Broad Gains Follow Nvidia's Positive Report

US stocks climbed Thursday after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they're making even fatter profits than expected.

• The Dow rose 461.88 points, or 1.1%, to 43,870.35.
• The S&P 500 rose 31.60 points, or 0.5%, to 5,948.71.
• The Nasdaq rose 6.28 points, or less than 0.1%, to 18,972.42.

Nvidia rose just 0.5% after beating analysts' estimates for profit and revenue again, but it was still the strongest force pulling the S&P 500 up, the AP reports. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most analysts' expectations due to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. How Nvidia's stock performs has more impact than any other because it's grown into Wall Street's most valuable company at roughly $3.6 trillion. The frenzy around AI is sweeping up other stocks, and Snowflake jumped 32.7% after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, whose platform helps customers get a better view of all their silos of data and use AI, also reported stronger revenue growth than expected.

BJ'S Wholesale Club rose 8.3% after likewise delivering a bigger profit than expected. That may help calm worries about how resilient US shoppers can remain, given high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates. Nearly 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 ended up rising Thursday, and the gains were even bigger among smaller companies. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks jumped a market-leading 1.7%. Google's parent company, Alphabet, helped keep indexes in check. It fell 4.7% after US regulators asked a judge to break up the tech giant by forcing it to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser. (More Wall Street stories.)