Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) the day after the Dow fell nearly 1,000 points as the conflict in Iran continues on Thursday in New York City. Markets were up over 200 points in morning trading. Getty Images via AFP-Yonhap
NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market is recovering some of its losses for the week on Thursday, as the roller coaster for artificial-intelligence companies turns back upward. Oil prices and Treasury yields, meanwhile, remain near where they were the day before, even though worries are rising about the war with Iran and accelerating inflation .
The S&P 500 added 0.3 percent, coming off a back-to-back drop that yanked it back to where it was in early May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 313 points, or 0.6 percent, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5 percent higher.
AI stocks helped lead the market, as they have since last week then they went from roaring to records to suddenly turning lower . The big concern is whether such stocks shot too high, too fast because of AI mania, and they’ve been careening up and down, sometimes hour by hour.
Marvell Technology climbed 2.6 percent, for example. It’s coming off a manic stretch where it plunged 16.7 percent, soared 9.6 percent and then fell more than 5 percent for two straight days. Just before that, it had a one-day surge of 32.5 percent that was its best in history when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang suggested it could be “the next trillion-dollar company.” It was worth a bit more than $190 billion at the time.
Companies involved in the making of chips jumped to some of the market's biggest gains. Lam Research rose 8.2 percent, and KLA climbed 8.4 percent.
That helped offset a drop of 11.6 percent for Oracle. It reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but it also said it expects to raise $40 billion in cash this fiscal year through borrowing and sales of its stock. That comes after it raised $48 billion last fiscal year to help pay for AI investments.
Other companies’ stocks have also been punished recently for announcing heavy spending on AI, as the question remains whether all the investment can produce the profits and productivity that AI proponents are promising.
Oil prices, meanwhile, drifted following the latest fighting in the war with Iran, which has hurt the flow of oil deliveries from the Persian Gulf. President Donald Trump threatened to launch major strikes on Iran and seize control of its oil industry.
The United States and Iran have launched attacks over the past several days after a more than monthlong tenuous ceasefire. While the strikes have escalated tensions in the region, they have been more limited compared to the early weeks of the war and talks aimed at extending the ceasefire are ongoing.
Source: Korea Times News
