US stocks close at record highs for 2nd day in a row amid big corporate deals

ISTANBUL 

US stocks closed at all-time high levels for a second consecutive day Tuesday, boosted by a series of artificial intelligence (AI) deals, the prospect of easing trade tensions with US President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and increased Fed rate cut expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.34%, or 161.78 points, to close at an all-time high of 47,706.37.

The Nasdaq climbed 0.80%, or 190.04 points, to close at a record high of 23,827.49, while the S&P 500 surged 0.23%, or 15.73 points, to another all-time high of 6,890.89.

Stock markets welcomed news such as Nvidia’s Nokia investment, OpenAI’s shift into a for-profit organization, US-China trade negotiations and Fed rate cut expectations.

Nvidia led the market’s advances, rising around 5% and setting a new record. At its GTC conference Tuesday, the firm made a number of announcements, one of which was its collaboration with Finnish firm Nokia. Nokia has stated that it will use the $1 billion it will receive from the sale of its shares to Nvidia to partially finance its AI initiatives.

Microsoft was also up 2% prior to its earnings announcement Wednesday. The firm’s market value, along with Apple’s, surpassed $4 trillion Tuesday. OpenAI said Tuesday that it has finished its recapitalization, which will give Microsoft a windfall, as it now owns about 27% of the for-profit company OpenAI Group PBC.

Global shipping and logistics firm UPS’s shares climbed 8% after the company reported better-than-expected third quarter profits and revenue. UPS also announced that it slashed 48,000 jobs this year.

Meanwhile, signs of easing trade tensions between US and Chinese officials emerged over the last couple of days ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi.

Regarding the meeting, Trump said Monday from Air Force One: “I have a lot of respect for President Xi, and we are going to come away with the deal.”

In addition to the ongoing negotiations, according to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, if Beijing cracks down on the shipment of ingredients that make fentanyl, the US will reduce its tariffs related to fentanyl against China as much as by 10%.

Aside from the potential trade truce, the expectations of a Fed rate cut on Wednesday, fueled by lower-than-expected inflation data, also drove the markets up.

On the data side, US house prices unexpectedly rose 0.4% on a monthly basis in August, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). On a yearly basis, house prices also increased 2.3% in August.

The Conference Board’s US Consumer Confidence Index fell by one point to 94.6 in October, which was a better-than-expected outcome as economists anticipated no change.

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