Arya News - The benchmark S&P 500 is up 14 percent this year despite elevated oil prices and US government debt sell-off.
The United States stock market has hit an all-time high as excitement around artificial intelligence continues to fuel a buying frenzy on Wall Street.
The S&P 500, the benchmark stock index, closed 0.58 percent higher on Tuesday, topping the previous peak reached in mid-August.
The Nasdaq Composite, which is more heavily weighted towards tech stocks, also hit a record high, finishing up 0.45 percent.
Tech stocks were among the top performers, with each of the “Magnificent Seven” apart from Meta closing higher.
Amazon led the pack with a 1.95 percent gain, 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 the launch last month of its new AI assistant, Muse, fell 0.41 percent.
Other big movers in tech included 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 rally should be seen as a “technology and AI surge”.
“Every bull market has a dominant theme, and technology and AI remain this market’s dominant theme,” Lerner told Al Jazeera.
“Technology and communication services were the only two S&P 500 sectors to rise last month, while the other nine declined.”
Wall Street has shrugged off a host of challenges facing the US economy amid hyperscalers’ multibillion-dollar investments in AI.
Despite the energy crunch caused by the US-Israel war on Iran and a sell-off of US government bonds partly driven by ballooning government debt, the market is well on track to record its fourth consecutive year of double-digit returns.
The S&P 500 has risen 14 percent so far in 2026, while the Nasdaq Composite is up 18.78 percent.
“Investors remain bullish on the prospects for AI,” Lochlan Halloway, a senior equity strategist at Morningstar Australia, told Al Jazeera.
“They are betting that the money pouring into data centres will earn a good return, and so far, that belief has outweighed rising interest rates, more expensive oil and a 10-year bond yield above 5 percent,” Halloway said.
“We are positive on AI too,” Halloway added. “But the range of outcomes is wide, and the market is concentrated in a handful of companies, so the outlook for US shares, and by extension global shares, relies on the AI story continuing to deliver.”
Lerner at Truist Advisory said the market rally had the potential to continue through the end of 2026 given historical trends and expectations for strong corporate earnings.
“We do not expect a straight line higher for markets,” Lerner said.
“Still, 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 that rising interest rates posed the biggest risk to the upward trend.
“Still, on balance, the weight of the evidence suggests this bull market still has more upside potential,” he said.
Despite the rally on Wall Street, Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday, with key indexes in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong racking up losses.
The Kospi in Seoul led the sell-off, falling 1.98 percent, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.92 percent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was down 0.57 percent shortly before the market’s close.
Oil prices, which have been elevated since the start of the war on Iran, rose on Wednesday as traders weighed the fallout of fighting in Yemen between forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Iran-aligned Houthis.
Brent crude futures for December delivery stood at $101.16 a barrel as of 07:30 GMT, up 0.58 percent.