Wall Street: Nasdaq more buoyed than ever by AI

(CercleFinance.com) - Wall Street continued its rally on Thursday, buoyed by technology stocks following the launch of new artificial intelligence chips, but also by low bond yields.


In late morning trading, the Dow Jones nibbled less than 0.1% to 36,079.8 points, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.1% to 14,299.2 points, returning not far from its all-time high of 14,446.5 points.299.2 points, returning not far from its all-time high of 14,446.5 points.

The craze for artificial intelligence (AI) - whose development is largely responsible for the Nasdaq's 35% surge this year - is fuelled by several promising announcements within the sector.

With a gain of 6.5%, AMD led the S&P 500 index following the presentation of the 'AMD Instinct MI300 Series', a chip designed to help customers design their large language models (LLMs).

Alphabet, Google's parent company, followed suit (+5.5%) in the wake of the commercial launch of its Gemini large language model, designed to compete with ChatGPT.

This confirms the very rapid evolution of the generative AI landscape", stresses one trader, who sees this announcement as a "major" event destined to shape the competitive landscape of generative AI.

For analysts, the optimism surrounding technology stocks reflects hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) will boost productivity tenfold and stimulate economic growth.

The entire technology sector is benefiting from this momentum, starting with the Dow Jones technology giants Intel (+1.5%), Apple (+1.2%) and Cisco (+1%).

US markets are also benefiting from the publication of weekly jobless claims, which showed an unexpected drop from 2,000 to 220,000 in the last week of November.

This figure confirms the scenario of a slowdown in hiring, arguing for a moderation in the Fed's monetary policy.

Treasuries fell by 4.5 basis points to 4.17%, having shed 87 points in six weeks, on the eve of the publication of monthly US employment figures.

Oil halted its debacle and recovered 1% to $70.1, after bottoming out at $69.3 this morning ahead of Vladimir Putin's state visit to Saudi Arabia, which will bring together the world's two biggest producers of black gold.

Copyright (c) 2023 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.