Stocks close higher: S&P 500 +1.3%, Nasdaq +1.6% as CoreWeave revives the AI trade, Micron +12%

Wall Street clawed back Tuesday's losses on Wednesday as strong results from CoreWeave eased worries about AI spending. The S&P 500 rose 1.31% to 7,619.38, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 254.60 points, or 0.49%, to 52,486.49, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.60% to 25,466.19, according to Yahoo Finance closing data. It was the S&P 500's highest close since Nov. 4, when it ended at 7,688.62, and it is still 0.9% below that level.

The closing scoreboard

Sources: Yahoo Finance closing data, percent changes our arithmetic. Oil and gold are the continuous front-month futures Yahoo lists.

What moved: CoreWeave and the chips

CoreWeave closed up 24.7% at $60.77. The New York Post reported a 168% jump in third-quarter revenue and higher 2026 revenue and operating-income forecasts, and described Microsoft as its biggest customer. We covered the numbers in our results story and the CEO's share-sale decision in our update.

Chips followed. Per Yahoo Finance, Micron rose 11.9% to $811.30, AMD 7.3% to $552.90, Intel 7.5% to $62.50 and Broadcom 4.0% to $345.22. Nvidia gained 2.9% to $173.73, recovering part of Tuesday's 5.5% drop; Wall Street downgrades and a senator's call for Jensen Huang to step down are in our Nvidia story. The company reports on Nov. 17.

The number behind the number: a narrow rally

The Dow rose about a third as much as the S&P 500 and about a fifth as much as the Nasdaq-100. The difference was Microsoft, which fell 2.3% to $521.13 even though CoreWeave's results were meant to be good news for its cloud partners. We looked and found no company announcement or reported reason for the drop, so we are not offering one. Chips did the lifting: the semiconductor index gained 5.7%, and it is the swing factor in index-level moves this month. The VIX fell to 17.49, down 38% from 28.18 on Nov. 5, as measured by Yahoo.

Bonds were closed, so the rate story is unfinished

The bond market was shut for Veterans Day, according to the New York Post, so there was no Wednesday Treasury yield. The latest is the Treasury's Nov. 10 curve: 10-year at 4.98%, 2-year at 4.73%. On Tuesday night, futures priced about an 88% chance of a quarter-point Fed hike on Dec. 8-9 and about 12% for a half-point, per Kitco, whose figures we reported earlier. Stocks rallied; the market that sets those odds has not traded. Gold fell below $4,000, and the dollar index rose 0.69%, which the Post said took it to a 19-month high.

Who it hits

A business with a floating-rate line is no better off for the stock rally. A quarter-point hike on a $250,000 balance adds about $52 a month in interest ($250,000 x 0.0025 / 12), and a half-point about $104. An importer paying a European supplier gains from a strong dollar: the euro bought about $1.1088 late in the session, down 0.77 cent on the day per the Chronicle markets board, so a 100,000-euro invoice costs roughly $765 less than it did Tuesday. Fleet owners face the other side: Brent rose 1.2% and diesel follows crude with a lag.

What to watch

Thursday brings weekly jobless claims (forecast 195,000 against 189,000 last week) and October existing home sales (forecast 3.85 million against 3.99 million), per the Chronicle markets board calendar. Retail sales follow on Nov. 17, the same day as Nvidia's results. For the earlier slide, see our Nov. 10 close.

Sources: Yahoo Finance closing data; New York Post; U.S. Treasury daily par yield curve; Kitco; Chronicle markets board. This is market information, not investment advice.