Target drops after missing quarterly comparable sales estimates
Indexes briefly pare gains after Fed minutes
September US jobs report due on Thursday
Updates to close
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended a choppy session higher on Wednesday, rebounding from recent losses as technology stocks rose ahead of Nvidia's quarterly results.
Indexes briefly pared gains after minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting showed policymakers cautioned that lower borrowing costs could undermine the fight against inflation. The Fed cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point at each of its meetings in September and October.
Worries about a cooling labor market persisted ahead of Thursday's release of the September U.S. jobs report following the record-long U.S. government shutdown. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said it will not publish the October employment report, but will instead combine nonfarm payrolls for that month with November's report.
Shares of Nvidia NVDA.O gained, with its earnings due after the market close seen as a test for the artificial intelligence-driven rally that has powered the market to record highs this year.
The stock is "almost guaranteed to be volatile," following the report, said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
"When you're the biggest company out there, you're sort of in the headlights, and it often does not make sense how the stock reacts in the short term," he said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 47.03 points, or 0.10%, to 46,138.77, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 24.87 points, or 0.38%, to 6,642.19 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 131.38 points, or 0.59%, to 22,564.23.
Investors have worried about how companies will be able to make money from their huge investments in AI.
Options data from analytics firm Option Research & Technology Services (ORATS) showed an implied move of about 7% for Nvidia's stock in either direction after its results.
Among decliners, Target TGT.N shares slipped after the retailer reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly sales with cash-strapped U.S. consumers pulling back on discretionary spending.
Schedule for US economic data delayed by government shutdown ID:nL1N3WQ12Q
How the S&P 500 fares a day after Nvidia's earnings https://reut.rs/3Kc0Cmj
(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Maju Samuel and Richard Chang)
((caroline.valetkevitch@thomsonretuers.com))