NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Jarring swings keep rocking Wall Street, and U.S. stocks erased a big morning gain to drop on Thursday as the market remains skittish following .
After initially soaring toward what seemed like its best day since May, with an early surge of 1.9%, the S&P 500 erased all of it and fell 1.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 386 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 2.2%.
The sharpest losses again hit what used to be the market鈥檚 biggest winners. Nvidia, cryptocurrencies and other areas that had soared with nearly relentless momentum, as traders feared missing out on more gains, forced the market lower. Bitcoin dropped below $87,000, down from nearly $125,000 last month.
The market had been shaky coming into Thursday, largely because of twin worries: Nvidia and other superstar stocks caught up in the frenzy around technology may have simply shot too high, and the delivering the invigorating cuts to interest rates that Wall Street loves.
initially appeared to tamp down the worries about a after reporting a big profit for the summer, along with a forecast for coming revenue that easily cleared analysts鈥� expectations. By delivering strong profits and indicating more are coming, Nvidia can justify its stock鈥檚 price gains and make it look less expensive.
Given Nvidia鈥檚 forecasts, 鈥渋t is very hard to see how this stock does not keep moving higher from here,鈥� according to analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri. They also said 鈥渢he AI infrastructure tide is still rising so fast that all boats will be lifted.鈥�
Nvidia jumped to an early gain of 5% but then dropped to a loss of 3.2%. Because it鈥檚 the biggest company in the U.S. market by value, Nvidia鈥檚 stock has more pull on the S&P 500 than any other company鈥檚.
Despite Nvidia鈥檚 big numbers, worries about a potential AI bubble aren鈥檛 gone. The concern among investors is that all the dollars pouring into AI chips and data centers may not ultimately produce the big profits and productivity for the economy that proponents have been promising.
Yes, Nvidia expects to sell another $65 billion of chips in the coming three months, which is more than analysts expected. But will all those chips actually create much bigger profits for Amazon and other companies using them? That question 鈥� whether all the investment in AI will prove to be worth it in the end 鈥� is still unanswered.
The most recent survey of global fund managers by Bank of America showed a record percentage of investors saying companies are 鈥渙verinvesting.鈥�
Amazon went from an early gain of 2.1% Thursday to a loss of 2.5%. Palantir Technologies swung from a jump of 5.5% to a loss of 5.8%.
The last time the overall stock market had swings in one day as wild as Thursday鈥檚 was in April, when President Donald Trump shocked the world with his stiff 鈥淟iberation Day鈥� tariffs.
For the second worry that鈥檚 been dogging Wall Street, interest rates, Thursday鈥檚 jobs report from the U.S. government came in mixed and offered some relief. Financial markets initially seemed to pick the data apart for encouraging signals, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
The report showed hiring by U.S. employers was stronger in September than economists expected, which may suggest the economy remains solid. But it also said the unemployment rate worsened slightly, which could give the Fed reason to cut its main interest rate at its next meeting in December.
Traders still see a December rate cut as relatively unlikely, giving it a roughly 40% probability, according to data from CME Group. But that鈥檚 better than the 30% chance they saw a day earlier.
What the Fed does is critical for the stock market because prices ran to records in part because of expectations for continued cuts to rates. The Fed has already cut rates twice this year to shore up the slowing job market. But lower rates can worsen inflation, which above the Fed鈥檚 2% target.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Walmart, which rallied 6.5% after the retailer . It reported strong sales and profits that blew past Wall Street expectations as it continues to lure cash-strapped Americans nervous about the economy and prices.
That wasn鈥檛 enough to drown out the losses for Nvidia and tech. Companies enmeshed in the crypto industry also tumbled, as bitcoin dropped to its lowest price since April. Robinhood Markets fell 10.1%, and Coinbase Global sank 7.4%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 103.40 points to 6,538.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 386.51 to 45,752.26, and the Nasdaq composite sank 486.18 to 22,078.05.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.09% from 4.13% late Wednesday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
Japan鈥檚 Nikkei 225 jumped 2.6%, and South Korea鈥檚 Kospi rose 1.9% for two of the bigger gains.
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AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
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