New York market attempts third straight gain as AI investor sentiment revives

NVIDIA, Tesla, Micron, Palantir, Oracle rise

Gold, silver and international oil rise amid geopolitical tensions

On the 22nd (local time), the U.S. stock market attempted a third consecutive trading-day rise as investor sentiment toward artificial intelligence (AI) revived.

At 10 a.m. Eastern Time, the S&P 500 was up 0.4%, the Nasdaq was up 0.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%.

AI-related stocks showed broad-based gains.

NVIDIA rose 1% after Reuters reported it would ship H200 chips to China by mid-February. Micron Technology, a major U.S. memory chip maker, rose 2.7% on hopes for a memory-chip supercycle next year. Palantir rose 1.7% and Broadcom rose 0.7%.

Oracle, which had experienced a steep decline recently, continued its gains after TikTok agreed to sell its U.S. operations to a new joint venture involving Oracle and private-equity firm Silver Lake, following gains on Friday.

Tesla, which had risen to around 498 dollars early in the session, was trading around 487 dollars at this time, trimming some of its gains.

Paramount Skydance saw its shares jump nearly 7% that day after Larry Ellison stepped forward to guarantee 40.4 billion won, amounting to 40% of the Warner Bros acquisition price. Warner Bros also rose more than 3%.

Amid rising geopolitical tensions, the dollar weakened while gold and silver hit record highs. Spot gold rose 1.9% to 4,420.65 dollars per ounce, and spot silver approached a record at 69.80 dollars per ounce. Copper also surpassed 12,000 dollars per ton, exceeding its previous record.

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) fell 0.3% to 98.2721, and the Japanese yen, which had been weak in Asian markets, rose 0.5% to 156.95 per dollar.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose 1 basis point (1bp=0.01%) to 4.16%. The 2-year Treasury yield also rose 1bp to 3.49%.

Bitcoin also moved to reclaim the $90,000 level, rising 2.1% to 89,964.39 dollars.

Major Wall Street indices, helped by a late-week tech surge last week, saw the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rise 0.1% and 0.5% respectively, extending their three-week winning streaks. The Dow fell 0.7% last week, ending its three-week run of gains.

The U.S. stock market has recovered December losses and extended an eight-month winning streak, the longest since 2018.

Chris Lakin of Morgan Stanley E*TRADE said, "Despite extreme volatility, technology stocks have led the market higher this year and are determining the course of U.S. markets in December."

Clark Bellin of Bellwether Wealth said, "This year has been volatile, especially after tariffs were imposed in April, and volatility will not completely disappear in 2026." He forecast that tech stocks would find a bottom in the coming months as they go through a correction phase. He also expected stock prices to rise even without additional rate cuts until a new Fed chair is selected in midyear.

Investors are watching whether AI-related stocks can lead a year-end rally. Currently, investors concerned about high valuations in tech stocks are moving funds into undervalued parts of the market.

The New York Stock Exchange will close early at 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve, Wednesday the 24th, and will be closed on Thursday for Christmas Day.

Kim Jeong-ah, guest reporter kja@hankyung.com