US Stocks Hold Near Records as Disney Beats Profit Forecasts

The US stock market continued its upward trend on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 slipping just 0.2% from its all-time high set a day earlier.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.8%. The Walt Disney Co. led the gains after easily beating Wall Street's profit forecasts, thanks in part to a $1 billion box office haul from 'Toy Story 5' and strong theme park revenue.

However, Elon Musk's SpaceX sank 11.9% following its first quarterly report as a public company, which showed it sharply boosted spending on artificial intelligence. This announcement helped give semiconductor giant Nvidia a 4.4% boost after it was announced that SpaceX would exclusively use its chips for AI technology.

Markets in Asia rose, with benchmarks jumping more than 3% in Tokyo and Seoul as computer chipmakers and other AI-related companies climbed. European markets were mixed, while Treasury yields slipped in the bond market.