Wall Street drifts as Broadcom and other AI-related stocks help support the market

New York: Wall Street is holding relatively steady Tuesday as stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry help support the market, at least for now.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent and pulled within 1.5 per cent of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, as of 9:35 am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5 per cent higher.

The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 were falling, but gains for influential AI-related stocks made up for that. It's a calm moment for such stocks following weeks of swerving on worries about whether their boom is under threat because of how expensive it's become for companies to borrow money to build data centers and buy more AI chips.


Broadcom climbed 3.3 per cent after announcing a USD 63 billion financing deal where several Wall Street firms will help Anthropic get access to its XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions.

Elsewhere in the industry, Nvidia rose 0.8 per cent and was the second-strongest force lifting the S&P 500 behind Broadcom. CoreWeave, a company that's borrowed money to buy AI chips that it rents out to customers over the cloud, rose 3.3 per cent, though it's been careening between big gains and losses almost minute by minute in recent days.

General Motors climbed 4 per cent 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.

JetBlue Airways flew 11.5 per cent higher even though it reported a larger loss for the summer than analysts expected. CEO Joanna Geraghty said it expects to make more in operating profit off each USD 1 in revenue during the final three months of the year, even though fuel prices remain high.

Investors may have been bracing for something worse after the airline's stock came into the day with a loss of nearly 48% for the year so far.

Another travel company, Royal Caribbean, also helped lead the market and rose 7.5 per cent. The cruise operator delivered a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected, while raising its profit forecast for the full year.

They helped offset a drop of 1.6 per cent for Boeing, which reported a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Coca-Cola slipped 0.4 per cent even though its profit and revenue for the third quarter topped analysts' expectations.

Sherwin-Williams fell 2.8 per cent after delivering a weaker profit than analysts expected. High mortgage rates have helped chill the housing industry, which in turn pressures demand for the paints and coatings the company sells.

"Customer sentiment and the leading indicators we track point to muted demand over the remainder of the year and into 2027," CEO Heidi Petz said. At the same time, her company is dealing with inflation pushing up costs for raw materials.

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.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady a day before the Federal Reserve is set 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 per cent from 5.00 per cent late Monday.

Helping to keep yields in check was a dip for oil prices. The price for a barrel of Brent crude slipped 0.4 per cent to USD 110.24.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Stocks jumped 3.1 per cent in Seoul and fell 1.3 per cent in Shanghai for two of the bigger moves.