Dow Leaps 500 Points, Gold Surpasses $4,900

The Dow Jones Industrial Average scaled higher and small caps paced the upside Thursday, as Wall Street celebrated a stronger-than-expected U.S. productivity report. Two winners were Nvidia and Tesla, both of which looked to add to gains from the previous session. Biotech and medical stocks also moved sharply on the stock market today.

The Dow was up 1% and popped more than 500 points before trimming the move to 480 points. The S&P 500 moved 0.8% higher after marking a session high of 6,934. The Nasdaq composite advanced 1.2%, slightly ahead of the 1% rise in the Nasdaq-100 index, which tracks the 100 largest nonfinancial companies on that exchange.

Small caps continued to outperform. The Russell 2000 sprang up 1.3% and held close to session highs. Meanwhile, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust pared its loss to 0.8% after dropping more than 1% earlier.

Gold futures padded their gains, accelerating their rise to 1.5% and hitting a new high of $4,914 an ounce. But gold trailed silver's 4% jump. Near-expiration silver futures marched to a high of $96.65 per ounce.

Volume cooled off at midday, yet was still running 2% higher vs. the same time Wednesday on the Nasdaq. On the New York Stock Exchange, trading moved slightly lower.