Nasdaq Jumps 308.43 Points to 26,477.81 as AI Stocks Rise
Key Facts
The Nasdaq Composite rose 308.43 points, or 1.2%, to 26,477.81 at the close on Tuesday, October 27, as AI stocks led Wall Street gains, according to the Associated Press. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 7,722.60, while the Dow Jones gained 15.99 points, or less than 0.1%, to 52,377.57. The indexes advanced unevenly: most stocks listed in the S&P 500 fell, but gains in several influential AI-linked stocks offset those declines. The Nasdaq had risen 214.04 points, or 0.8%, to 26,169.38 in the previous session. Investors focused on a financing deal involving Broadcom and Anthropic, as Anthropic filed registration papers for an initial public offering.
Broadcom shares jumped 4% after the company announced a $63 billion financing deal that gives Anthropic access to Broadcom’s XPU accelerators and networking solutions, with help from several Wall Street firms, according to the Associated Press. Nvidia shares rose 0.9%, while CoreWeave gained 7.9% in the same session. CoreWeave rents AI chips it bought with borrowed money to customers through cloud services, the agency reported. The moves came as Anthropic filed an initial public offering registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 26, seeking to list its Class A shares on Nasdaq under the symbol “ANT.” The preliminary registration statement did not specify the number of shares offered or their price range, and said the company had no prior public market for its Class A shares.
Gains in AI stocks reflected renewed interest in computing infrastructure companies, following weeks of investor concern about the borrowing costs needed to build data centers and buy more chips, according to the Associated Press. The announced Broadcom-Anthropic deal put infrastructure financing and access to accelerators and networking at the center of the session’s moves. By contrast, the agency reported that U.S. consumer confidence improved in October, when economists had expected a further decline. The consumer confidence index rose 7.5 points to 91.7 in October, compared with 84.2 in September. The confidence reading came amid an economic backdrop of borrowing concerns and expanding investment spending, which the Federal Reserve later described as strong.
U.S. Census Bureau data showed that new orders for durable goods rose in September even excluding transportation equipment, increasing 0.5% excluding transportation and 2.2% excluding defense. Transportation equipment made the largest contribution to the overall increase, with orders rising $5.2 billion, or 4.6%, to $119.8 billion. The figures show that order growth was not limited to the transportation component, despite its leading role in the monthly increase. The bureau set November 3 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time for publication of the full September orders report. The advance reading on orders was released on October 27.
In markets, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell to 4.99% on Tuesday from 5.00% late Monday, amid generally modest declines in yields ahead of the Federal Reserve decision, according to the Associated Press. Brent crude fell 1.2% to $109.41 a barrel in the same session. On October 28, the Fed kept the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75% to 4%, after a 10-to-2 vote. Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack voted against the decision, preferring a quarter-percentage-point increase in the range. The central bank said economic activity was expanding at a solid pace, domestic spending had remained resilient and capital investment was strong, while inflation remained elevated.
The Federal Open Market Committee held its meeting on October 27 and 28, and the decision statement was released on October 28 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by the news conference at 2:30, according to the Fed’s calendar. The vote showed that holding rates steady had the committee’s majority, while two members preferred a quarter-percentage-point increase. Economic data released during the week included consumer confidence and durable goods orders, alongside moves in bond yields and oil prices ahead of the decision. The personal income and spending report for September is scheduled for release on October 29 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. About one in three S&P 500 companies was also scheduled to report quarterly results during the week ending October 30.