The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both notched fresh record closes on Thursday as President Donald Trump opened a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and Washington cleared Nvidia's second-most powerful AI chip for sale to a roster of Chinese technology giants. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend, slipping into the red.
Index Snapshot
The S&P 500 added 0.5% to finish at 7,444.25, a new closing high for the benchmark. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.2%, or 314.14 points, to 26,402.34, also a record, powered by megacap technology shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, falling 0.14% to 49,693.20 as gains in chipmakers and networking stocks were offset by weakness in cyclicals.
The split tape reflected investors' enthusiasm for AI and trade-truce themes alongside lingering caution from this week's hot Producer Price Index print, which kept rate-cut expectations on a tight leash.
Trump-Xi Summit Drives Risk Appetite
Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday accompanied by a high-profile delegation that included Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, who was added to the trip at the president's invitation. Goldman Sachs analysts told clients the talks were expected to focus narrowly on tariffs, semiconductor export controls and rare earth supplies, with Beijing likely to commit to additional purchases of U.S. agriculture, energy and aircraft in exchange for avoiding further tariff escalation.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters Thursday that "a major aircraft order from China could be on the horizon," pointing to potential Boeing purchases as a tangible deliverable from the summit. China-linked equities responded, with Alibaba surging roughly 8% in U.S. trading despite a mixed earnings report and the iShares China Large-Cap ETF climbing 2.5%.
H200 Clearance Lights a Fire Under Chips
Shortly after Trump and Xi began their meeting, Reuters reported that Washington had cleared sales of Nvidia's H200 AI chip to about 10 Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com. Nvidia shares jumped more than 4% on the headline as traders priced in a potential revenue runway in a market the company had largely been frozen out of.
Analysts cautioned that approval is not the same as delivery. According to coverage from MarketScreener and CNBC, no H200 units have actually shipped to the cleared firms, with Chinese buyers reportedly pulling back under guidance from Beijing while broader summit terms remain in flux.
Cisco's AI Pivot Steals the After-Hours Spotlight
Cisco delivered the loudest single-stock move of the session. The networking giant soared roughly 17% in extended trading after reporting fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.06 per share on revenue of $15.84 billion, ahead of Wall Street's $1.04 and $15.56 billion consensus estimates. Management paired the beat with an AI-focused restructuring plan that will eliminate around 4,000 jobs as the company reorients spending toward data center and AI networking gear.
The Cisco print extended a pattern that has defined this earnings season: companies that can credibly link their roadmap to AI infrastructure are being rewarded, while traditional growth narratives are being repriced lower.
What's Next
Traders now look to the summit's joint readout, expected before markets open Friday, for any concrete language on tariff schedules, rare earth exports and a Boeing purchase commitment. With the S&P 500 at fresh highs and Treasury yields elevated after this week's PPI surprise, the bar for further upside likely rests on a clean diplomatic outcome rather than additional macro relief.
Sources: CNBC, TheStreet, Yahoo Finance, Reuters (via MarketScreener)