S&P 500 Closes Within 1.2% of Record as Broadcom's $63 Billion AI Deal Leads

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% on Tuesday and pulled within 1.2% of the all-time high it set earlier this month — even though the majority of stocks in the index fell. A handful of artificial-intelligence names did the heavy lifting, with Broadcom, Nvidia and CoreWeave powering the gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25 points, less than 0.1%, with an hour left in trading. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%. Tuesday marked a second straight winning day for AI stocks after weeks of swings driven by a simple worry: borrowing money to build data centers and buy AI chips has become expensive.

What moved the AI trade?

Broadcom climbed 4.2% after announcing a $63 billion financing deal in which several Wall Street firms will help Anthropic gain access to Broadcom's XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions.

Nvidia rose 0.8% and, alongside Broadcom, ranked among the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 higher. CoreWeave — which borrows money to buy AI chips and rents them out over the cloud — jumped 8.5% after severe hour-to-hour swings in recent days. The takeaway: two chip stocks and one cloud renter carried the index on a day most shares declined.

Why did GM jump 5.6%?

General Motors said it's moving its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq. The automaker called the Nasdaq, home to several of the world's biggest technology stocks, a fit for its tech-driven strategy. The switch could also get GM into the Nasdaq 100 index, which would force funds that track the index to buy its shares.

The move ends an era: GM began trading on the NYSE in 1911.

Who won and lost on earnings?

JetBlue Airways flew 20.3% higher even though it reported a larger summer loss than analysts expected. CEO Joanna Geraghty said the airline expects to return to sustained operating profits next year and deliver at least $1 in earnings per share in 2028. Investors may have braced for worse — JetBlue entered the day down nearly 48% for the year.

Royal Caribbean Group rose 5.5% after beating summer profit estimates and raising its full-year forecast.

The losers:

• Boeing fell 10.2% after reporting a larger quarterly loss than analysts expected.
• Hilton Worldwide sank 2.6% on weaker summer revenue; its Q4 profit forecast midpoint came in below Wall Street's estimate. The company expects "increased impact from the Middle East" during the quarter.
• Sherwin-Williams dropped 1.9% after missing profit expectations. High mortgage rates have chilled housing, pressuring demand for its paints and coatings.

"Customer sentiment and the leading indicators we track point to muted demand over the remainder of the year and into 2027," CEO Heidi Petz said. Her company is also absorbing inflation in raw-material costs.

The backdrop is unforgiving: analysts and investors expect big profit growth, and that expectation is what pushed stock prices to records despite high inflation and high interest rates.

What about the Fed and bonds?

Treasury yields held relatively steady ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Wednesday. The Fed hiked the fed funds rate last month for the first time in three years to slow inflation, but Wall Street broadly expects it to hold steady this time.

The 10-year Treasury yield edged down to 4.99% from 5.00% late Monday. Falling oil helped keep yields in check: Brent crude dropped 1.2% to $109.41 a barrel.

A report Tuesday showed U.S. consumer confidence improved in October, against economists' expectations of further weakening — a small break in a stretch of tumbling shopper sentiment under inflation pressure.

Overseas, indexes were mixed. Seoul jumped 3.1% and Shanghai fell 1.3% for two of the bigger moves.

With the Fed decision due Wednesday and earnings expectations this high, the market's next test is whether profits — not just AI momentum — can justify a fresh record.