Post-Bell｜S&P 500, Nasdaq Rally To New Closing Records; MP Surged 51%; KLG Soared 31%; Delta Air Jumped 12%

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose modestly to post record closing highs on Thursday, boosted by an upbeat forecast from Delta Air Lines and a record close for Nvidia while investors shrugged off President Donald Trump's latest tariffs.

Market Snapshot

The S&P 500 .SPX gained 17.20 points, or 0.27%, to 6,280.46 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 19.33 points, or 0.09%, to 20,630.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 192.34 points, or 0.43%, to 44,650.64, less than 1 percentage point below its record close, reached in early December.

Market Movers

Nvidia was up 0.8%, building on yesterday's record close and pushing its market capitalization north of $4 trillion. It's the first U.S. firm to reach and close above that level, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Apple held a previous record of $3.915 trillion.

Delta Air Lines jumped 12% after second-quarter earnings beat expectations and the carrier restored its full-year guidance after pulling it in April. Shares of United Airlines Holdings were up 14%.

MP Materials Corp. surged 51%. The dazzling gains came after the Department of Defense struck agreements with the mining company to accelerate the buildout of the country's rare earth magnet supply chain.

WK Kellogg soared 31% to $22.86 after Italian candy maker Ferrero reached a deal to buy the cereal company. Family-owned Ferrero will acquire Kellogg, the company behind Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes cereals, for $23 a share in cash, or an enterprise value of $3.1 billion.

Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper rose 3.6% and 2.3%, respectively, after Trump said a new 50% tariff on copper would go into effect on Aug. 1.

PTC tumbled 7.6%. The stock ended Wednesday's session up 18% after Bloomberg reported that Autodesk was weighing an acquisition of the engineering-software provider. As both companies make computer-aided design software, a deal would consolidate market share. Autodesk declined 6.9% on Thursday.

Vertiv Holdings LLC declined 6% after Amazon.com announced a new liquid cooling system for its AI servers. Vertiv is a leading maker of cooling equipment for data centers.

Conagra Brands was down 4.4%. The maker of Reddi-wip and Slim Jims posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and sales that missed analysts' expectations, but guidance weighed the most on shares. Conagra warned that tariffs would increase the cost of goods sold by roughly 3% each year beginning in fiscal 2026.

Helen of Troy sank 23% after the owner of brands including Hydro Flask and Braun Thermometers reported an 11% drop in net sales in its fiscal first quarter. The company also posted a loss of $450.7 million, which compares to net income of $6.2 million a year earlier. Interim CEO Brian Grass said tariff-related impacts accounted for roughly 8 percentage points of the first-quarter's revenue decline.

Market News

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Meets With Trump Ahead of CEO’s China Trip

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang is meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, according to people familiar with the matter.

Details of what the two men would discuss weren’t immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment.

White House slams Powell over Fed finances, project cost overruns

The White House on Thursday launched a fresh attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, with a top Trump administration official saying Powell had "grossly mismanaged" the central bank, chastising him for running a deficit and for extensive cost overruns for building renovations.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, in a letter addressed to Powell and posted on social media platform X, said: "Instead of attempting to right the Fed's fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your Washington, D.C., headquarters."