Stocks rise led by tech shares as Nvidia soars

U.S. stocks rose after Nvidia, the world's most valuable chipmaker, reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and gave a positive outlook.

Dow futures rose 72 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5%.

Nvidia shares popped 6.5% in premarket trading after beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results. Cisco Systems' stock went the other direction, falling 7% due to weaker revenue guidance and a revenue miss.

Dow component Boeing saw its shares rise another 2% following on upgrade from JP Morgan, which said the aerospace giant has significant upside as it clears up several issues that have dogged the company.

Kraft Heinz shares dropped more than 2% after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 211 points, dragged down by a 4.7% loss in Visa shares. The S&P 500 dipped 0.26%. The Nasdaq Composite ticked 0.33% lower, despite most mega-cap technology companies closing in the green.

The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 was the relative underperformer on Wednesday, dropping 1.2%.

"Recent economic reports remain strong, but today's stock market action highlights that it is already discounting another covid cycle," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for Leuthold Group.

"Concerns about covid also caused the 10-year bond yield to decline for the first time in 6 days and kept downward pressure on commodity prices including another sizable drop in crude oil prices. If inflation keeps rising while another Covid surge again stalls real economic activity, we may find out how the stock market handles a pseudo-stagflationary episode," he added.

Still, stocks are hovering near their record highs. The Dow is 1.7% from its all-time high and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are 0.6% and 0.8% from their records, respectively.

A slew of retail earnings moved several names on Wednesday. Lowe's and TJX Companies gained after reporting better-than-expected results. Target shares dipped despite strong earnings.

Investors await more retail earnings on Thursday with Macy's and Kohl's reporting before the bell. Alibaba and JD.com also report before the opening bell. Applied Materials and Palo Alto Networks report later on Thursday.

The Labor Department will report last week's jobless claims data at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting initial filings for unemployment insurance fell to 260,000 for the week ending November 13, from the previous week's 267,000 claims.