US stocks: Wall Street ends higher as investors buy AI stocks; Microsoft rallies
WALL Street ended higher on Friday (Sep 25), lifted by Microsoft and other AI-related technology stocks, while high oil prices and a...
The US stock market saw an overall increase on Friday, Sept 25, as investors turned their attention to AI-related technology stocks, particularly Microsoft. Microsoft's Copilot app unveiled new features, including a coding tool and an always-on AI agent, driving the software giant's stock up by 3.7 per cent, signaling a 7 per cent gain for the year.
The tech giant's performance was further bolstered by a 4 per cent rise in Qualcomm and a 5 per cent increase in Dell. Akamai Technologies, an AI leader, saw a 3.2 per cent surge after sealing a $11.6 billion cloud services deal with Anthropic, which includes a warrant potentially granting Anthropic up to 5 per cent of Akamai. Despite the positive momentum, high oil prices and recent surges in US Treasury yields kept investors cautious.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the day higher, with the S&P 500 at 7,743.41 points and the Nasdaq at 27,068.72 points. Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes gained, led by information technology and industrials. Investors are optimistic about AI's impact on industries, as seen in Meta Platforms, whose stock dipped 3.3 per cent amid strong reception for its Muse AI agent.
Written by urgent.news from The Business Times - Companies & Markets's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
