U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, Nov. 11, as CoreWeave's results eased worries about spending on artificial intelligence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 254.60 points, or 0.49 percent, to 52,486.49, the S&P 500 rose 98.45 points, or 1.31 percent, to 7,619.38 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 400.31 points, or 1.60 percent, to 25,466.19, Reuters reported.

The S&P 500 ended within 2.6 percent of the all-time high it set last month and nearly recovered last week's sell-off over AI worries, the AP reported.

One company's outlook

The rally asked a single earnings report to settle a week of doubt. CoreWeave rose 24.7 percent, its biggest daily percentage gain in more than three months and its highest close in two weeks, after the company said it expects to turn profitable on an adjusted basis in the first half of 2028, Reuters reported. Nebius rose 15.4 percent and Applied Digital 7.4 percent.

The buying spread to chips. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index rose 5.7 percent to its highest level since Nov. 3, and the S&P 500 technology sector gained 2.7 percent, the best of 11 sectors. Nvidia closed up 2.9 percent after shedding about $430 billion of market value in the previous two sessions, according to Reuters.

The objection is that a profit target for the first half of 2028 is an expectation, not a result. The tape offers a partial answer. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1.48-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 1.77-to-1 on the Nasdaq, so the gains were not confined to a handful of names. Volume was 14.74 billion shares, against an average of 18.68 billion over the previous 20 sessions. The Cboe Volatility Index fell for a fourth straight session to 17.49, a one-week low, Reuters reported. Broad, then, but light.

A rally with a hike priced in

Stocks traded on Wednesday while the bond market was closed for Veterans Day. Two-year Treasury yields had posted their biggest one-day jump since April 2025 on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Nor was the rally a bet that the Fed would hold off. CME's FedWatch tool showed an increase of at least a quarter point fully priced for the December meeting, with a 10.4 percent chance of a half point, Reuters reported. Stocks rose with that pricing in place.

The dollar index rose 0.7 percent to 102.92. The euro fell 0.68 percent to $1.1087, and the dollar rose 0.69 percent against the yen to 159.83, according to Reuters.

Brent crude settled up $1.27, or 1.39 percent, at $92.76 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate settled up 49 cents, or 0.57 percent, at $86.53, Reuters reported. Spot gold was down 1.1 percent at $3,986.79 an ounce at 1:51 p.m. ET, and December gold futures settled 0.7 percent lower at $4,000.50, Reuters reported via CNBC.

Thursday morning

The test of Wednesday's reading came within hours, from a different direction. After the close, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal published reports about Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, including the Journal's report, citing people familiar with the matter, that the board was preparing to oust him, according to a Reuters market wrap. Nvidia shares fell more than 8 percent after hours.

At 7:03 a.m. ET on Thursday, Dow E-minis were up 16 points, or 0.03 percent, S&P 500 E-minis were down 30.5 points, or 0.4 percent, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 246.25 points, or 0.86 percent, Reuters reported. Nvidia was down 7.7 percent in premarket trading, and CoreWeave was off about 7 percent. Those are premarket prices, not closes.

Wednesday's move was asked to prove that the worry over AI spending had passed. Thursday's futures put a different question to the same stocks: what they are worth when the uncertainty is about who runs the company at the center of the trade rather than how much its customers plan to spend.