S&P 500 Soars to New High as Tech Sector Leads Charge

The S&P 500 index is on track to reach a new record high, driven by strong earnings reports from companies such as Palantir and Caterpillar. Palantir's CEO Alex Karp described their latest quarter as 'otherworldly', with the company reporting adjusted earnings per share of $0.41 and revenue growth of 93% year-over-year.

The tech sector is leading the charge, with shares of Nvidia-backed Volta Infra Holdings surging due to a six-year deal worth $10 billion for computing capacity with AI startup Anthropic. Meanwhile, Caterpillar's sales have been boosted by increased demand for its power-generation business in the face of rising oil prices.

The Dow Jones index is also up, driven by gains from top companies such as Palantir and ARM, which has risen 20% due to strong chipmaker performance ahead of AMD's results. Oil prices have fallen 4.2% to $76.90 a barrel following comments from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that an agreement with Iran may be close.