Stocks Edge Higher as Dow Gains 47 Points and Nasdaq Outperforms Ahead of Nvidia Earnings

U.S. stocks posted modest gains on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 47 points (0.10%) to about 46,141, while the S&P 500 added 25 points (0.38%) to roughly 6,643 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 131 points (0.59%) to about 22,569. The Russell 2000 was essentially flat, slipping less than a point to 233. In commodities, crude oil fell to $59, down about 2.24%, gold ticked up to $4,078 (0.29%), and Bitcoin dropped to roughly $89,140, a decline of 3.78%. The mixed but generally constructive tone reflected a market holding steady ahead of Nvidia’s highly anticipated earnings report later in the evening.

With no October jobs report and investors awaiting one of the year’s most closely watched earnings releases, U.S. stocks drifted on Wednesday. Trading desks described a cautious, low-volume session shaped by uncertainty over both the path of monetary policy and the future of the AI spending boom.

The central focus was Nvidia, whose fiscal third-quarter results arrive after the bell and are widely viewed as a referendum on the durability of the AI trade. Analysts expect revenues of $54.8–55 billion and gross margins around 73.5%. Investors are fixated on data-center growth, initial Blackwell uptake, and the company’s ability to guide January sales above $62 billion. The company’s $500 billion-plus Blackwell/Rubin backlog and plans to produce 20 million GPUs underscore the scale of AI infrastructure demand.

Few voices capture the stakes like Wedbush’s Daniel Ives, who said, “it all comes down to gauging the AI Revolution demand story which starts and ends with Nvidia.” He added, “there is one company in the world that is the foundation for the AI Revolution and that is Nvidia.” Those remarks position CEO Jensen Huang at the center of what traders describe as a potential inflection point for global technology spending. Wedbush expects the chipmaker to beat consensus, citing “robust demand for Blackwell” and accelerating hyperscaler capital expenditures.

An unprecedented data hole clouded macro sentiment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed it will not publish an October 2025 Employment Situation report, saying household survey data could not be collected during the government shutdown and cannot be reconstructed retroactively. Establishment-survey data will instead be folded into November’s release, which arrives after the Federal Reserve’s final meeting of the year. Bloomberg reported that traders have sharply reduced expectations for a December rate cut after learning the Fed will be forced to make its decision without fresh labor-market evidence. As Morgan Stanley economists led by Michael Gapen wrote, “This lowers the chances of a December rate cut.”

In the absence of reliable macro catalysts, seasonals have taken on added importance, and tax-loss harvesting is intensifying, especially amid deep sector underperformance. Heavy declines in names like UnitedHealth (–37.85%) and Salesforce (–30.77%) within the Dow, and broad weakness across software, consumer discretionary, health care, and materials in the S&P 500, are creating fertile ground for mechanical selling. Weak sentiment, limited near-term catalysts, and the ease of replacing exposures make many of these laggards prime targets through year-end.

Historically, such selling is followed by a January rebound as pressure lifts and funds reposition. That dynamic may again materialize, particularly for high-quality names like CRM, ADBE, or POOL, which the document notes often recover first once tax-driven flows subside.