The stock market has been under pressure this week, as investors have grown concerned that January's big gains in the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) and other major stock indexes could prove to be just another head fake in a bear market that has lasted more than a year now. Yet market participants seemed a little more comfortable with the prospects for stocks on Thursday morning, as the Nasdaq rose nearly 1% in premarket trading.

A pair of tech stocks reported their latest financial results overnight, and that helped build more positive sentiment on Wall Street. In particular, strong numbers from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) lifted their respective share prices and brought optimism to the tech stock sector more broadly.

Shares of Nvidia posted a powerful jump on Thursday morning, rising 12% in premarket trading. The semiconductor giant reported fiscal fourth-quarter financial results for the period ending Jan. 29, and investors reacted positively to all the things that Nvidia said to feed the growing hype about artificial intelligence (AI).

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Source Fool.com