Strong earnings lift Wall Street
The US stock market rose on Wednesday following strong profit reports from SpaceX, Capital One Financial and other big companies.
The S&P 500 added 0.6% and pulled within 0.8% of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 360 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.1%.
SpaceX helped lead the market and climbed 7.8% after reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. Elon Musk, who runs the company that makes money from artificial-intelligence technology, rockets and other businesses, also said that SpaceX took a step to consider a possible merger with Tesla, his electric-vehicle company.
Tesla rose 3.4% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.
Expectations are high for profit growth for all kinds of companies during the northern hemisphere summer, and they need to meet them to justify the big runs their stock prices have made despite worries about high inflation, higher interest rates and other challenges weighing on Wall Street.
AI stocks remain unsettled
Among AI stocks, which have been at the centre of the market's action in recent weeks, the movements remained unsettled.
After leading the rest of the market for years because of the frenzy around AI, stocks in the industry have become shaky on worries that the build out of data centres may slow because of how much more expensive it's become to borrow money.
Besides SpaceX's profit report showing strength for AI spending, another encouraging signal for the industry came from Super Micro Computer, which sells AI servers and services. It said it expects to report stronger revenue for the summer than it had earlier forecast because of "increased demand for AI platforms", and its stock rallied 9.5%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 44.60 points to 7,757.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 360.21 to 52,856.09, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 278.04 to 26,702.86.
On other global markets, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. South Korea's Kospi jumped 3.3% for one of the world's biggest moves as AI stocks regained strength.
Oil remains volatile
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond erased an early dip and climbed back to 5.12%, where it was late on Tuesday.
It swung with oil prices, which remained unsteady. The price for a barrel of Brent crude drifted between $US108 and $US111 before settling at $US108.82.
It's been yo-yoing between $US97 and $US112 through October on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global energy industry to return to normal.
