A wave of optimism following NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)'s bullish earnings outlook sent technology shares soaring on Thursday, effectively counterbalancing weakness across most other sectors of the market. NVIDIA shares jumped more than 6% in early trading, lifting semiconductor peers such as Intel and SK Hynix along with it.

Meanwhile, a cluster of software companies including Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA), and CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) delivered blowout quarterly results and forward guidance, propelling their stock prices into double-digit percentage gains and igniting a broad rally in the software group. Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff used the moment to push back against fears of disruption in the software industry, declaring: "This whole 'SaaS doomsday' narrative is nonsense, and I think it's time to put it to rest."

Here's a look at the trading day, with heat map data provided by Yahoo Finance's AlphaSpace platform. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) outpaced the broader market and was the only S&P 500 sector to close in positive territory. The strength in tech more than offset declines in the Utilities (XLU), Energy (XLE), and Communication Services (XLC) sectors.