Stock Market Today: Stocks extend record rally; Nvidia passes $2 trillion

Stocks are back to all-time highs, but creeping inflation concerns could cap Friday's gains.

Feb 23, 2024 - 20:30

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Stock Market Today: Stocks extend record rally; Nvidia passes $2 trillion

Check back for updates throughout the trading day

U.S. stocks extended gains Friday as investors brushed-past a rise in Treasury bond yields to ride the market's year-long tech inspired rally that lifted stocks to a record close again last night.

Updated at 9:44 AM EST

Two bags

Nvidia shares topped the $2 trillion mark, just 269 days after it breached the $1 trillion threshold, following the AI chipmaker's stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings and outlook earlier this week.

Nvidia shares were last marked 4.1% higher in early Friday trading and changing hands at $817.40 each, a move that extends the stock's astonishing 2024 gain to around 70% and values the group at $2.05 trillion.

Updated at 9:14 AM EST

That's all, folks ...

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shares slumped lower in heavy pre-market volume after the media and entertainment group pulled its full-year profit guidance following a bigger-than-expected fourth quarter loss tied to the Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes.

"We have an attack plan for 2024 that includes the roll-out of Max in key international markets, a more robust creative pipeline across our film and TV studios, and further progress against our long-range financial goals," said CEO David Zaslav.

WBD shares were marked 8.6% lower in pre-market trading and indicating an opening bell price of $8.74 each.

$WBD reported Q4 adj. EPS of ($0.16), $0.06 worse than the analyst estimate of ($0.10); Total revenue dipped by 7% to $10.28B, missing Wall Street estimates of $10.46B; Advertising revenue at its networks segment declined 12% to $1.95B. https://t.co/MdL0PXy618— notreload (@thudderwicks) February 23, 2024

Stock Market Today

Nvidia's (NVDA) stunning Thursday surge, which added more than $277 billion to the AI-chip maker's market value — the single-largest market gain in U.S. history — helped power the S&P 500 to an all-time high of 5,087.03 points.

Investors repriced AI and tech stocks across the board in the wake of Nvidia's stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, which included a robust near-term sales outlook, driving the Nasdaq nearly 3% higher and to within 1% of the all-time high it reached in November 2021.

Nvidia shares, meanwhile, were still marked 1.75% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $799.21 each and a market value of $1.95 trillion.

Adding to the bullish sentiment: another round of solid jobs data, which showed applications for unemployment benefits falling to 201,000 over the week ended Feb. 17, as well as indications that broader business activity continued to accelerate in February.

However, inflation concerns have rekindled among bond traders over the past week, first sparked by a stronger-than-expected January Consumer Price Index report and fanned with hawkish commentary from Federal Reserve officials and minutes from the central bank's last policy meeting.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, in fact, told an event in Minneapolis last night that "the risk of waiting a little longer to ease policy is lower than the risk of acting too soon and possibly halting or reversing the progress we’ve made on inflation."

Benchmark 10-year note yields, which have risen around 45 basis points over the past three weeks, were last marked 2 basis points higher from Thursday's close at 4.345% in the wake of Waller's comments.

The odds of a May Fed rate cut, meanwhile, have slumped to around 20%, with bets on reductions beginning in June pegged at around 52.8%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

On Wall Street, stocks are set for a mixed but muted open to finish off the week, with futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 indicating a 2 point opening bell bump from last night's record close.

Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, are indicating a 65 point gain while those tied to the Nasdaq suggest a 20 point pullback.

In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 was marked 0.13% higher in early Frankfurt trading, while Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed from last night's close.

Overnight in Asia, the regionwide MSCI ex-Japan index was marked 0.13% higher into the close of trading, while Japan's Nikkei 225 was closed for the annual observance of the Emperor's Birthday.

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