Tech stocks lead Wall Street after Nvidia, Salesforce and others say AI
is creating big growth
[August 28, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks led Wall Street on Thursday after
Nvidia, Salesforce and others reported even fatter profits for the
spring than analysts expected.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and pulled closer to its all-time high set earlier
this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 105 points, or 0.2%,
and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.6%.
Nvidia was the strongest force pulling the market higher, and the chip
giant rallied 8.7% after once again delivering stronger profit and
revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. More importantly
for Wall Street, it also gave forecasts for upcoming revenue growth that
topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting demand remains strong for chips
to power artificial-intelligence projects.
“AI has reached its inflection point,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said.
“It’s doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable.”
That helped calm some of the worries that have built around AI stocks
generally, which have been under pressure recently. After rocketing
higher for years because of the frenzy around AI, stocks in the industry
are confronting skepticism that they shot too high and that booming
demand for AI chips may fade if the AI revolution does not produce as
much profit as promised.
Another big tech company, Salesforce, jumped 22.6% after it said that AI
helped it deliver one of its best quarters in history. It reported
stronger profit than analysts expected, and CEO Marc Benioff said it’s
“seeing incredible demand for our AI and data products” and that it’s
“turning AI into customer success at unprecedented scale.”
Salesforce, which helps companies manage their customers’ data, also
raised its forecast for revenue over the full year and announced an
expanded partnership to pair Anthropic’s Claude chatbot with its
platform. It’s notable because Salesforce’s stock struggled earlier on
worries that competitors powered by AI could ultimately steal away
customers from Salesforce and other software companies. Salesforce’s
stock had its best day in six years.
Elsewhere, though, trends were more mixed across big U.S. companies, and
the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell.
HP sank 2.9% even though it topped analysts’ expectations for profit and
revenue in the latest quarter. Analysts pointed to worries about its
sales of personal computers, as well as how higher prices for computer
memory and other commodities are pressuring its profit margins.
Best Buy and some other retailers sank amid continued worries that U.S.
shoppers could be stretched because of high inflation and discouragement
about the economy. Best Buy fell 4.4% even though it topped analysts’
expectations for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter.
One potential winner from high inflation could be dollar stores, which
could see higher-income households become new customers as they look for
less expensive places to shop.
[to top of second column] |
Screens on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange display S&P 500
Index at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, Aug. 21,
2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
 Dollar General rose 2.5% after
reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts
expected. But rival Dollar Tree sank 3.9% despite blowing past
profit expectations. More attention may have been on its forecasted
range for an important underlying measure of revenue, whose midpoint
fell short of analysts’ expectations.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 55.29 points to 7,730.99. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 105.56 to 53,569.44, and the Nasdaq
composite rose 411.16 to 26,541.35.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following a report
suggesting the U.S. job market remains solid. Fewer U.S. workers
applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that
layoffs could be remaining low.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.67% from 4.66% late
Wednesday.
Yields have been largely climbing through the summer on worries
about high inflation, the U.S. government’s gargantuan and growing
debt and other factors. They got so high that the U.S. Treasury
Department made a surprise announcement last week to intervene in
the bond market, though analysts say its effect could be limited.
The next big event for the bond market will be a speech coming
Friday from the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh. He has
been adamant about giving financial markets fewer clues about what
the Fed will do in the future with interest rates to control
inflation. But the pressure is on him to give clearer guidance.
One wild card for inflation has been oil prices, which have been
swinging with uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow
oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. The price for a
barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.8%
Thursday to $88.52.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia.
Stocks jumped 1.5% in Seoul and 1.1% in Shanghai but fell 1.7% in
Paris.
___
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to
this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
