AI Stocks Fuel Wall Street Rally Amid Earnings Expectations and US Treasury Yields
The Wall Street market closed higher on Friday, driven by gains in AI-related stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 469.07 points, or 0.91%, to 51,819.05, while the S&P 500 gained 37.96 points, or 0.49%, to end at 7,742.09 points.
The rally was led by Microsoft, which saw a significant increase after unveiling new capabilities in its Copilot app, including a coding tool and an always-on AI agent. Akamai Technologies also surged after announcing an $11.6 billion cloud services deal with AI leader Anthropic.
Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, stated that the deals are 'a positive from the standpoint that people are still investing.' However, not all stocks performed well, as Meta Platforms dipped in value due to its recent surge amid a strong reception to its Muse AI agent.