Investing.com -- The S&P 500 closed slightly lower Thursday after giving up intraday gains fueled by driven by better-than-expected retail sales data and surge in chipmaking heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. following stronger-than-expected Q3 results and guidance .
At 4:00 p.m. ET (2000 GMT), the benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.01%. the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.04%, and the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 161 points or 0.4%.
TSMC outlook lifts AI-related stocks
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) rose more than 9% after clocking a net profit of T$325.26 billion ($10.1 billion) in the three months to September 30, it said in a press release. The figure was higher than a Reuters estimate of T$300.2 billion.
Sales were bolstered chiefly by TSMC's advanced 3-nanometer chips, which accounted for 20% of overall revenue from wafers, the company said.
The chipmaker also provided an upbeat outlook for the current quarter, partly citing improved capacity utilization.
The bullish outlook restored optimism in the AI trade, with several AI-åçrelated stocks including NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD), and Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) ending the day higher.
Thursday's earnings come just days after semiconductor equipment maker ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) unveiled a tepid sales outlook for 2025 due in part to slow chip demand from sectors outside of AI.
Retail sales data surprise to upside, pointing to stronger consumer
Retail sales rose by 0.4%, accelerating from an unrevised uptick of 0.1% in August, according to data from the Commerce Department. Economists had seen the reading at 0.3%.
Robust spending on items like groceries and clothing helped offset weakness in expenditures on higher-priced goods such as furniture and electronics.
"There are some pockets of weakness in the details, but overall the data suggest that the consumer remains in relatively good shape overall," Jefferies said in a note.
On the labor market front, jobless claims fell to 241,000 from 260,000 the prior week, in-line with economists' expectations.
Earnings parade to continue as Netflix results eyed
Streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will report its earnings on Thursday, along with fund manager Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and biotechnology firm Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG).
These precede results from tech titans Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the first half of next week, along with several other major US companies.
Expedia rises on report of Uber (NYSE:UBER) interest; Lucid (NASDAQ:LCID) falls on stock sale plans
Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) rose more than 4% after the Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, that Uber had explored a takeover bid for the online travel company.
Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ:LCID) detailed plans to sell nearly 262.5M shares, sending its share price 18% lower. The EV company also said that, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund affiliate Ayar Third Investment, Lucid's majority stockholder would purchase more than 374.7M shares
(Scott Kanowsky, Ambar Warrick contributed reporting.)