US stocks hit record high, shrugging off bond market turmoil

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

The artificial intelligence boom keeps rolling, sending stocks to record highs: The S&P 500 rose 0.7% on Tuesday and hit 7,830 points, an all-time high and its first intraday record high in almost two months.

The S&P 500 would need to end the day with a gain of roughly 0.3% to officially close at its first record high since August 13. It would mark the index’s 28th record high this year.

Wall Street is rallying again as investors rekindle enthusiasm about AI. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high on Monday.

Tech and AI stocks are doing the heavy lifting for pushing stock indexes back to record highs. Meanwhile, other sectors of the market have struggled in recent weeks under the pressure of bond yields trading at multi-year highs.

The key 10-year Treasury yield, which underpins the cost of financing debt and taking out mortgage rates and can influence economic activity, just hit its highest level since 2002 .

Over the past month, tech is the only sector that has posted gains. Meanwhile, real estate, financials, materials and utilities have each dropped more than 5% as higher borrowing costs weigh on the outlook for stocks.

Stocks across sectors got a boost on Tuesday from a drop in oil prices and Treasury yields, which had put pressure on stocks in recent weeks. Brent crude fell 2% and traded at $98 per barrel — still up more than 30% since the start of the war with Iran but a relief from recent prices in the triple digits.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are weighted by market value. The larger a company is by market value, the more influence it has on the index. At almost $6 trillion in market value, Nvidia accounts for more than 8% of the S&P 500. Nvidia is up 6% this month, boosting the major indexes.

Still, Wall Street is cautious about the rally being dependent on tech and whether higher bond yields could rain on the parade.

“The breadth of the rally has narrowed,” Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS, wrote in a note.

“We retain strong conviction in the AI growth story, and believe AI-related investment remains a powerful tailwind for the broader equity market,” Hoffmann-Burchardi said. “But the increasing concentration of market gains reinforces the importance of managing risk through a broadly diversified equity portfolio.”

Treasury yields moved lower Tuesday, but remained at multi-year highs. The 10-year yield traded at 5.29%, down from rising as high as 5.35% on Monday but still at its highest level since 2007.

It’s been a choppy ride to all-time highs, but the S&P 500 has nonetheless rebounded and climbed, boosted by resurgent bouts of AI optimism, robust corporate earnings and a resilient US economic backdrop.

The S&P 500, a benchmark for trillions of dollars in retirement savings and personal investments, is up more than 14% this year and on track for its fourth-straight year of double-digit gains. The US stock market has overcome obstacle after obstacle, from an enormous energy shock to higher interest rates.

Recent optimism can be traced to last month, when Meta ( META ) launched its Muse personal assistant app that jumped to #1 on the App store. The successful launch reignited enthusiasm that tech companies can find ways to make AI for consumers and get them to consider paying for it, while also benefitting the chipmakers and companies involved in the AI buildout.

While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are back at record highs, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average — which has less tech-exposure — is down roughly 5% from a record high set in early August.

Similarly, while the S&P 500 is at record highs, an equal-weight version of the S&P 500 that gives each stock the same weight is down more than 4% since its record high in mid-August.

Timothy A. Clary/法新社/盖蒂图片社

人工智能热潮持续高涨，推动股市屡创新高：标普500指数周二上涨0.7%，达到7830点，创历史新高，也是近两个月来首次创下盘中新高。

标普500指数当天需要上涨约0.3%，才能正式创下自8月13日以来的首个历史新高。这将是该指数今年的第28个历史新高。

随着投资者对人工智能的热情重燃，华尔街股市再次上涨。以科技股为主的纳斯达克综合指数周一收于历史新高。

科技股和人工智能股是推动股指重回历史高位的主要力量。与此同时，受债券收益率处于多年高位的影响，其他板块近几周表现疲软。

关键的 10 年期美国国债收益率（该收益率是债务融资成本和抵押贷款利率的基础，并可能影响经济活动）刚刚达到 2002 年以来的最高水平。

过去一个月，科技板块是唯一实现上涨的板块。与此同时，房地产、金融、材料和公用事业板块均下跌超过5%，原因是借贷成本上升令股市前景承压。

周二，受油价和国债收益率下跌提振，各板块股市普遍走强。此前几周，油价和国债收益率的双双下跌曾给股市带来压力。布伦特原油价格下跌2%，报每桶98美元——尽管自伊朗战争爆发以来仍上涨超过30%，但较近期三位数的高位价格有所回落。

标普500指数和纳斯达克综合指数均按市值加权。公司市值越大，对指数的影响力就越大。英伟达市值接近6万亿美元，在标普500指数中占比超过8%。英伟达股价本月上涨6%，提振了主要股指。

不过，华尔街对这波上涨行情是否依赖于科技股仍持谨慎态度，并担心债券收益率上升可能会给这波涨势泼冷水。

瑞银全球股票主管乌尔里克·霍夫曼-布尔查迪在一份报告中写道：“这波上涨行情的幅度已经缩小。”

“我们依然坚信人工智能的增长前景，并认为人工智能相关投资仍将是推动整体股市上涨的强劲动力，”霍夫曼-布尔查迪表示。“但市场收益日益集中，也凸显了通过构建广泛多元化的股票投资组合来管理风险的重要性。”

周二美国国债收益率走低，但仍处于多年高位。10年期国债收益率报5.29%，低于周一触及的5.35%，但仍为2007年以来的最高水平。

尽管标普500指数一路走来跌宕起伏，但最终还是反弹攀升，这得益于人工智能乐观情绪的复苏、强劲的企业盈利以及美国经济的韧性。

标普500指数是数万亿美元退休储蓄和个人投资的基准指数，今年以来已上涨超过14%，有望连续第四年实现两位数增长。美国股市克服了重重阻碍，从巨大的能源冲击到更高的利率。

近期的乐观情绪可以追溯到上个月，当时Meta（META）推出了Muse个人助理应用，该应用迅速登上App Store榜首。此次成功发布重新燃起了人们对科技公司的热情，他们认为科技公司能够找到方法，为消费者打造人工智能产品，并促使他们考虑付费使用，同时也能让芯片制造商和参与人工智能开发的公司受益。

尽管标普 500 指数和纳斯达克指数重回历史高位，但科技股占比较低的蓝筹股道琼斯工业平均指数较 8 月初创下的历史高位下跌了约 5%。

同样，虽然标普 500 指数处于历史高位，但等权重标普 500 指数（即每只股票权重相同的指数）自 8 月中旬创下历史新高以来已下跌超过 4%。