Wall Street stocks finished sharply lower on Thursday after blowout earnings by Nvidia failed to ignite a broad rally.

Stocks had opened higher, but analysts cited an uptick in US Treasury bond yields as a driver of the reversal. Market watchers also noted a tendency in equities to sell off after big rallies.

"You've had huge runs since mid-April and there's an inclination to take some money off the table," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

The Dow Jones finished down 1.5 percent at 39,065.

The S&P 500 slid 0.7 percent to 5,267, while the Nasdaq declined 0.4 percent to 16,736.

Among individual companies, artificial intelligence player Nvidia surged 9.3 percent after reporting a net profit of US$14.9 billion, while its revenue of US$26 billion was almost four times what it took in during the same fiscal quarter last year.

Live Nation Entertainment dropped 7.8 percent after the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit, arguing the company, which owns ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster, should be broken up.

Boeing plunged 7.6 percent after the company's CFO predicted another quarter of meagre plane deliveries, likely resulting in negative cash for all of 2024.

Retail company VF, which owns Timberland and other outdoor apparel brands, fell 2.9 percent after reporting a US$418.3 million loss in the most recent quarter. The company said a turnround is on track. (AFP)