Technology stocks outperformed Thursday thanks to blowout earnings from AI bellwether Nvidia (NVDA). However, the rest of the market lagged as volume thinned ahead of the long holiday weekend.
As a reminder, Monday is a stock market holiday with stock and bond markets closed in observance of Memorial Day.
Indeed, technology was the best-performing of the S&P 500's 11 sectors today, only falling 0.8%. The sector's losses were limited thanks to Magnificent 7 stock Nvidia, which gained 9.3% after its first-quarter earnings report, adding $221 billion in market value. This is roughly equivalent to the entire market cap of fellow chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM, -0.6%).
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Nvidia's Q1 results show AI momentum remains strong, with revenue spiking to $26 billion from $7.2 billion the year prior and earnings up nearly fivefold to $6.12 per share.
"Death, taxes, and NVDA beats on earnings," says Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. "Even in the face of huge expectations, the company once again stepped up and delivered. The always important data center revenue was strong, while future revenue was also impressive. Bottom line, the bar was high and cleared it once again."
Nvidia stock split will drastically lower the share price
But there was more in Nvidia's earnings report for investors to smile about. For one, the company announced a 10-for-1 stock split, effective after the June 7 close.
NVDA's stock split won't change anything about the company's fundamentals or market valuation. Rather, a stock split is like making change. In Nvidia's case, it will be equivalent to breaking a $10 bill into 10 $1 bills – or bringing its share price down to around $103.70 from its current $1,037.
Nvidia said it is splitting its stock in order to to "make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors." The company also said it is hiking its quarterly dividend by 150% to a post-split amount of 1 cent per share.
Boeing slumps on cash flow concerns
Boeing (BA) was also in focus Thursday. BA slumped 7.6%, making it the worst Dow Jones stock today, after the aerospace firm warned cash flow will remain negative for the time being.
Speaking at a Wolfe Research industry conference, Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West said the company's second-quarter free cash flow, or the money left over after expenses to run, maintain and expand the business are covered, will likely be similar to or "possibly a little worse" than the negative $4 billion incurred in Q1. West also said aircraft deliveries will remain near a four-year low.
Solid PMI data lowers rate-cut expectations
Some good-news-is-bad-news economic data also served as a headwind for stocks Thursday. Specifically, S&P Global's Flash Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) jumped to 54.8 in May from April's reading of 51.8. The Flash Manufacturing PMI also increased, to 52.4 from 51.1.
"This morning's accelerating growth data point to the uncertainty plaguing inflation just as global central bankers inch closer to the scissors," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers. "The risks of waiting too long to reach an inflation target include a greater chance of price gains along the road."
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.5% at 39,065, while the S&P 500 was off 0.7% at 5,267. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which was up more than 1% at its session peak, finished the day down 0.4% at 16,736.
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