Key Takeaways

Major U.S. equities indexes ticked higher after a federal court blocked the "reciprocal" tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump—though that hold was ultimately itself put on ice.

The ruling affected a large chunk of the White House's trade policy, bjt certain import taxes remained in place , and the administration vowed to explore additional legal pathways to reestablish tariffs. Later Thursday, an appeals court kept the blocked tariffs in place .

The S&P 500 gained 0.4% on Thursday, while the Nasdaq also added 0.4%. The Dow rose 0.3%, boosted by shares of Nvidia ( NVDA ), a constituent of the blue-chip index since last year, which posted record first-quarter revenue late Wednesday. Nvidia's shares finished the day 3.3% higher. Read Investopedia's full coverage of today's trading here .

Nordson ( NDSN ) shares jumped 6.8%, the most of any stock in the S&P 500, after the maker of industrial adhesives testing equipment topped sales and profit forecasts with its fiscal second-quarter results. Contributions from recent acquisitions and strength in the Advanced Technology Solutions segment, in which Nordson provides its services to electronics manufacturers, helped drive the quarter's results.

Shares of credit scoring firm Fair Isaac ( FICO ) closed 4% higher on Thursday, extending a recovery for the stock. Prior to the bounce, FICO shares had come under heavy pressure since Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, critiqued the prices FICO charges for assessing the credit of potential mortgage borrowers.

Barclays boosted its price target on Estée Lauder ( EL ) stock, and shares of the cosmetics company advanced 3.6%. Analysts expressed confidence in CEO Stéphane de La Faverie, who took the helm of the makeup maker at the beginning of this year, highlighting his attentiveness to customer needs, but they stressed that the sustainability of Estée Lauder's premium valuation will likely depend on the company driving consistent sales growth in line with its peers.

HP ( HPQ ) shares suffered Thursday's steepest drop in the S&P 500, dropping 8.3% after the computer and printer manufacturer reported lower-than-expected profits for its fiscal second quarter. The company also trimmed its full-year outlook, citing tariff impacts. CEO Enrique Lores noted that HP has increased its prices as it seeks to offset cost pressure.

Electronic retailer Best Buy ( BBY ) also lowered its guidance to reflect expected tariff impacts, and its shares dropped 7.3%. The seller of flatscreen TVs and other tech gear obtains a significant amount of its products from China and Mexico, two countries that have been targeted by tariffs under the Trump administration. The reduced forecasts came alongside mixed results for Best Buy's fiscal first quarter, with adjusted earnings per share topping estimates but revenue falling short.

Shares of networking solutions provider Arista Networks ( ANET ) fell 6.9%. The losses came after Nvidia touted Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Facebook parent Meta Platform ( META ) as new clients for Nvidia's own Ethernet network switches. Analysts noted that Meta has traditionally been one of Arista's largest customers, while Nvidia's capacity to bundle products make it a formidable competitor across different components of artificial intelligence data centers.

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