S&P 500 Nears Record Highs – US Market Wrap

A rally in big tech fueled by optimism over artificial intelligence and a batch of earnings from corporate heavyweights sent stocks to the brink of their record highs.

Equities extended this year’s advance, with the S&P 500 briefly topping 6,100. Netflix surged 9.7% amid its biggest-ever subscriber gain. Nvidia led gains in megacaps while Oracle soared 6.7% on a $100 billion joint venture with SoftBank and OpenAI, an effort unveiled with President Donald Trump that further boosts prospects for the AI mania that has powered the bull market.

Despite a recent broadening attempt of the market beyond a handful of megacaps, tech led the way on Wednesday – and most companies in the S&P 500 actually fell. Poor breadth has been a major concern of investors, especially among those nervous about sky-high valuations and frothy AI stocks.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps gained 1.3%. The Russell 2000 fell 0.6%. The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.6%.