NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose for a second straight session, lifted by expectations for the listing of Anthropic, the developer of the artificial intelligence model Claude.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on the 27th at 52,377.57, up 15.99 points, or 0.03%. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 45.83 points, or 0.60%, to 7,722.60, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 308.43 points, or 1.18%, to 26,477.81.
Among the largest companies by market value, major technology shares advanced broadly. Nvidia rose 0.90%, Apple 0.93%, Amazon 1.61%, TSMC 2.95%, Google parent Alphabet 1.19%, SpaceX 1.14%, Broadcom 4.00%, SK hynix 1.92%, Micron 2.77% and AMD 5.45%. Microsoft fell 0.24% and Facebook parent Meta dropped 1.64% despite the broader gains. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 3.60%. General Motors, which announced it would move its listing to the Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange after 115 years, rose 5.54%.
The market gained ground, led by technology shares, after Anthropic filed for an initial public offering the previous day. A U.S. listing would make Anthropic the first AI model developer to go public. Wall Street expects the company to seek a valuation of as much as $2 trillion and to raise $100 billion through the offering. Both figures would be records, surpassing the $1.77 trillion valuation and $86 billion raised by SpaceX when it listed on the Nasdaq on June 12. According to Anthropic's registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, revenue in the first half of this year reached $16.29 billion, up more than 1,300% from $1.16 billion a year earlier. Sentiment toward AI-related shares was also helped by Broadcom's announcement that it would arrange $63 billion in financing for Anthropic together with Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone.
Concerns over fundraising by big technology companies again capped gains. In its registration statement, Anthropic acknowledged that the scale of its investment agreements with chip and data center companies could be larger than expected. The company said the related contracts total more than $800 billion and run through 2045.
Meta's shares were weighed down after it expanded the size of its fundraising for AI expansion to $97.5 billion. The company said it had raised the size of a previously announced Class A common stock offering to $25 billion from an initially planned $22.5 billion. That brought Meta's total fundraising to $97.5 billion from $95 billion.
A decline in international oil prices on hopes for progress toward peace in the Middle East also supported equities. On the ICE Futures exchange in London, Brent crude for December delivery settled at $113.88 a barrel, down 1.67% from the previous session. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, U.S. West Texas Intermediate for December delivery closed at $99.90 a barrel, down 1.83%. Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, which have signed the Mecca joint defense pact, visited Tehran the previous day and agreed to continue talks with President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior Iranian figures. It was the first such meeting between Saudi Arabia and senior Iranian officials since military clashes with Yemen's pro-Iran Houthi rebels in July. The Mecca joint defense pact, signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan in August, treats an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all. Still, the drop in oil prices was limited by lingering risks, including continued fighting after Houthi rebels struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery, the country's largest.
Investors turned their attention to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting, which began on the same day. According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, the federal funds futures market put the probability that the Fed would leave its benchmark rate unchanged at 92.8%. The outcome of Israel's general election is also a key focus for market participants.
