Big Tech Rises Alongside AI Optimism… Amazon up 4% [New York Stock Market Briefing]

Major U.S. New York stock market indexes closed mixed. Technology stocks were strong amid optimism about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

On the 3rd (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed at 23,834.72, up 109.77 points (0.46%) from the previous trading day. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index also closed up 11.77 points (0.17%) at 6,851.97.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 226.19 points (0.48%) to 47,336.68.

Optimism about the AI industry boosted technology stocks.

Microsoft (MS) said it will invest more than $7.9 billion in AI-related areas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through 2029.

MS obtained permission from the U.S. government in September to export graphics processing units (GPUs) needed for AI computing to the UAE. Under this authorization, MS can export GPUs to the UAE equivalent to 60,400 units of NVIDIA's 'A100' chips.

Amazon's stock rose 4% following the announcement of a $38 billion (about KRW 54.4 trillion) cloud usage agreement with OpenAI, closing at $254.00 per share (about KRW 363,000).

The partnership centers on OpenAI using Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. Shares of NVIDIA, which supplies GPUs to that AWS infrastructure, also jumped 2.17%.

Shares of U.S. semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology also rose 5%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), an exchange-traded fund tracking semiconductor stocks, also finished the session with gains in the 1% range.

Shares of Iren, a data center company using eco-friendly energy, surged 11.52%. This is attributed to a $9.7 billion (about KRW 13.9 trillion) cloud usage agreement with Microsoft. NVIDIA GPUs are used in that cloud.

Palantir, dubbed one of Wall Street's biggest beneficiaries of AI, reported earnings that beat market expectations after the close, but it slipped slightly in after-hours trading. Earlier in regular trading it surged 3.35% to close at $207.18 (about KRW 296,000), marking an all-time high.

Palantir said in its post-close results that last quarter's revenue was $1.18 billion (about KRW 1.6886 trillion). That exceeded the market expectation of $1.09 billion (about KRW 1.6 trillion).

Tesla closed at $468.37, up $11.81 (2.59%). The gain reflected hopes that approval of a compensation package of up to $1 trillion for CEO Elon Musk at the annual shareholders' meeting on the 6th would strengthen Musk's management focus.

Economic indicators were weak. The U.S. manufacturing activity index remained in contraction in October and was weaker compared with the previous month.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that the manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for October stood at 48.7. That is a 0.4-point decline from September's 49.1 and below the market forecast of 49.5.

No Jeong-dong Hankyung.com reporter dong2@hankyung.com