Semiconductor Rally Lifts Nasdaq to New Heights as AMD Soars Nearly 24%

Chip stocks fueled Wall Street gains, with AMD?s 23.7% surge powering the Nasdaq higher. Gold and software stocks also rose, while housing and real estate lagged amid ongoing U.S. government shutdown concerns.

The Nasdaq climbed 161.81 points (0.7%) to 22,941.67 and the S&P 500 rose 24.49 points (0.4%) to 6,740.28, although the narrower Dow bucked the uptrend and edged down 63.31 points (0.1%) to 46,694.97.

The strength in the markets largely reflected a rally by semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index surging by 2.9% to a record closing high. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) led the sector higher, soaring by 23.7% after the chipmaker announced a 6 gigawatt agreement to power OpenAI's next-generation AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs.

Gold stocks were considerably strong amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index jumping by 1.9%. Software stocks turned out significantly strong while housing and commercial real estate stocks moved notably lower over the course of the session. Meanwhile, traders continued to shrug off concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing government shutdown which entered its sixth day amid little signs of progress toward a deal on a temporary spending bill.

Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance with several markets closed for holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 4.8%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 0.7%. European stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the session. The French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.4%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1% and the German DAX Index closed just below the unchanged line.

In the bond market, treasuries extended the pullback seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, climbed 4.3 bps to 4.16%.

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