The S&P 500 broad market index rose 0.6% on October 8, hitting an all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite index of technology stocks added 1.1% on Wednesday, also hitting an all-time high. Shares of information technology, utilities and industrial sectors contributed to the market growth - all three ended the day at new highs, writes CNBC.
Leading the gains among large-cap companies was Nvidia, with the chipmaker's shares rising 2.2% after the company's CEO Jensen Huang said in a TV interview that demand for AI chips is on the rise. "This year, especially in the last six months, the demand for computing has increased dramatically," Huang said. He also confirmed that Nvidia will co-fund the construction of Elon Musk's AI startup xAI's new data center.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average blue-chip index was little changed Wednesday, but it also hit a new all-time high during trading. The Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization companies rose 1%. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds was virtually unchanged at 4.13%.
"With current price/earnings ratios for tech giants markedly below levels seen at the peak of the dot-com bubble, we believe the bull market persists," Mark Haefele of UBS Global Wealth Management told Bloomberg.
The stock market reacted weakly to the publication of the minutes of the Fed's September meeting, where the decision to cut the rate was made for the first time since the beginning of 2025. It follows from the documents that there are still disagreements within the regulator as to how far to go on the path of policy easing.
"We still expect two more quarter-point rate cuts before the end of this year and two more next year," Luis Alvarado of Wells Fargo Investment Institute told Bloomberg.
The government shutdown has a minimal impact on the stock market, but the risk to investor sentiment increases as it drags on, given the potential damage to the U.S. economy, CNBC notes. The shutdown also means a delay in the release of statistics - as a result, Wall Street doesn't yet have to face data that could contradict an optimistic outlook about a possible drop in interest rates and the relative strength of the economy, Barron's writes.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
