WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the pullback seen in the previous session, stocks moved back to the upside during trading on Wednesday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 more than offset yesterday's losses, reaching new record closing highs.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, jumping 255.02 points or 1.1 percent to 23,043.38, while the S&P 500 climbed 39.13 points or 0.6 percent to 6,753.72. The narrower Dow ended the day little changed, edging down 1.20 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 46,601.78.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflected a notable advance by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling and market leading surging by 2.2 percent to a record closing high.
Nvidia moved high after CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC's 'Squawk Box' artificial intelligence computing demand has increased 'substantially' in the last six months.
Meanwhile, traders continued to shrug off the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which has entered its eighth day today.
Lawmakers in Washington continue to struggle to pass a temporary funding bill due in part to Democrats' demands that the legislation include an extension of enhanced Obamacare tax credits.
Stocks saw continued strength even after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's September revealed participants expressed a range of views about the likely future path of monetary policy.
Most judged that it likely would be appropriate to ease policy further over the remainder of this year, the Fed said, although some noted financial conditions warrant a cautious approach in the consideration of future policy changes.
Sector News
Computer hardware stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index up by 4.3 percent to a record closing high.
Networking and semiconductor stocks also turned in strong performances, contributing to the jump by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Outside of the tech sector, gold stocks saw considerable strength amid a continued surge by the price of the precious metal, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index shooting up 2.8 percent.
Steel and airline stocks also showed notable moves to the upside, while some weakness was visible among banking stocks.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index both fell by 0.5 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.7 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries pulled back near the unchanged line after seeing initial strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.129 percent after hitting a low of 4.096 percent.
Looking Ahead
Trading on Thursday may be impacted by reaction to remarks by several Federal Reserve officials, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
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