Wall Street surged to new heights on Wednesday, propelled by soaring tech stocks and growing optimism around artificial intelligence. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, hitting its 56th all-time high of the year, making 2024 one of its best-performing years of the millennium.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.7%, to close at 45,014.04, while the Nasdaq composite gained 1.3%, reaching 19,735.12.
Tech Giants Lead the Charge
Salesforce led the market rally after posting stronger-than-expected revenue for the latest quarter, despite narrowly missing profit expectations. The customer relationship management giant saw its stock price surge by 11%.
Semiconductor company Marvell Technology outperformed expectations with robust quarterly results, sending its shares up by 23.2%. CEO Matt Murphy cited “strong demand from AI” and issued an optimistic forecast for the next quarter, which exceeded analysts’ predictions.
Nvidia, whose chips underpin much of the AI revolution, also saw its stock rise by 3.5%, contributing significantly to the S&P 500’s upward momentum.
These gains helped counterbalance declines in other sectors, including Foot Locker, which fell 8.9% after reporting disappointing profit and revenue figures, and Campbell’s, which dropped 6.2% despite a profit beat and a dividend increase.
Economic Data Fuels Rate Cut Speculation
Investor attention remains fixed on economic reports, with Friday’s jobs data from the U.S. government expected to provide further insights into the labor market. On Wednesday, a report from private-sector employers indicated slower-than-anticipated payroll growth last month, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates at its upcoming meeting in two weeks.
A separate report on the U.S. services sector revealed continued growth, though at a slower pace than economists had forecast.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.23% on Tuesday, reflecting tempered expectations for further interest rate hikes.
Global and Crypto Markets
Outside the U.S., South Korea’s Kospi index dropped by 1.4% amid political turmoil in Seoul. Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin surged toward $99,000 following President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to nominate Paul Atkins, a noted cryptocurrency advocate, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All told, the S&P 500 added 36.61 points to close at 6,086.49, capping another day of record-breaking gains for Wall Street as the AI boom continues to energize investors.
