U.S. stocks are mixed as Nvidia lifts tech sector while debt talks unresolved

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Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were mixed as Nvidia’s forecast lifted the tech sector despite worries about the unresolved debt ceiling negotiations in Washington.

At 10:42 ET (14:42 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 61 points or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 1.3%.

Shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) jumped 24% after it forecast $11 billion in sales in the current quarter, which would be a record for the chip maker, as it benefits from a surge in demand for chips that power artificial intelligence technology.

Shares of companies involved in the AI sector also rose, including Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), up 2.9%, and Alphabet Inc. Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), which owns search giant Google, up 1.7%.

But the mood wasn’t all upbeat. Lawmakers were set to leave Washington for the holiday weekend without a done deal on the debt ceiling negotiations. Congress needs to raise or suspend the ceiling by early June or the U.S. risks defaulting on its obligations, something that has weighed on markets in the past week.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said on Thursday that the negotiators have made "some progress." But ratings company Fitch has put the U.S. on a watch for a possible downgrade because of the ongoing uncertainty.

Initial jobless claims of 229,000 were lower than expected in the latest report, but up slightly from the week before. Gross domestic product in the first quarter rose 1.3% from the previous quarter, slightly more than expected but slower than the fourth quarter’s pace.

Shares of Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) fell 14% after the discount retailer cut its annual profit forecast.

Shares of cloud computing company Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) fell 16% after its weaker than expected guidance for second quarter product revenue.