S&P 500, Nasdaq End Best Day In A Month On Support From Microsoft Gains, AI Stocks — ORCL, GOOGL, MSFT, BE, TSLA Stock In Focus

• The S&P 500 ended 1.7% higher, while the Nasdaq 100 added 3.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%.
• Microsoft stock ended 15.5% higher, following robust Azure revenue.
• The VanEck Semiconductor ETF recorded its best single-day jump since April this year. 

U.S. stock indices ended Thursday higher, with the Nasdaq ending its six-day losing streak after it entered correction territory in the previous session, led by gains in Microsoft as investors awaited earnings from Apple and Amazon after-hours. 

The S&P 500 ended 1.7% higher, while the Nasdaq 100 added 3.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%. The Russell 2000, which tracks stocks with small market capitalizations, added 1.4%.

Among ETFs tracking benchmark indexes, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) rose 1.7%, and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ended Wednesday 3.7% lower, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) fell 1.3%.

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) jumped 8%, its best day since April this year, supported by gains in  AMD (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO) and Micron Tech (MU). The broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) rose 4.6%, tracking gains in Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for QQQ and SPY hovered in the ’bearish’ zone, while sentiment for DIA was ‘bullish’ with ‘high’ message volumes.

US Market Drivers

Following reports that Situational Awareness, a hedge fund managed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, divested a significant portion of its assets to Citadel after offloading equities impacted by the AI market downturn, broader AI shares rallied on Thursday.

Bloom Energy Corp. (BE), Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) and CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV) each soared more than 20%.

“Despite near-term volatility, the outlook for US equities remains constructive, supported by strong corporate earnings, ongoing AI adoption, a resilient economy, and favorable financial conditions,” Sameer Samana at Wells Fargo Investment Institute told Bloomberg in an interview.

Microsoft’s stellar growth in its cloud business and its decision to leave capex plans unchanged supported the stock and aided investor confidence that hyperscalers’ blowout capex plans might transfer into justifiable returns. 

Alternatively, the personal consumption expenditures price index core reading for June arrived at an annual 3.3%, an elevated rate to the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target that Kevin Warsh mentions is a hard limit. 

Concurrently, economic growth in the United States registered a deceleration to 1.5% for the second quarter, falling short of the 1.8% prediction, though the foundational pillars of the economy persisted in showing resilience. These metrics were unveiled in the latest economic data released Thursday.

Trending Stocks To Watch 

Oracle (ORCL): Oracle Corp. said it would expand a partnership with Google Cloud to bring Gemini AI tools to its customers.

OpenAI (OPEAZZX): OpenAI announced significant cost reductions and performance upgrades across its GPT-5.6 artificial intelligence model family.

Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOG, GOOGL): Google on Thursday expanded its Gemini AI family into robotics with the launch of Gemini Robotics ER 2.

Bloom Energy (BE): Analysts at Mizuho upgraded their view on the stock to ‘Outperform’ with a price target 48% higher than its previous closing price.  

Tesla (TSLA): The EV maker announced on Thursday that it has produced its 10 millionth vehicle worldwide, marking a major manufacturing milestone for the electric vehicle pioneer. 

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