Key Takeaways
- NVDA shares climbed for seven consecutive trading sessions ending Thursday, marking the company’s longest advance since late 2023.
- The winning streak delivered an 11.4% gain, though shares remain roughly 1% lower year-to-date in 2026.
- The seven-session advance mirrored a similar rally in the S&P 500, suggesting broader market forces at play.
- Shares continue trading approximately 14% beneath their 52-week peak, a gap one Jefferies analyst views as opportunity.
- The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) has climbed 19% this year with limited impact from Nvidia’s performance.
Nvidia shares recorded seven straight sessions of positive movement through Thursday’s market close, representing the chip giant’s most extended advance in more than two years. Friday morning brought signs that the rally had reached its conclusion.
Early trading data indicated NVDA declining 0.6% to $182.88 as market participants stepped back from technology equities before a crucial inflation data release. S&P 500 futures similarly trended downward.
The seven-session advance contributed an 11.4% increase to Nvidia’s valuation. While this appears substantial in isolation, broader market context reveals a different picture.
The S&P 500 index similarly recorded seven consecutive positive closes during this identical timeframe. The Nvidia rally therefore aligned with general market momentum rather than demonstrating unique strength.
Intel similarly posted seven straight positive sessions during this period, accumulating approximately 50% in gains. Nvidia’s 11.4% advance appears relatively contained when viewed against this benchmark.
Despite the winning streak, NVDA shares remain approximately 1% lower through 2026. The stock has oscillated within a $165 to $195 trading range for several months, and this recent advance failed to break that established pattern.
Distance From Annual Peak Remains Substantial
Jefferies trading-desk analyst Jeffrey Favuzza observed before Thursday’s session that Nvidia was positioned roughly 14% beneath its 52-week maximum. He identified this as among the widest discounts across major AI-focused equities he monitors, a group including Astera Labs, Broadcom, and Micron Technology.
Favuzza indicated that Nvidia could deliver “the most upside torque” should investors shift capital back toward AI-themed opportunities, especially through leveraged instruments.
The semiconductor sector has demonstrated resilience throughout 2026 despite minimal contribution from Nvidia. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) has advanced 19% year-to-date. DataTrek co-founder Nicholas Colas highlighted that most of SMH’s primary holdings have achieved double-digit percentage gains this year.
Strategic Partnerships Continue Expanding
Nvidia has maintained active business development throughout this period. During March, the company unveiled a collaboration with Marvell Technology, integrating it into Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion rack-scale infrastructure designed for AI data centers. Nvidia committed $2 billion in investment to Marvell while announcing joint initiatives spanning AI networking, optical interconnects, and silicon photonics technologies.
Earlier in March, Nvidia established agreements with Coherent and Lumentum Holdings covering advanced laser systems and optical networking solutions, guaranteeing access to future manufacturing capacity.
CoreWeave announced Thursday an expansion of its compute arrangement with Meta, a framework incorporating access to Nvidia’s Vera Rubin chip architecture.
A robust quarterly earnings release and an extensively attended GTC conference earlier this year both proved insufficient to generate sustained upward momentum for the stock. This historical pattern explains why market observers remain cautious about whether this recent advance signals a genuine shift or represents temporary market movement.
