Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on Oct. 14, 2025 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The S&P 500 rose on Thursday, boosted by tech stocks, as investors stepped in to buy after a batch of strong earnings results.
The broad market index climbed 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded up 173 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 1.1% with the support of gains in names such as Nvidia, Broadcom and Amazon. A 3% jump in shares of fellow artificial intelligence player Oracle also helped send the market higher.
The S&P 500’s move higher marks a full recovery and more from its meaningful losses seen in the previous session, when the index fell roughly 0.5%. The Dow lost about 334 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq declined 0.9% as investors rotated out of riskier assets.
Stocks had finished lower Wednesday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the White House is mulling plans to curb exports to China made with U.S. software. Those plans would build on Trump’s statement almost two weeks ago that the U.S. will implement export restrictions by Nov. 1 on “any and all critical software.”
“Do not discount the bull market yet, just because of a volatility bout,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president at Reflexivity. “A handful of tech stocks have led the rally, but now we stand to see how hundreds of global companies benefit from AI’s productivity gains.”
Investors are now continuing to watch earnings releases from the biggest U.S. companies, which many believe could be make-or-break for the current bull market rally. Tesla – which kicked off reports from the “Magnificent Seven” – saw shares come back from earlier losses in the day after reporting mixed third-quarter results. IBM shares also pared losses after beating Wall Street estimates but reporting in-line software revenue. IBM was last down by more than 1%, while Tesla had risen more than 1%.
More than 80% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have exceeded earnings expectations, per FactSet.
“While we are seeing individual stocks get punished after missing expectations, we expect earnings overall to be strong enough to keep stock prices elevated in the near-term,” said Emily Bowersock Hill, CEO and founding partner at Bowersock Capital Partners. “This current earnings season is unlikely to disappoint investors enough to trigger a notable market setback.”
Those on Wall Street are also monitoring a rise in oil prices after Trump administration imposed additional sanctions on Russia’s two biggest crude companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, due to the country’s “lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.”
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Bessent said when announcing the new sanctions.
Trade remains in focus as well. President Donald Trump said Wednesday evening that his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is “scheduled,” easing some fears about U.S.-China relations that had put markets under pressure on Wednesday.
