Dow stock index adds more than 200 points, closes at a record high

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to a record Thursday, as Wall Street tried to resume its comeback from a steep sell-off earlier this month.

The 30-stock index rose 243.63 points, or 0.59%, for a fresh record close of 41,335.05. Gains in Goldman Sachs, Intel and Visa helped lift the blue-chip average to a new high. The S&P 500 ended the session just below the flatline at 5,591.96. The Nasdaq Composite slid 0.23% to end at 17,516.43.

Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia, which fell 6.4%, weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. In its fiscal second quarter, the AI chipmaker exceeded expectations on the top and bottom lines, and it issued a rosy current-quarter sales outlook on Wednesday afternoon.

“Death, taxes, and NVDA beats on earnings are three things you can bank on. Here’s the issue, the size of the beat this time was much smaller than we’ve been seeing. Even future guidance was raised, but again not by the tune from previous quarters,” wrote Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group.

“This is a great company that is still growing revenue at 122%, but it appears the bar was just set a tad too high this earnings season,” Detrick added.

Economic data released Thursday offered some support to the stock market. Weekly jobless claims fell from the prior week, further easing recession concerns. In addition, second-quarter gross domestic product was revised higher to 3% growth from an initial 2.8% rate.