Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.9%), Nasdaq Composite (+1.0%), and DJIA (+0.7%) are firmly higher just before midday as the market advances on NVIDIA's (NVDA 191.09, +4.57, +2.45%) impressive earnings report. 

The company coasted past earnings expectations and offered robust guidance, restoring confidence to the AI trade, which has been on the retreat as of recent. Mega-caps are higher across the board, though the market is off of its best levels of the morning as some modest profit-taking ensues. 

Still, the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF is up 1.2%, the PHLX Semiconductor Index is up 1.1%, and the CBOE Volatility Index is down 13.7% to 20.41.  All eleven S&P 500 sectors hold gains for the day. 

The small-cap Russell 2000 (+1.5%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (+0.9%) hold similar gains amid today's risk-on sentiment.

Walmart (WMT 106.75, +6.14, +6.10%) adds to the positive sentiment after a solid beat-and-raise earnings report of its own. 

The market also received the September Nonfarm Payrolls Report along with this week's jobless claims data. Following this morning's data, the CME FedWatch Tool now assigns a 39.6% probability to a 25-basis point rate cut at the December FOMC meeting, up from 30.1% yesterday.