United States benchmark averages finished higher on Thursday (Friday AEST), with the technology-heavy Nasdaq outperforming after Nvidia's strong revenue forecast reinforced optimism around the artificial intelligence boom and lifted technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 105.6 points, or 0.2%, to 53,569.4, while the S&P 500 gained 55.3 points, or 0.7%, to 7,731.0. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 411.2 points, or 1.6%, to 26,541.4.
Nvidia shares jumped 8.7% after the chipmaker delivered a robust forecast that met lofty investor expectations, bolstering the view that the technology rally still has room to run as companies at the centre of the AI buildout continue to post strong growth.
Salesforce surged 22.6% after raising its annual revenue and profit forecasts and launching a new plug-in integrated with Anthropic's Claude AI models.
CrowdStrike climbed 20.5% after the cybersecurity software provider raised its annual revenue forecast and topped second-quarter earnings estimates.
Moderna fell 4.6% after announcing a $2 billion convertible bond sale, while HP dropped almost 3% after shipments and margins in its PC business declined in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Brent crude prices rose by more than $2 a barrel on Thursday following a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. President Donald Trump was not interested in returning to the terms of a memorandum of understanding reached with Iran in June.
Attention now turns to Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole address on Friday, with investors looking for clues on the central bank's policy outlook following the latest inflation data and amid efforts by the US Treasury to bring down bond yields.
A hotter-than-expected Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) reading on Wednesday clouded the policy outlook, tempering some of the optimism generated by a benign consumer inflation report earlier this month.
On the bond markets, 10-year and two-year Treasury yields were each up 0.6% at 4.676% and 4.234%, respectively.
