Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Nov. 19, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 rose on Wednesday, spurred by a jump in Alphabet shares, following a four-day slide centered around technology as investors moved back into the artificial intelligence trade and bet that Nvidia’s upcoming earnings would calm fears that AI stocks are overvalued and overhyped.
The broad market index climbed 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered around the flatline.
The S&P 500’s move higher was supported by a 4% jump in Alphabet, which hit a new all-time high. Shares were rallying around optimism about its new generation of AI, Gemini 3, which it rolled out Tuesday.
Nvidia also saw gains, rising 2% ahead of its third-quarter results scheduled for after the bell. Analysts largely expect that the company — the largest in the broad-market index — will meaningfully beat Wall Street’s expectations and forecast strong sales growth driven by demand for its AI chips and other infrastructure.
“They’re going to come in great, I suspect, but if they don’t, then there’s going to be a problem,” Scott Welch, chief investment officer at Certuity, told CNBC. “Within the AI space, it’s not that people disbelieve the trade or don’t think these are quality companies. It’s just that they’re really super hyper-expensive right now from a valuation perspective.”
The AI chip darling has a high bar to beat. Investors have taken profits from their tech holdings in recent days, reflecting heightened concerns that the AI boom has run up the valuations of Nvidia and other hyperscalers at an unsustainable pace.
“People are just starting to ask the question, as they should, ‘You guys are committing to spending trillions of dollars into your data centers and your AI capabilities and everything else, when are we going to see the results of that?’” Welch said. “It’s not a question that they’re doubting them. It’s just that it’s a question of timing.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the AI trade, but it may not go to the moon tomorrow,” he continued. “There’s never, ever in history been an experience where markets have gotten this elevated and not corrected.”
Tuesday’s session saw the Dow and S&P 500 notch their fourth consecutive losing days, with the S&P 500 logging its longest slide since August. The tech-heavy Nasdaq recorded its fifth negative day in six sessions. Bitcoin briefly dropped below $90,000 on Tuesday before recovering, while gold prices rose from a one-week low.