Wall Street’s Nasdaq hits all-time high as AI frenzy gathers pace

Investors shrug off AI safety concerns and Iran war, sending market to a new peak.

A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York City [File: Andrew Kelly/Reuters]

Wall Street’s Nasdaq stock exchange has hit an all-time high, shrugging off concerns about AI safety risks, sky-high tech valuations and the energy shock caused by the United States’ war on Iran.

The Nasdaq Composite index, which is dominated by US tech giants such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, rose 0.45 percent on Tuesday, taking its gains to date this year to more than 17 percent.

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The Nasdaq 100, a narrower index that tracks 100 top companies, jumped 0.82 percent.

The S&P 500, the most popular measure of the overall US stock market, closed essentially flat.

Monolithic Power Systems, a Florida-based manufacturer of power circuits, and Canadian e-commerce company Shopify led the gains, surging 8.1 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively.

Micron Technology, one of the world’s top three memory chip makers along with South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, rose 5 percent.

Chip giant Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, gained 0.7 percent, while Apple edged up 0.2 percent.

Meta Platforms, which soared 11.4 percent on Monday on excitement surrounding its new AI assistant Muse, dropped 0.63 percent.

Major Asian stock markets opened higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi up about 1.4 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, in morning trading.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index opened lower, falling more than 0.7 percent during the morning trade.

Oil prices were largely flat on Tuesday, after falling more than 3 percent the previous day amid improving oil flows out of the Gulf and hopes of renewed diplomacy between Washington and Tehran.

Futures for Brent crude, the international benchmark, were trading at $99.18 a barrel as of 01:00 GMT.

⁠US President Donald Trump on Tuesday told reporters that US officials ‌held a “very good” meeting with their Iranian counterparts on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, hours after using his address to the session to warn that he could “annihilate” Iran if Tehran did not agree to a deal on the war.

Trump, whose war on Iran is nearing the seven-month mark, said US and Iranian officials would hold another round of talks in the “very near future”.

Jay Goldberg, a senior analyst at Seaport Research Partners in San Francisco, said signs of diplomatic progress between the US and Iran had refocused investor attention on the potential of AI to generate profits after years of multibillion-dollar investments.

“We have been searching for a clear consumer use case to justify the AI spend, and many see Muse as just that product,” Goldberg told Al Jazeera.

“Personally, I think Muse is just a step in the right direction; there will be better products – probably soon – but Muse is one of those things that are so useful they get investors excited about AI prospects again,” Goldberg said.

投资者对人工智能安全担忧和伊朗战争不以为意，推动市场达到新高。

在纽约市纽约证券交易所外，可以看到华尔街的路牌。[图片：Andrew Kelly/路透社]

华尔街纳斯达克股票交易所创下历史新高，无视人们对人工智能安全风险、高得离谱的科技估值以及美国对伊朗战争造成的能源冲击的担忧。

由英伟达、苹果和微软等美国科技巨头主导的纳斯达克综合指数周二上涨0.45%，今年迄今为止的涨幅已超过17%。

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在美国航空制裁生效前，伊朗飞往巴格达和马斯喀特的4个航班全部取消。

追踪 100 家顶级公司的纳斯达克 100 指数上涨了 0.82%。

作为衡量美国整体股市最常用指标的标准普尔500指数，收盘基本持平。

总部位于佛罗里达州的电力电路制造商 Monolithic Power Systems 和加拿大电子商务公司 Shopify 领涨，分别上涨 8.1% 和 7.1%。

与韩国SK海力士和三星电子并列全球三大存储芯片制造商之一的美光科技股价上涨5%。

全球市值最高的公司——芯片巨头英伟达股价上涨0.7%，而苹果股价小幅上涨0.2%。

周一，受其新人工智能助手 Muse 的推动，Meta Platforms 股价飙升 11.4%，但随后下跌 0.63%。

周三亚洲主要股市高开，日本日经225指数和韩国综合股价指数早盘分别上涨约1.4%和0.1%。

香港恒生指数开盘走低，早盘交易中下跌超过0.7%。

周二，油价基本持平，此前一天，由于海湾石油产量增加以及华盛顿和德黑兰之间外交关系有望重启，油价下跌超过3%。

截至格林尼治标准时间 01:00，国际基准布伦特原油期货价格为每桶 99.18 美元。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周二告诉记者，美国官员在纽约联合国大会期间与伊朗同行举行了一次“非常好的”会晤。此前数小时，特朗普在大会上发表讲话，警告称如果德黑兰不同意就战争达成协议，他可能会“摧毁”伊朗。

特朗普对伊朗发动的战争已接近七个月，他表示，美国和伊朗官员将在“不久的将来”举行新一轮会谈。

旧金山海港研究伙伴公司高级分析师杰伊·戈德堡表示，美国和伊朗之间外交取得进展的迹象，让投资者在多年数十亿美元的投资之后，重新关注人工智能创造利润的潜力。

“我们一直在寻找一个明确的消费者用例来证明人工智能投入的合理性，许多人认为 Muse 正是这样一款产品，”戈德堡告诉半岛电视台。

“就我个人而言，我认为 Muse 只是朝着正确方向迈出的一步；未来可能会有更好的产品——可能很快就会出现——但 Muse 就是那种非常实用的产品，它能让投资者再次对人工智能的前景感到兴奋，”戈德堡说道。