Microsoft Fuels Wall Street Rally Amid AI Uncertainty
The Wall Street sign at the New York Stock Exchange was a fitting backdrop for Friday's gains, as investors welcomed news from Microsoft and other AI-related tech stocks.
Microsoft led the charge with a 3.7% rally, pushing its year-to-date gain to 7%. The software giant unveiled several new capabilities in its Copilot app, including a coding tool and an always-on AI agent.
Akamai Technologies wasn't far behind, jumping 3.2% after announcing an $11.6 billion cloud services deal with AI leader Anthropic. The agreement includes a warrant that could give Anthropic up to 5% of Akamai's shares.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq followed suit, climbing 0.51% and 0.48%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.93%. Meta Platforms was an outlier, dipping 3.3% despite a strong reception to its Muse AI agent earlier in the week.