Nasdaq slips with Nvidia, Alphabet in the red; Dow, S&P rise; bitcoin breaks $98K mark

Major equity averages were mixed Thursday, with tech behemoths Nvidia (NVDA) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) weighing on the tech space, while outside of stocks, bitcoin (BTC-USD) pushed past another milestone closer to the $100,000 mark.

The S&P 500 (SP500) +0.2%, and the Dow (DJI) was +0.8%, looking for a second straight advance. But the Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) -0.5%, paced by a -6% slide in Alphabet (GOOG) as the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) seeks the sale of Google’s Chrome web browser as it aims to end the company’s monopoly on online searches.

The DOJ’s “wildly overbroad proposal” would hurt consumers and America’s global technological leadership, Google’s top legal officer said in a statement Thursday.

Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) turned lower, -1.0%, but was off session lows. Nvidia shares hit an all-time high of $152.89 early Thursday, gaining $171.43B in market cap from Wednesday’s close, before backing off that gain.

The AI chipmaker’s Q3 results topped Wall Street’s targets but investors appear disappointed by guidance from the world’s most valuable public company.

Nvidia foresees Q4 revenue of $37.5 billion, plus or minus 2%. “This was a bit ahead of the $37.1 billion estimate but didn’t meet some buy-side estimates that were as high as $41 billion,” Seeking Alpha analyst Investor’s Compass said Thursday.

The semiconductor segment in the S&P 500’s (SP500) Information Technology sector slipped, but advances for software and other pockets of the sector helped moved the group up +0.3%. Nine of the S&P 500’s (SP500) sectors rose, topped by Industrials. Consumer Discretionary and Communication Services fell, with Alphabet (GOOG) weighing on the latter.

In the fixed-income market, the 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) turned higher, up 1 basis points to 443%. The 2-year yield (US2Y) rose 1 basis point to 4.34%.

Elsewhere, bitcoin (BTC-USD) broke above $98,000 early Thursday. The cryptocurrency has soared since bitcoin enthusiast Donald Trump was re-elected as U.S. president.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) hitting $100,000 “feels almost inevitable at this point,” Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy, told CNBC. But he also cautioned about a correction.

Turning to the economic calendar for Thursday, the initial jobless claims rose modestly in past week. The Philly Fed outlook softened in November.

U.S. existing home sales climbed 3.4% M/M in October to 3.96M, slightly ahead of 3.95M consensus and accelerating from September’s 3.83M print, which was revised lower.