The U.S. stock market has hit a record high as excitement around artificial intelligence continues to fuel a buying frenzy on Wall Street.
The S&P 500, the benchmark stock index, closed up 0.58 percent on Tuesday, surpassing the previous high reached in mid-August.
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The Nasdaq Composite index, which is more heavily weighted in technology stocks, also hit a record high, finishing up 0.45 percent.
Tech stocks were among the best performers, with each of the Magnificent Seven except Meta closing higher.
Amazon led the pack with a gain of 1.95 percent, followed by Microsoft and Tesla, which rose 0.78 percent and 0.51 percent, respectively.
Apple and Alphabet both rose 0.22 percent, while Nvidia gained 0.14 percent.
Meta, which has risen more than 20 percent since last month’s launch of its new AI assistant, Muse, fell 0.41 percent.
Other big players in the tech sector include Marvell Technology, which rose 5.81 percent, and Cisco, which gained 4.54 percent.
Technology, AI
Keith Lerner, chief investment officer and chief market strategist at Truist Advisory Services in Atlanta, Georgia, said the market recovery should be seen as a “tech and AI surge.”
“Every bull market has a dominant theme, and technology and AI remains the dominant theme in this market,” Lerner told Al Jazeera.
“Technology and communications services were the only two S&P 500 sectors that rose last month, while the other nine declined.”
Wall Street has ignored a host of challenges facing the U.S. economy amid hyperscalers’ multibillion-dollar investments in AI.
Despite the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a selloff in U.S. government bonds partly driven by exploding government debt, the market is on track to post its fourth straight year of double-digit returns.
The S&P 500 is up 14% so far in 2026, while the Nasdaq Composite is up 18.78%.
“Investors remain optimistic about the prospects for AI,” Lochlan Halloway, senior equity strategist at Morningstar Australia, told Al Jazeera.
“They are betting that money invested in data centers will earn a good return, and so far that belief has offset rising interest rates, higher oil prices and 10-year bond yields above 5 percent,” Halloway said.
“We are also positive about AI,” Halloway added. “But the range of outcomes is wide and the market is concentrated in a handful of companies, so the outlook for U.S. stocks, and by extension global stocks, depends on whether the AI story continues.”
Truist Advisory’s Lerner said the market recovery has the potential to continue through the end of 2026, given historical trends and expectations of strong corporate profits.
“We don’t expect a straight line upward for the markets,” Lerner said.
“Nevertheless, the fourth quarter of (US) midterm election years has produced an average gain of 7 percent and has been positive 84 percent of the time since 1950.”
Lerner said rising interest rates pose the biggest risk to the upward trend.
“However, overall, the weight of evidence suggests that this bull market still has greater upside potential,” he said.
Despite Wall Street’s rally, Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday, with major indexes in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong racking up losses.
Seoul’s Kospi led the selling, falling 1.98 percent, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.92 percent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was down 0.57 percent shortly before market close.
Oil prices, which have risen since the start of the war with Iran, rose on Wednesday as traders assessed the fallout from fighting in Yemen between forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Iran-aligned Houthis.
Brent crude futures for December delivery stood at $101.16 a barrel at 0730 GMT, up 0.58 percent.
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