New Record for the S&P 500 Index on Wall Street

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index reached a new record level on Wednesday, as did the Nasdaq, thanks to the rise in stock prices of several technology giants developing artificial intelligence. The Dow Jones remained almost unchanged at 46,601 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.58 percent to 6,753 points, and the Nasdaq index increased by 1.12 percent to 23,043 points.

The new records for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices are due to the rise in stock prices of several technology giants, as various business agreements related to the development of artificial intelligence have been supporting the growth of the technology sector for some time. “The main theme remains aggressive growth as new news about various business agreements related to artificial intelligence continues to arrive. Everything related to AI attracts significant attention,” says Bill Merz, director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

Investors were also focused yesterday on the minutes from the last meeting of the leaders of the U.S. central bank, which showed a division of opinion on interest rates. Some of them are concerned about the weakening labor market and are ready for further interest rate cuts by the end of the year, while others are not inclined to aggressive cuts in the cost of money as inflation is still significantly above the Fed’s target levels of around 2 percent.

The Fed reduced interest rates by 0.25 percentage points in September, and most analysts estimate that it will cut them two more times by 0.25 percentage points each by the end of the year. “The main discussion revolves around how much the Fed will reduce rates and how restrictive monetary policy is,” says Zachary Hill, director at Horizon Investments.

He warns that both the Fed and investors face obstacles in decision-making due to the lack of key economic reports, as federal services have not been operating for the eighth day. Analysts say it seems that this pause will extend into next week as Republican and Democratic representatives in Congress fail to reach an agreement on further funding for federal services.

Stock prices also rose on European exchanges yesterday. The London FTSE index strengthened by 0.69 percent to 9,548 points, while the Frankfurt DAX rose by 0.87 percent to 24,597 points, and the Paris CAC increased by 1.07 percent to 8,060 points.