Dow Rises 130 Points; Tech Stocks Soar on $500B AI Investment Plan

Strong gains in tech stocks, fueled by a $500B private-sector AI investment announcement boosted the Nasdaq by 1.28% and lifted major indices.

The Dow closed up 130.92 points (0.3%) at 44,156.73. The S&P 500 gained 37.13 points (0.61%) settling at 6,086.37 while the Nasdaq climbed 252.56 points(1.28%) to 20,009.34.

Trump's announcement of a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment plan from a venture involving Oracle, Open AI and Softbank set the stage for tech stocks's strong performance.

Oracle Corp shares surged nearly 7%, NVIDIA climbed about 4.2%, Microsoft gained nearly 4% and Meta Platforms closed up by about 2.7%. Netflix soared nearly 10%, after the company reported an addition of 19 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, the biggest ever subscriber gains in any quarter. Among other prominent gainers in the session, Amazon, Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, American Express, Analog Devices and Nike advanced 1 to 2%. Pfizer, Booking Holdings, Morgan Stanley, Merck, Chevron Corporation, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Tesla and Exxon Mobil Corporation closed notably lower.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets falling sharply after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on the EU and China to address trade imbalances and combat fentanyl trafficking. European stocks closed broadly higher on Wednesday, and several markets in the region posted record highs, reacting to some upbeat earnings updates and on optimism about interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and a few other central banks, including the ECB, this year.

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