AI stocks bounce back
The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell, but the gains for influential AI stocks made up for that. AI stocks rose to another winning day after swerving for weeks on worries about whether their boom is under threat because of how expensive it's become for companies to borrow money to build data centres and buy more AI chips.
Broadcom climbed 4% after announcing a $US63 billion financing deal where several Wall Street firms will help Anthropic get access to Broadcom's XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions.
Elsewhere in the industry, Nvidia added 0.9% and was one of the strongest forces behind Broadcom pushing the S&P 500 higher. CoreWeave, a company that's borrowed money to buy AI chips that it rents out to customers over the cloud, jumped 7.9% and was consistently higher through the day following several days of sharp swings.
GM moves to the Nasdaq
General Motors climbed 5.5% after saying it's moving its stock from a listing on the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq. The automaker said the Nasdaq, which is home to several of the world's biggest technology stocks, is a fit for its tech-driven strategy. The move could also allow GM to join the Nasdaq 100 index, which would force investment funds that mimic the index to buy it.
GM began trading on the NYSE in 1911.
Earnings under pressure
Companies overall are under pressure to deliver big growth in profits. Expectations are high among financial analysts and investors, and that's what allowed their stock prices to run to records recently despite high inflation, high interest rates and other concerns weighing on the market.
Confidence among US shoppers has tumbled recently as pressure keeps building on them from high inflation. But a report on Tuesday said that US consumer confidence improved in October, when economists expected further weakening.
Fed decision ahead
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady a day before the Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its latest decision on interest rates. The Fed last month hiked the fed funds rate for the first time in three years in hopes of slowing inflation, but the widespread expectation on Wall Street is that it will hold rates steady this time.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.99% from 5.00% late on Monday.
Helping to keep yields in check was a drop for oil prices. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 1.2% to $US109.41.
On global markets, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Stocks jumped 3.1% in Seoul and fell 1.3% in Shanghai for two of the bigger moves.
