Wall Street Hits New Highs as AI Investment Plan Boosts Market Confidence

Wall Street: double record for the S&P500, the Dow breaks away

Wall Street continued its upward trend, after hesitating until mid-session... but all's well that ends well, and the S&P500 (+0.5%) set a new absolute "double record" at over 6,118 (with a closing high to boot), the Dow Jones gained +0.9% to 44,565, and the Nasdaq Composite clawed back 0.2% to 20,053. Tuesday evening's launch by the White House of a gigantic AI investment plan - dubbed 'stargate'- in the United States bolstered the feeling of confidence prevailing on the markets. All US indices ended in the green, including the Russell-2000, which erased the 0.6% lost the previous day. Beyond the optimism surrounding AI, Wall Street was supported by industrial stocks (+1.1%), while the 'Fantastic 8' stagnated. Nvidia (+0.1%) consolidated its position as the world's no. 1 capitalization at nearly $3.560 billion, as Apple (-0.35%), which faces stiff competition from Samsung and is losing ground in China, slipped from 1st to 3rd place in a single week. Note the +16% surge in ARM on Wednesday... but the market got a little carried away and the stock lost 7.5%. The "number of the day" concerned weekly jobless claims in the USA: the Labor Department recorded 223,000 new claims for the week ending January 13, up 6,000 on the previous week. The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came out at 213,500, up anecdotally by 750 on the previous week. On the FOREX side, the session was extremely quiet: the euro's recent rally stalled at the start of the week, holding steady at 1.041 against the greenback, while the yen gained at best 0.1% against the dollar. The yield on Treasuries climbed +4.5 basis points to 4.645% on the 10-year, while the 30-year was up +5.4 bps at 4.870%. Finally, Donald Trump, who took part in a 45-minute duplex with the Davos Forum, reiterated his intention to fight inflation, reduce the US trade deficit and, above all, dropped the phrase: "I demand that interest rates fall immediately", a deliberate breach of respect for the Fed's independence. But this isn't the first time Donald Trump has engaged in this kind of provocation towards Jerome Powell, and his 'demand' has virtually no chance of being followed up. But if the Fed were - in response - to be openly 'uncooperative', this could also worry Wall Street... which this evening is showing no signs of annoyance (given the day's record levels), as this kind of 'Trumpism' was commonplace during his first term. Copyright (c) 2025 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.

Wall Street: a short pause after the previous day's record highs

Wall Street is set to open on an uneven note on Thursday morning after setting new records the previous day, marking a pause after the upward movement triggered by renewed appetite for AI-related stocks. Half an hour before the opening, New York index futures were hovering around equilibrium, signalling an opening without much change. All US indices gained ground last night, with the S&P 500 even setting a new all-time high above 6,100 points during the session. The White House's launch, on Tuesday evening, of a gigantic investment plan in AI helped to bolster the feeling of confidence that has prevailed on the markets for the past ten days or so. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq also returned yesterday to within a few hundred points of their December peaks. Beyond the optimism surrounding AI, Wall Street was buoyed by Netflix's better-than-expected results (+9.7%), deemed a good omen ahead of the tech giants' earnings releases scheduled for next week. Although most traders continue to be pleased with the solid economic outlook and the ongoing craze for AI, the possibility of a return to a trade war could affect equities. Upon taking office, Donald Trump made no secret of his intention to implement new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, which could in turn retaliate by unveiling retaliatory measures. Companies that publish their results remain the main drivers of the trend. Investors will be watching for the publication of Texas Instruments' results after the close of Wall Street, which will be closely followed to anticipate the next publications of other chip manufacturers. Meanwhile, aerospace equipment supplier GE Aerospace is expected to rise by over 7% after ending 2024 on a high note, with orders up 46% in the fourth quarter. Investors are also keeping an eye on economic indicators with less than a week to go before the Federal Reserve meeting. The Labor Department reported an increase of 6,000 to 223.000 in jobless claims last week, showing that the labor market is continuing to slow down. On the currency markets, the euro confirms its recent recovery, climbing back above $1.0410. Bitcoin erases its gains after hitting the $109,000 threshold in the wake of Donald Trump's return to the White House, leading it to fall back to around $104,000.000 dollars. Benchmark bond yields are little changed: the ten-year yield is up by two basis points at 4.62%. Oil prices are back up slightly as we await the release of weekly US inventory figures later this morning. Light American crude (WTI) is trading at around 75.6 dollars a barrel, up 0.2%. Copyright (c) 2025 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.