Wall Street closes at records as AI rally rolls on; Fed minutes land today

Wall Street closed Tuesday at new highs. The S&P 500 rose 0.58 percent to 7,818.93, its first close above 7,800 and its first record since the middle of August, the 28th record close of 2026. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.45 percent to 27,599.79, a second straight record. The Dow gained 253 points, 0.49 percent, to 51,521.28. Only the small cap Russell 2000 fell, down 0.59 percent.

The trigger was the bond market calming down. The 10 year Treasury yield retreated to 5.27 percent after touching a 24 year high above 5.30 percent on Monday, its highest in nearly a quarter century. When borrowing costs ease, expensive growth stocks breathe easier, and Tuesday they did.

Artificial intelligence did the heavy lifting. Chip stocks surged: Marvell Technology jumped 5.8 percent after raising its fiscal 2028 revenue outlook to about $20 billion; Advanced Micro Devices rose nearly 3 percent; Broadcom added 3.7 percent; Cisco gained 4.5 percent. The Nasdaq is up 2.75 percent so far this month. Nvidia, which closed Monday at a record valuation of $5.76 trillion, kept climbing toward the $6 trillion mark.

The day's standout was Constellation Energy, up more than 12 percent after signing a 20 year, 890 megawatt nuclear power purchase agreement with Alphabet. Utilities led all eleven S&P sectors with a 3 percent gain, their best day in more than five months. The trade is straightforward: AI data centers need enormous amounts of electricity, and investors are paying up for the companies that can supply it.

Gold kept its own record run alive, with futures rising 0.75 percent to $4,159.20 an ounce and spot prices near $4,196. Oil held near $90 a barrel in New York and above $100 for Brent, with shipments through the Strait of Hormuz still far below prewar levels. Diesel prices have risen 68 percent since the Iran war began, according to AAA data cited by CNBC, a cost that lands on every shelf in every store.

Beneath the records, unease is building. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate in the middle of September for the first time in more than three years, and the minutes of that meeting come out Wednesday afternoon. Investors will parse them for any sign the hike was a one off adjustment or the start of a longer tightening cycle. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to calm bond markets, saying economic growth plus spending restraint would soon change the government's borrowing trajectory. The U.S. trade deficit widened to $105.6 billion in August, the largest since March 2025.

Wednesday morning brought a cooler open: stock futures pointed lower, the 10 year yield ticked back up to 5.34 percent, gold eased to $4,145, and bitcoin slipped to about $83,600. Reports that SpaceX is looking to raise $40 billion to buy more Nvidia chips underlined how the AI buildout keeps demanding capital. This is a market climbing on two narratives at once: that AI will pay for everything, and that interest rates will not spoil it. Tuesday, both held. Whether both keep holding is the open question.