expected figures highlighting an increase in budget-conscious shoppers in the U.S. Gross margin remained strong at 43.9%. Wall Street expects earnings to rise 13% in the current fiscal year, ending in January, to $9.26 a share.
Returning to blue chips, within the 30-stock Dow Jones average, at least seven components gained 1 point or more, including Leaderboard stock JPMorgan Chase, Caterpillar, Microsoft and Salesforce. Among the four, Salesforce stock is struggling the most as it has not risen significantly above the 50-day moving average since late January.
The Russell 2000 was also up marginally. Data storage, agricultural operations, fiber optic, alternative energy, solar and enterprise software stocks were big winners as these IBD industry groups rallied 2% or more. So did the contract electronics manufacturing and database software industries.
1:25 p.m. ET
Watch These Top Tech Plays
Among tech stocks, data player Pure Storage was among the winners as it vaulted higher, but Nvidia fell on the stock market today yet kept losses tidy after it posted earnings.
In other financial markets, the 10-year Treasury yield ticked 2 basis points lower to 4.21%. It's down significantly from a year-to-date high of 4.81% set in January. Oil prices dipped, as West Texas intermediate futures traded near $63.67 a barrel.
Gold and silver futures outperformed stocks, rising 0.6% and 1.2%, respectively. Near-expiration contracts on gold hit a session high of 3,471 per ounce; they started the year at $2,639. Silver made an early-morning high of $39.86.
Stock Market Today: A New Breed Of Software, Biotech, Telecom Leaders
IBD's Stocks On The Move table highlights several smaller high-growth companies that are jamming. One is OptimizeRx, which ran 7% higher and made a multiyear high of 18.96. Volume grew 139% above usual levels.
The company specializes in digital messaging for electronic health records. Earnings in the June quarter soared to 24 cents a share vs. 2 cents a year ago. Revenue rose 55% to $29.2 million. Gross margin was stout at 63.8%.
OptimizeRx recently cleared an eight-week base with a 15.71 entry. It's now extended. Watch for a potential test of the 21-day exponential moving average; a rebound off that level could spur a follow-on entry for active investors.
Travere Therapeutics also outperformed the major indexes. Shares jumped 6%; at one point the gain reached 12% to 19.57, a three-month high. Travere still needs work building the right side of a new base.
The company posted excellent second-quarter results on Aug. 6 with a net profit of 13 cents a share vs. a net loss of 65 cents in the year-ago quarter. Sales popped 111% to $114.5 million.
Keep A Close Eye On Lumentum
In the fiber-optic telecom space, keep a close eye on Lumentum. Shares gained more than 6% and hit a new high of 134.40. Lumentum shares have bolted more than 38% since breaking out of a good cup with handle that furnished a 96.68 buy point. The stock is up almost 62% for the year.
In Lumentum's handle, the two-week decline was limited to just 8%. That's textbook action for this key chart pattern used by savvy growth fund managers and individual investors.
The expert in optical communication-based data networking posted earnings of 88 cents a share in the June-ended fiscal fourth quarter vs. a net loss of 13 cents a year earlier on a 56% jump in revenue to $480.7 million. Wall Street sees profit in fiscal 2026, ending in June next year, leaping 136% to $4.86 a share.
Lumentum is squarely in midcap land with a market value of $9.4 billion. Travere is worth $1.6 billion in the stock market today, while OptimizeRx stands as a fellow small cap worth $348 million.
12:21 p.m. ET
Defensive Food Stock Implodes
Meanwhile, lingering inflation boosted operating costs for Hormel Foods, which slid more than 13%. The stock has been a laggard all year.
Hormel, the giant in canned meats and other shelf-stable food products, reported a 5% top-line increase to $3.03 billion. However, earnings fell 5% to 35 cents a share. The company missed FactSet's consensus earnings-per-share estimate by a nickel. Amid higher commodity costs, Hormel lowered its fiscal 2025 adjusted profit outlook to a range of $1.43-$1.45 from $1.58-$1.68.
Management noted it's planning to take "targeted pricing actions," which is code for price hikes for some of its products.
The stock has been in a steady downtrend of lower highs and lower lows since April 2022, when it peaked at 55.11. Trading near 25.11, Hormel stock is now 54% off that high and has plunged to price levels last seen in the summer of 2014. Hormel stock has an unsavory Relative Strength Rating of 22 on a scale of 1 to 99 over the past 12 months.
11:26 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Nvidia Keeps Losses Tidy
Nvidia stock, down no more than 2.9% during the first hour of trading, has actually kept morning losses relatively tidy. Shares were down just 0.7% in recent action.
Data from Thinkorswim noted that options activity prior to the earnings news had indicated the artificial intelligence chip king could fall as many as 11 points from the Wednesday closing price of 181.60, or a potential drop of nearly 7%.
Based on Thursday's intraday high of 184.47, Nvidia has risen 37% for the year, nearly triple the 12.7% lift by the Nasdaq 100 over the same time frame.
Pure Storage Rocks On Earnings
Meanwhile, Pure Storage led the upside among computer, cloud and artificial intelligence companies. Pure Storage posted a 2% dip in July-ended quarterly profit, sinking to 43 cents a share. However, sales picked up steam. The top line grew 13% to $861 million. In the prior three quarters, revenue climbed 9%, 11% and 12% vs. year-ago levels.
In a press release, Chief Executive Charles Giancarlo noted that with the company's Purity and Pure Fusion products, "customers virtualize their storage to create their own Enterprise Data Cloud to unlock their data for business value." He added that many enterprise software applications today are "stuck in inflexible legacy systems that lock data in silos."
The company noted that storage-as-a-service offerings saw growth of 24% on a total contract value basis.
With a gain of more than 28%, Pure Storage shares staged an earnings breakaway gap. That means on an intraday chart, the session high of 75.49 provided an alternative buy point based on Investor's Business Daily's analysis and research of the biggest stock market winners. The 5% buy zone from that price of 75.49 stretches up to 79.26.
9:58 a.m. ET
Nasdaq-100 Winners, Losers: Datadog, AMD
Among the Nasdaq-100 index stocks, Datadog and Advanced Micro Devices moved up 3.9% and 2%, respectively, making them some of the best performers in early action.
On the downside, Dexcom and Old Dominion Freight Line slipped more than 1% each.
9:11 a.m. ET
Dow Jones Movers: Apple, Caterpillar, Salesforce
Inside the blue chip index, Apple, Caterpillar and Salesforce were among the best performers in premarket trading Thursday.
Apple shares climbed 0.2%, moving closer to a 235.12 buy point. Caterpillar stock gained 0.5%, still in buy range above a 418.50 entry. And Salesforce moved up 0.9%, looking to add to Wednesday's 2.6% gain and nearing its 50-day moving average.
8:47 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Surprise GDP, Jobless Claims
Early Thursday, the Commerce Department said that preliminary second-quarter GDP was revised up, to 3.3%. That was above estimates that called for a revision to 3.1% from the 3% initial report.
Meanwhile, jobless claims fell more than expected, to 229,000 vs. 235,000 in the previous week. They were expected to ease to 230,000, according to Econoday estimates.
8:09 a.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Falls On Earnings
Nvidia stock dropped more than 1% Thursday morning even after the company beat expectations for its fiscal second quarter and with its outlook.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted $1.05 a share on sales of $46.74 billion in the quarter ended July 27. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Nvidia to earn an adjusted $1.01 a share on sales of $46.05 billion. In the year-earlier period, Nvidia earned an adjusted 68 cents a share on sales of $30.04 billion.
Earnings Movers: CrowdStrike, Snowflake
Other key earnings movers also included Best Buy, Burlington Stores, CrowdStrike, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dollar General and Five Below.
Also reporting were Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Snowflake, Urban Outfitters and Veeva Systems.
Best Buy stock lost more than 3%, while shares of Burlington Stores jumped nearly 9%. CrowdStrike lost nearly 3%, as Dick's Sporting Goods added nearly 1%. Dollar General surged more than 6% as Five Below rallied nearly 4%.
Ollie's stock jumped more than 6%. Snowflake shares leaped more than 13% as Urban Outfitters sold off nearly 4%. Finally, Veeva stock tumbled nearly 4% in premarket action.
Stock Market Today: GDP, Jobless Claims
On the economic front, preliminary second-quarter GDP numbers from the Commerce Department and the Labor Department's weekly initial unemployment claims are both due out at 8:30 a.m. ET.
GDP is expected to be revised up to show a 3.1% growth rate for the second quarter, from the 3% initial report.
Meanwhile, after a surprise 11,000 increase to 235,000 last week, jobless claims are expected to ease to 230,000, according to Econoday estimates.
Be sure to follow Scott Lehtonen on X at @IBD_SLehtonen for more on growth stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the stock market today.
