Wall Street set records on Thursday, even as a sell-off for Oracle and worries about a potential bubble in artificial intelligence technology weighed on the market.
- The Dow rose 646.26 points, or 1.3%, to 48,704.01.
- The S&P 500 rose 14.32 points, or 0.2%, to 6,901.00.
- The Nasdaq fell 60.30 points, or 0.3%, to 23,593.86.
It's the latest return to records for the market following what had appeared to be a debilitating set of worries, the AP reports. Some of the most recent included concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates and whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centers will produce profits and productivity as prolific as proponents are promising. Such worries sent Wall Street last month to some of its worst and scariest days since its sell-off during April, but several boosts followed that helped the market regain its footing. Key among them was a continuing parade of companies saying they're making bigger profits than analysts expected. Stock prices tend to track with corporate profits over the long term.
Banks and other companies whose profits are closely tied to the strength of the economy rallied Thursday. Gains of 2.5% for Goldman Sachs and 6.1% for Visa were the strongest forces pushing the Dow higher. The Walt Disney Co. added 2.4% after OpenAI said the entertainment giant is investing $1 billion in it. Eli Lilly rose 1.6% after announcing encouraging results from a clinical trial. Planet Labs PBC soared 35% after the provider of satellite images used by governments and businesses reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But a return to records for the market does not mean all worries are gone. Oracle dropped 10.8%. Doubts remain about whether all the spending that Oracle is doing on AI technology will be worth it. Such doubts are weighing on the AI industry broadly, even as many billions of dollars flow in. Nvidia fell 1.5%. It was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 because of its massive size.
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