Bitcoin crashes under $87K as Alphabet becomes 3rd most valuable company on earth

U.S. stocks ripped higher Thursday, fueled by a wave of risk-on buying that spread across tech, retail, and AI-linked sectors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 706 points (1.5%), the S&P 500 rose 1.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite popped 2.5%, its best session since July.

But it was Alphabet that stole the show. Shares of $GOOGL jumped 4% in morning trade, pushing its market value to $3.68 trillion, leapfrogging Microsoft to become the third most valuable company on the planet.

The rally followed fresh optimism around its Gemini AI model rollout and broader investor conviction in Alphabet’s cloud and ad moat holding firm in an AI-disrupted world.

The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) climbed nearly 3%, setting up for its strongest day in six months. Tesla, led by Elon Musk, was the standout, surging 5% and erasing much of its November slide.

Meanwhile, Walmart added weight to the rally, continuing its post-earnings climb and supporting sentiment across the consumer sector.

Despite recent doubts over AI-driven valuations, today’s rally suggests investors are buying the dip and reassessing the strength of the sector.

MAGS is now up 1.5% on the week, though it remains down close to 3% for the month. The sudden reversal is being interpreted as a vote of confidence in Nvidia’s guidance, which continues to echo across markets.

Nvidia surged in early U.S. trading Thursday, with shares up 6% at 4:23 a.m. ET, after the chipmaker smashed Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and issued a bullish outlook that reinforced its role at the heart of the AI boom.

Revenue soared 62% year-over-year to hit $57.01 billion, well above forecasts. Nvidia also projected stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter sales, sending a clear signal to investors that AI infrastructure demand, from cloud data centers to edge devices, is still running hot.

“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble,” said Jensen Huang, addressing investor concerns directly on the earnings call. “From our vantage point, we see something very different.” Huang’s remarks were backed by the numbers, and by global market reaction.

Shares of major Asian chipmakers followed suit. Samsung Electronics and Foxconn (formally Hon Hai Precision Industry) rallied hard on Thursday as the optimism from Nvidia’s results spilled over into global semiconductor plays, especially those tied to advanced packaging, foundry services, and memory.

Bitcoin steadied around $92,000 on Thursday, holding its ground after an early drop to $88,605 rattled markets but failed to trigger a full-blown selloff.

ETF flows showed a split market. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs brought in a net $75.47 million on November 19, according to SoSoValue, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for the bulk at $60.61 million.

Meanwhile, Ethereum ETFs continued bleeding, logging $37.35 million in outflows, the seventh straight day of redemptions.

Ethereum’s long-term narrative may be shifting, though. BlackRock just filed to launch a Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, joining a growing list of issuers targeting the staking segment.

Products like REX Osprey’s ETH + Staking ETF and Grayscale’s staking-enabled ETH fund are already trading, riding the SEC’s recent approval of crypto ETP listing standards.

Elsewhere, Solana ETFs quietly posted $55.61 million in inflows.

Wall Street futures were firmly in the green early Thursday, picking up steam after Nvidia’s blowout results lit a fire under tech bulls.

Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 222 points, or 0.5%, while S&P 500 futures climbed 1.1%. The Nasdaq 100 led the pack with a 1.6% pop, powered by Nvidia’s surge.

Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, once again stole the spotlight after reporting results that blew past expectations and issuing a fourth-quarter forecast that beat even the most aggressive estimates.

Huang said demand for the company’s current-gen Blackwell AI chips is “off the charts,” and that confidence echoed across after-hours trading.

Chip stocks and AI names caught a bid immediately. Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom both jumped after the bell, riding Nvidia’s momentum. Infrastructure stocks like Eaton, which are key to supporting high-power AI compute environments, also climbed.

Asia-Pacific stocks jumped at the open on Thursday after Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings set off a global chain reaction. The rally was strongest in Japan, where tech and chip-related stocks flew out the gate as traders piled back into the AI trade.

Jensen Huang, the Nvidia boss, lit the fuse late Wednesday after the company smashed third-quarter expectations and projected even stronger sales for the current quarter.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 shot up 3.7% in early trading, while the Topix index tacked on another 1.67%. Leading the charge were big-name chip and tech stocks: Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank soared as much as 8%, Tokyo Electron rallied nearly 7%, Lasertec popped 5.6%, and Renesas Electronics gained 4.8%.

Bond markets were also on the move. Yields on 30-year Japanese government bonds jumped to a record 3.375%, while the 20-year yield spiked to 2.853%, a level not seen since 1999.

The 10-year yield rose to 1.799%, its highest mark since 2008. Rising yields signaled growing confidence in growth, and inflation returning to the world’s third-largest economy.