New York Stocks Close at Record Highs for S&P 500 and Nasdaq…Nvidia Drives Gains [New York Market Briefing]

Major U.S. New York stock indices rose on the 8th (local time), closing at record highs for the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 despite the continued temporary U.S. federal government shutdown and concerns over an 'AI bubble.'

International gold prices also settled around $4,000 per ounce, continuing record highs, and silver prices hit a fresh 14-year high.

On the New York market that day, the S&P 500 rose 39.13 points (0.58%) from the previous close to 6,753.72, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 255.02 points (1.12%) to 23,043.38.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.20 points (0.00%) from the previous close at 46,601.78.

With the gains, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each set record closing highs.

Nvidia, the largest by market capitalization, rose 2.2% that day, driving the indices higher.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a TV interview that computing demand has surged over the past six months, reviving market 'AI optimism.'

He said, "As AI models progress beyond simple Q&A to perform complex reasoning, computing demand has surged this year, especially over the past six months."

Regarding Nvidia's latest AI chip series 'Blackwell,' he said, "Demand for Blackwell is really, really high," and emphasized, "We are at the starting point of a new infrastructure expansion, the beginning of a new industrial revolution."

Cloud infrastructure firm Oracle, which had fallen more than 2% the previous day on concerns its profitability would fall short of expectations, rebounded 1.54% that day following Huang's remarks.

Some on Wall Street have earlier warned that while massive investments in AI continue, no one has presented a concrete picture of how profits will be generated, raising the possibility of a bubble.

The U.S. federal government shutdown entered its eighth day, but AI optimism did not dampen investor sentiment.

The U.S. Senate brought temporary budget proposals submitted separately by Republicans and Democrats to the floor, but neither secured the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and pass.

As the standoff between Republicans and Democrats continues, expectations are growing that the shutdown may persist for the time being.

Meanwhile, even as a market rally led by AI-related stocks continued, a concurrent preference for safe-haven assets pushed international gold to repeated record highs and drove silver to its highest level in 14 years.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, December delivery gold futures settled at $4,070.5 per ounce, up 1.7% from the previous close, setting a new record closing high.

According to Reuters, spot gold was also up 1.7% from the previous close at $4,050.24 per ounce as of 1:45 p.m. ET, hitting a record and settling above the $4,000 level.

At the same time, spot silver was trading at $49.39 per ounce, a 3.2% surge from the previous close.

Earlier, silver traded intraday at $49.57 per ounce, marking a new record high for the first time in 14 years since April 2011.

Suki Cooper, an analyst at Standard Chartered, said, "I don't see catalysts that would meaningfully reverse gold prices," and added, "I expect gold to continue rising this year and challenge $5,000 per ounce."

Sujin Choi, Hankyung.com reporter naive@hankyung.com