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Snowflake jumps after raising annual product revenue

forecast

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Deere shares up after Q4 profit beats estimates

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Crypto stocks gain as bitcoin prices near $100,000

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Weekly jobless claims stand at 213,000

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Indexes: Dow up 0.14%, S&P 500 flat, Nasdaq down 0.12%

(Updates at market open)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Nov 21 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main stock indexes were mixed in choppy

trading on Thursday as Alphabet weighed on the market, while

investors also focussed on AI-heavyweight Nvidia's ( NVDA ) upbeat

quarterly results and forecast.

Alphabet dropped 4% after the Justice Department

argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser and

take other measures to end its monopoly on online search.

It weighed on the communication services sector,

which fell 2.2%.

Megacaps such as Meta Platforms ( META ) fell 1.1%,

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) lost 1.1% and Apple ( AAPL ) shed 0.6%.

On the flip side, Wall Street's biggest company, Nvidia ( NVDA )

, rose 1.3% to a record high after surpassing

expectations for quarterly results, and projected fourth-quarter

revenue above estimates.

The stock had fallen earlier in premarket trading as some

investors were unimpressed that the forecast was its slowest in

seven quarters.

"Nvidia ( NVDA ) had a spectacular quarter ... but it is overshadowed

by expectations. Great expectations are built in the stock and

have been running at the rate at which Nvidia ( NVDA ) has been running,"

said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

Other chip stocks were mixed while the Philadelphia SE

Semiconductor index was up 0.8%.

At 9:48 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose

74.01 points, or 0.14%, to 43,469.95, the S&P 500 gained

1.19 points, or 0.02%, to 5,917.46 and the Nasdaq Composite

lost 23.67 points, or 0.12%, to 18,942.48.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) has led much of the U.S. market rally since mid-2023

on expectations that AI integration could boost corporate

profits. The stock has risen more than nine-fold in the past two

years and the company boasts a market value of $3.5 trillion.

On the day, the three indexes had briefly touched their

highest level in about a week.

On the data front, a weekly report on jobless claims

showed they fell unexpectedly last week, suggesting a rebound in

job growth in November.

Money market bets were tied between expectations that the

Fed will lower interest rates by 25 basis points at its December

meeting or if it will stay put, according to the CME Group's

FedWatch.

"The employment picture is a little bit stronger and one

could think that would give the Fed another reason to either

pause in December or to slow things down in 2025," said Sam

Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Investors also kept an eye on escalating tensions between

Russia and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the United

States is more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the

past, according to a media report.

Comments from Federal Reserve officials Austan Goolsbee and

Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr are on tap.

Deere shares gained 5.1% after the farm equipment

maker beat Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit, while

Snowflake its annual product revenue forecast.

Crypto stocks such as MARA Holdings ( MARA ) jumped 11.6%

and MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) rose 10.9% as bitcoin prices

soared to nearly $100,000 for the first time.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.14-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE and by a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and three new

lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 61 new highs and 54

new lows.