Wall St ends higher in anticipation of jobs data, Nvidia tops estimates

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday, clawing back some ground lost during the recent selloff as investors positioned themselves ahead of Nvidia's much-anticipated quarterly results and crucial employment data that had been unavailable during the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown.

All three major U.S. stock indexes closed in positive territory, with tech strength putting the Nasdaq out front.

Chipmaker Nvidia, which has come to represent the nascent artificial intelligence technology that has powered much of the stock market's rally in recent months, reported better-than-expected earnings and forecast fourth-quarter revenue above estimates.

"The companies that are Nvidia's customers are expanding and continuing to grow their investment in AI infrastructure, so chip demand looks like it's set to increase," said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Seattle. 

"It seems early to talk about an AI bubble because the growth has been driven by earnings, which have driven growth expectations fairly higher," Haworth added. "We’re early in this investment cycle; we’re moving from building these models to implementing them."

Minutes  from the Fed's October meeting showed policymakers were more divided than usual, lowering interest rates even as some members cautioned the move could quell efforts to cool inflation. 

Gold pared gains following the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's October meeting, and crude prices slid on reports of a U.S.-proposed resolution to Russia's war on Ukraine. 

The recently ended government shutdown resulted in a backlog of official economic data, which is now beginning to flow. The Labor Department's September employment report is slated for release on Thursday. Should the report fall short of expectations, it could affect the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision at the conclusion of next month's monetary policy meeting.

Even so, the Labor Department announced it would release a combined October/November employment report as the shutdown hindered critical data collection, so the Fed will have less information on the state of the labor market when it meets in December.

NASDAQ LEADS THE WAY

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.03 points, or 0.10%, to 46,138.77, the S&P 500 gained 24.87 points, or 0.38%, to 6,642.19 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 131.38 points, or 0.59%, to 22,564.23. 

European shares ended nearly unchanged, drifting near one-month lows ahead of Nvidia's earnings.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe  rose 0.73 points, or 0.07%, to 976.74.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.03%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.97 points, or 0.04%

Emerging market stocks  fell 1.54 points, or 0.11%, to 1,360.21. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 0.32%,  to 697.91, while Japan's Nikkei  fell 165.28 points, or 0.34%, to 48,537.70.

U.S. Treasury yields rose after the U.S. government said jobs data for October and November would not be released before the Fed's next policy meeting in December, dimming hopes for a third and final rate cut this year.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.8 basis points to 4.129%, from 4.121% late on Tuesday.

The 30-year bond yield added 0.8 basis points to 4.7487% from 4.741% late on Tuesday.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 0.8 basis points to 3.589%, from 3.581% late on Tuesday.

The dollar rose against the yen to its highest level since January as investors await the U.S. jobs report.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.6% to 100.20, with the euro down 0.47% at $1.1525.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.96% to 157 yen.

Reports of a U.S. proposal to end the Russian war in Ukraine, along with ongoing oversupply concerns, sent crude oil prices sliding. U.S. crude fell 2.14% to $59.44 per barrel, while Brent settled at $63.51 per barrel, down 2.13%.

Gold prices advanced as investors sought safe-haven assets and girded themselves for the delayed employment data, but pared their gains after the Fed minutes were published.

Spot gold rose 0.13% to $4,073.01 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.26% to $4,072.00 an ounce.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Will Dunham, Nick Zieminski, Rod Nickel)