Stocks rallied as retailers raised their holiday outlooks and tech fortunes drew mixed signals. The S&P 500 closed up 0.9 percent on the session as a cluster of retailers boosted annual guidance and investors warmed to signs of stronger store traffic and bigger baskets. In the short term the moves helped lift sentiment heading into Thanksgiving. Over the longer term the reports underscore persistent consumer price sensitivity and uneven spending that could reappear if macro pressures return. U.S. strength matters for global exporters. Europe and Asia will watch demand data closely, and emerging markets may see mixed flow effects from the equity lift and continued tech concentration. This day reinforced a pattern where retail beats can briefly reshape market momentum even while bigger economic questions remain.
Market snapshot and what moved the tape
The broad market closed higher as investors parsed retailer updates against an otherwise cautious backdrop. The S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent as optimism about holiday sales outweighed softer signals on consumer confidence and a recent drop in U.S. retail sales for September. Retailers were the clear driver of the session and produced outsized stock moves. That buying pushed cyclical exposure higher and helped offset weakness in select technology names.
One consumer-facing name that moved early was J.M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) which fell 3.7 percent after saying it will not pursue another round of coffee price increases this quarter following the Trump administration’s removal of green coffee tariffs. The decision illustrates how policy changes can quickly flow into pricing assumptions and margin outlooks for packaged goods companies. Investors reacted to the margin squeeze potential even as broader retail optimism supported the market.
Retailers raise guidance and lift sentiment
A group of retailers raised full year outlooks and cited improving traffic and larger transaction sizes as core reasons. Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) raised its annual forecast and reported an uptick in customer visits and a strong October. The market took the announcement to heart and Kohl’s shares jumped more than 40 percent on the day. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) reported a 7 percent sales gain last quarter and said its Hollister brand helped lift the lower end of its sales outlook. That stock climbed about 37 percent.
Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) also lifted its annual revenue forecast after stronger sales in computing, gaming and mobile categories. Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) raised guidance for its main brand and pointed to growth in both traffic and average transaction size. The gains for Best Buy and Dick’s were more modest but they added to a narrative that some retailers are executing well going into the holiday season.
These reports matter now because they feed directly into fourth quarter revenue forecasts for a wide set of companies. Short term the market rewarded companies that reported momentum. Longer term the data leaves open questions about whether price sensitivity will cap recovery and whether the sector can sustain improved margins if input costs or policy choices change.
Nvidia stance and the AI chip conversation
Nvidia (Nasdaq:NVDA) shares closed down 3 percent after reporting that Meta Platforms (Nasdaq:META) had discussed the possibility of tapping Google Cloud’s tensor processing units. The reports prompted headlines about a potential crack in Nvidia’s dominance. Nvidia pushed back in a post on social media saying its platform runs every AI model and does so across the places computing is done. The company argued its chips offer greater performance, versatility and fungibility than application specific ASICs like TPUs.
The exchange highlighted two concurrent themes. First is the contest among hyperscalers and chip suppliers for AI workloads. Second is how customer decisions can create headlines that move markets even when the underlying economics remain complex. Nvidia’s response and investors’ reaction showed the company remains a central player in the AI compute market. The firm is running with a roughly reported $4.3 trillion market capitalization and it used the statement to contain the narrative about competitive pressure.
For markets the take away is that AI demand continues to be a major structural story for technology spending, even as individual vendor relationships and architecture choices will change over time. That matters globally because shifts in data center sourcing in the United States can ripple into supply chains and cloud strategies in Europe and Asia.
Other corporate headlines and a cultural note
Outside retail and AI chips there were notable corporate updates. HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) said it would cut 4,000 to 6,000 jobs and issued a lower than expected earnings projection for the new fiscal year. The job cuts and weaker outlook signaled margin pressure in traditional hardware lines and reinforced investor attention on cost control. Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) traded higher in extended trading despite missing revenue expectations because it forecast stronger fourth quarter demand for AI servers. Those divergent reactions show how differently markets treat near term revenue misses if management points to growth pockets like AI infrastructure.
On the consumer entertainment front the sequel Wicked: For Good posted a record opening for a stage musical adaptation with $147 million domestic and $223 million global box office receipts. The film outperformed its predecessor and took the second best domestic opening of the year behind another blockbuster. The result underscored that cultural hits can produce clear economic impacts in box office receipts and ancillary streams even when critical reviews are poor.
Overall the session mixed positive retail momentum with caution in areas exposed to policy and input cost swings. Stocks moved as investors weighed immediate holiday upside against lingering questions about consumer resilience and competition in the AI chip market. The result was a market that ended the day higher but remained attentive to the next set of data and corporate reports that will clarify whether this positive tone holds.
