The S&P 500 (^GSPC +1.18%) rose 1.03% to 7,137.12, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +2.07%) jumped 1.64% to 24,657.57 to notch a record high, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.59%) gained 0.69% to 49,490.02 in a broad relief rally.
Market movers
Mega-cap tech stocks led the way, with Alphabet advancing 2% after unveiling new AI chips and partnerships. Crypto platform Coinbase climbed 5% as the broader crypto market boomed following “truce” headlines, sparking a risk-on environment. Lastly, cybersecurity behemoth CrowdStrike also rose 4% after a bullish analyst upgrade.
What this means for investors
Buoyed by news of an Iran War ceasefire extension, all three of the United States’ main indexes rose today, with the Nasdaq reaching a new record high. While easing geopolitical fears probably did much of the heavy lifting, prompting the market’s resurgence today, Alphabet also played a key role among the mega-cap tech stocks.
Alphabet may have “only” risen 2% today, but it announced:
- a Google Cloud partnership with Merck worth up to $1 billion
- an expanded deal with Crowdstrike
- an agreement with Thinking Labs to provide Nvidia’s AI capabilities through Google Cloud
- its next-Gen AI infrastructure, the A5X, built alongside Nvidia
- the release of two new 8th-generation tensor processing units (its in-house processors)
- a Google Cloud deal with M&M-maker Mars
- expanded partnerships with McKinsey, Accenture, Broadcom, and Oracle
Altogether, it was a good day to have remained fully invested in the market, and Alphabet continues to look interesting to me thanks to its reasonable valuation and immense growth optionality.
