Tech buyers stormed back onto Wall Street on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.6% shortly after the opening bell, spearheading a broad relief rally that pulled benchmark indices out of a two-session tailspin.
Sellers blinked. The benchmark S&P 500 advanced nearly 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 45 points, or 0.1%. Trading occurred against a subdued fixed-income backdrop, as the US bond market remained shut in observance of Veterans Day.
Nvidia shares climbed 5%, clawing back ground after shedding nearly 10% earlier in the week. The chipmaker had dragged all three major US indices into negative territory on Tuesday amid heavy scrutiny surrounding Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. The bounce steadied nerves across institutional trading desks.
CoreWeave delivered an even sharper jolt. Shares of the cloud computing provider spiked 13% after the company topped third-quarter revenue estimates and lifted its operating income and revenue outlook for 2026.
| Index / Stock | Movement | Catalyst / Context |
|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq Composite | +1.6% | Tech-led buying across mega-cap equities |
| S&P 500 | +~1.0% | Broad market advance following two-day slide |
| Dow Jones | +45 pts (+0.1%) | Muted gains across blue-chip industrials |
| Nvidia (NVDA) | +5.0% | Technical rebound after near-10% weekly slump |
| CoreWeave | +13.0% | Q3 revenue beat; raised 2026 guidance |
The tech resurgence pushed through headwinds from macroeconomic data. The US Consumer Price Index climbed 0.4% month-on-month in October, coming in hotter than consensus projections.
That upside surprise recalibrated terminal rate expectations. According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, the market-implied probability of a 25-basis-point interest rate increase at the Federal Reserve's December meeting jumped to roughly 90%.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller's remarks reinforced those expectations, nudging traders to fully price in a quarter-point policy move. Institutional debt managers echoed that hawkish assessment.
Despite some technical uncertainty, higher than desired levels of inflation should keep the Fed in a stance of dissatisfaction with the degree of progress on inflation remaining lacklustre, so hiking the Fed Funds policy rate in December is our and the market's base case.
— Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income at BlackRock
Market Context: The divergence between resilient equity demand and surging rate hike expectations underscores a market betting on operational earnings power over monetary accommodation. The 13% surge in CoreWeave demonstrates that investors remain willing to pay up for high-margin cloud infrastructure, even as short-term borrowing costs threaten to stay elevated.
Attention now turns to the reopening of the US Treasuries market, where cash yields will adjust to the sticky October inflation print and test the durability of Wednesday's equity advance.