S&P 500 rallies, led by Alphabet jump; Wall Street awaits Nvidia earnings: Live updates

The S&P 500 rose on Wednesday, spurred by a jump in Alphabet shares, following a four-day slide centered around technology as investors moved back into the artificial intelligence trade and bet that Nvidia’s upcoming earnings would calm fears that AI stocks are overvalued and overhyped.

The broad market index climbed 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 152 points, or 0.3%.

The S&P 500’s move higher was supported by a 5% jump in Alphabet. Shares were rallying around optimism about its new generation of AI, Gemini 3, which it rolled out Tuesday.

Nvidia also saw gains, rising more than 2% ahead of its third-quarter results scheduled for after the bell. Analysts largely expect that the company — the largest in the broad-market index — will meaningfully beat Wall Street’s expectations and forecast strong sales growth driven by demand for its AI chips and other infrastructure.

But the AI chip darling has a high bar to beat. Investors have taken profits from their tech holdings in recent days, reflecting heightened concerns that the AI boom has run up the valuations of Nvidia and other tech hyperscalers at an unsustainable pace.

“We continue to believe that concerns over an AI bubble bursting are overblown … at least for now,” wrote Chris Senyek of Wolfe Research. “Should the broader U.S. economy hit a soft patch of economic data, we think Tech/Comm Services companies are well positioned to weather a temporary storm. As such, we remain buyers of AI related stocks on share price weakness, but [we’re] waiting for either an upside NVDA surprise or more washed out technical to become more aggressive buyers.”

Tuesday’s session saw the Dow and S&P 500 notch their fourth consecutive losing days, with the S&P 500 notching its longest slide since August. The tech-heavy Nasdaq recorded its fifth negative day in six sessions. Bitcoin briefly dropped below $90,000 on Tuesday before recovering, while gold prices rose from a one-week low.