US close: Stocks higher as CoreWeave surges, Nvidia rebounds

(Sharecast News) - Major indices closed higher on Wednesday as neocloud giant CoreWeave traded higher on the back of its solid third-quarter earnings report and shares in chipmaker Nvidia bounced in regular trading.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.49% at 52,486.49, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.31% to 7,619.38 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.60% firmer at 25,466.19.

The Dow closed 254.60 points higher on Wednesday, more than reversing losses recorded in the previous session as expectations for a quarter-point rate increase from the Federal Reserve at its next policy meeting rose to roughly 90% after a hotter-than-expected US inflation print increased by 0.4% month-on-month in October.

Cloud infrastructure technology firm CoreWeave surged 24.71% on Wednesday after topping Wall Street expectations with its latest quarterly revenues overnight, fuelled by solid demand for its cloud services. CoreWeave posted revenues of $3.66bn, up from $1.37bn twelve months earlier and ahead of estimates of $3.55bn. It also hiked its full-year revenue forecast to between $13bn and $13.3bn, up from $12.4bn to $13.2bn.

Elsewhere, Nvidia rebounded 2.92% on Wednesday, recovering some ground lost during the prior two sessions, when the stock shed almost 10% following chief executive Jensen Huang's confirmation of an affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy. However, the shares reversed course in extended trading, dropping 8.16% after reports suggested the chipmaker's board was considering leadership changes at the company. According to reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, the board's deliberations relate to allegations surrounding Huang's personal conduct, including a reported relationship with a senior Nvidia executive, in addition to the separate claims involving another individual linked in media reports to Chinese intelligence.

On the macro front, US mortgage applications rose by 6.2% in the week ended 6 November, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, marking the sharpest weekly increase since June. Last week's increase helped trim the sharp decline in mortgage applications since the start of September, with a pullback in oil prices and a pivot to Treasury securities drove benchmark mortgage rates lower. Applications to refinance a mortgage, which are typically more sensitive to week-to-week interest rate changes, rose by 4.5%, while applications for a mortgage to purchase a new home rose by 7.5%.

No major corporate earnings were released on Wednesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com