Advertisement
U.S. markets closed
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • Dow 30

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • Russell 2000

    2,124.55
    +10.20 (+0.48%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • Gold

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • Silver

    25.10
    +0.18 (+0.74%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0797
    +0.0003 (+0.03%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2060
    +0.0100 (+0.24%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2625
    +0.0002 (+0.02%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    151.3030
    -0.0690 (-0.05%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    69,522.24
    -1,210.77 (-1.71%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    40,369.44
    +201.37 (+0.50%)
     

Why NVIDIA, Roku, and Rite Aid Jumped Today

Friday's stock market session was relatively quiet, with major benchmarks recovering from larger losses in the morning to finish fairly close to unchanged on the day. Market participants are still focusing largely on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are now working to try to reconcile competing proposals for tax reform. The new Senate version has several differences from the House tax proposal, and investors didn't seem to know whether to be pleased with the arguably less ambitious provisions of the Senate plan or more uncertain about whether any tax reform is likely to get through both chambers of Congress. Several companies had good news today that pushed their shares higher, and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU), and Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) were among the best performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.

NVIDIA has a strong quarter

Shares of NVIDIA climbed 5% after the maker of high-performance graphics chips and other semiconductor products reported its third-quarter financial results Thursday afternoon. NVIDIA said that revenue climbed by nearly a third, sending adjusted earnings higher by more than 40% from year-ago levels. Strength in the company's data center business helped NVIDIA's revenue boost, but the company also saw solid gains in gaming. Yet many investors are focusing on initiatives like artificial intelligence, and NVIDIA hopes that its efforts in self-driving automotive technology and other cutting-edge applications will pay off in the long run.

NVIDIA chipset build into a piece of hardware, with the top exposed.
NVIDIA chipset build into a piece of hardware, with the top exposed.

Image source: NVIDIA.

Roku makes it two in a row

Roku stock climbed 14%, marking the second day in a row that shares of the streaming media player specialist posted solid gains. Roku said late Wednesday in its first quarterly earnings release since going public that revenue soared 40% on strength in fundamental metrics like number of active accounts and number of hours streamed. More television manufacturers are building Roku functionality directly into their hardware, and that has helped to bolster interest in the company. Moreover, Roku's advertising business has grown extensively, and with higher margins available from promoting its platform, the company appears to be following the right philosophy in plotting out its plans for future expansion.

Rite Aid looks for a comeback

Finally, shares of Rite Aid finished higher by 10%. The drugstore chain has seen its value plunge since its planned merger with Walgreens Boots Alliance failed, and even with an extensive asset sale involving nearly 1,900 Rite Aid locations, investors aren't certain how Rite Aid will be able to fend off threats of competition not only from a larger Walgreens and other traditional retailers but also from online sellers as well. Nevertheless, Rite Aid stock has fallen so far that some bargain hunters think that the potential reward is worth the risk, and that optimism showed up in the stock's advance to close the week.

More From The Motley Fool

Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Advertisement