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The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite scored new all-time intraday and closing highs on Wednesday, a day after the broad market index snapped a seven-day winning streak because of a drop in Oracle that called to question the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade.
The U.S. government shutdown is also in its second week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Index gave up earlier gains and finished in the red 1.2 points Wednesday at 46,601.78.
The much broader index gained 39.13 points to 6,753.72
The tech-heavy NASDAQ spiked 255.02 points, or 1.1%, to 23,043.38
Stocks showed little reaction to the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting, where it cut rates for the first time in 2025. The minutes showed a Fed divided over how much further to cut rates.
The move comes just a day after the AI chip darling finished lower in sympathy with Oracle shares in the wake of Oracle reportedly seeing lighter margins in its cloud business than analysts are currently forecasting and that the enterprise software company is losing money on some of its deals to rent out Nvidia’s chips.
That added to fears that the stock market is currently caught up in an AI bubble that harkens back to the late 1990s, when a feeding frenzy on early internet companies eventually led to the bursting of the dot-com bubble.
Many market observers are urging investors to rebalance their portfolios, while also acknowledging there could be further upside before the AI rally exhausts itself.
Meanwhile, the current government shutdown dragged into its eighth day Wednesday, with the Senate expected to vote once again later in the day to reopen the government. The chamber for the fifth time failed to pass a short-term funding bill Monday.
The stoppage has weighed little on equities thus far, but poses a greater risk to sentiment the longer it wears on.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury dipped, raising yields to 4.13% from Tuesday’s 4.12%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 71 cents to $62.44 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $59.60 to $4,064 U.S. an ounce.
