"There were some warning signs from Target, but if you look at personal income and retail sales, they have been strong all year," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, in an interview. "That suggests the consumer has buying power."

Fundstrat's Tom Lee called Nvidia's earnings release a "clearing event" for the stock market and that investors' "animal spirits" are rising.

At the other end of the Dow was Nvidia , which fell 3.2%, shedding $116 billion in market value along the way. The artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker reported solid earnings e