S&P 500 hits record high as Nvidia nears $6 trillion milestone

The S&P 500 on Tuesday hit a record, as the index rose for a fourth straight day, supported by rising technology stocks, declining oil prices and hopes for a positive earnings season. In early trading the broad-based index rose 0.6%, to its highest level since Aug. 13. The Nasdaq Composite also opened higher by 0.7%. It also hit a record high for the second time this week. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks small and mid-size companies, rose 0.5% in early trading.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq’s gains were overwhelmingly powered by gains in tech companies, such as chipmaker Marvell, Palo Alto Networks and Dell Technologies. Nvidia, the world’s largest public company, also rose and moved closer to becoming the first company to ever reach $6 trillion in market value. Other trillion-dollar tech stocks also rose Tuesday. Microsoft, Amazon, SpaceX, Broadcom and Tesla shares all traded in the green.

Investors are also looking forward to the start of the third quarter’s earnings season, which begins in earnest next week with the country’s biggest banks reporting their results. “Heading into the start of the earnings season, analysts and companies have been more optimistic than normal in their earnings outlooks for the third quarter,” said FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters. Artificial intelligence stocks are set to be a major contributor.

“At the stock level, AI infrastructure stocks are expected to drive more than half of S&P 500 EPS growth in Q3,” said analysts at Goldman Sachs on Friday. They forecast that Nvidia and chipmaker Micron would likely be responsible for a third of the entire S&P 500’s earnings growth this quarter. Oil slides On the other hand, the energy sector was the worst performing alongside a dip in crude oil prices. Brent oil futures fell more than 2% to below $99 per barrel.

U.S. crude oil fell 1.5% to under $88 per barrel. Those drops came after a report from Bloomberg News said that Saudi Arabia’s key cross-country pipeline was operating normally, after “multiple attacks” took the critical pipeline out of commission in early September. Saudi Aramco has not responded to multiple requests for comment from NBC News. The pipeline has been used as a Strait of Hormuz workaround, given that shipping traffic there remains at just a fraction of pre-Iran war levels.

Still, “the market remains nervous about potential supply disruptions from the region,” said ING commodities analysts overnight. “This nervousness is likely to persist until there are signs of progress in a deal between the US and Iran. In the meantime, the risk of further escalation remains very real.” Bond watch Treasury yields also declined slightly, after hitting fresh 24-year highs on Monday. In early trading, the 10-year yield was still at more than 5.29%.

The 30-year Treasury was about flat at 5.66%. While the yield, or the rate, on both of those bonds have been at their highest levels since 2002, some experts think they’re close to topping out. “Several forces suggest rates may peak within the next month,” said Apollo’s Torsten Slok on Tuesday. “Approaching midterm elections raise the odds of a Middle East deal that would lower oil prices,” he added. President Donald Trump has said multiple times recently that he he believes a deal could be reached with Iran to end the 7-month war “right after” the midterm elections are over.

“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said Sept. 9. Those comments marked a turn after Trump for months said that the war would last only a short period of time. “A deal or government action that lowers oil prices would ease the upward pressure on interest rates at a time when yields are already elevated across nearly the entire global bond market,” Slok added.