US stocks opened lower but found a bid and finished modestly higher, extending one of the most-impressive rallies in recent memory.
A true indication of the state of the market was a nearly 30% rally in shares of Marvell Technology Inc, a semi-conductor designer. The catalyst for the move was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying it will be the next trillion dollar company. That alone was enough to boost it to $321 billion from $247 billion in market cap. It's a sign of the incredible retail frenzy in anything related to AI.
Another big winner was Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, as it soared 19% on earnings that crushed estimates. Server revenue was $5.45 billion, nearly $1 billion above estimates as AI spending is seemingly unlimited and broad.
In terms of the indexes:
- S&P 500 +0.1%
- Nasdaq Comp +0.1%
- Russell 2000 +0.9%
- DJIA +0.45%
The main drag on the index was Alphabet as the company announced an equity raise that will see shareholders diluted by 1.7%. That sent shares lower by 3.8%.
Some software names also reversed the big gains in May as Intuit fell 8.7% and ServiceNow fell 6.1%. The IGV software ETF was down 3.0%.
The good news was the breadth was better today and at +13 was the strongest since Memorial Day. One of the criticism of the recent rally was that it was driven by only a few names.
A real-economy standout gainer was copper giant Freeport-McMoran, which rose 6.7%. Caterpillar also continued its incredible rally with a 5.3% gain.
After hours, cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks reported earnings and shares rose around 10% in extended trading. The company raised its outlook and now expects to earn $3.77-3.96 per share.
Shares of the company have shot higher from $139 in March.
