Nasdaq Jumps To Close At Record As Chipmakers Climb, Oil Prices Cool - AAPL, META, SPCX, MSFT, VKTX In Focus

• The S & P 500 ended Tuesday flat, while the Nasdaq 100 added 0.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%.
• Top U.S. tech leadership to be present at Trump-Xi Summit. 
• Oil prices cooled off with Brent crude settling around $99 a barrel.     

The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 soared to its record high on Tuesday amid strong gains in tech and chipmakers, while investors looked ahead at the highly anticipated summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping this week.  

The S & P 500 ended Tuesday flat, while the Nasdaq 100 added 0.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%. The Russell 2000, which tracks stocks with small market capitalizations, rose about 0.3%.

The SPDR S & P 500 ETF (SPY) was down 0.1%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) fell 0.4%, and the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) climbed 0.7%. 

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) added between 1.7% and 2.1%, tracking gains in Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO) and Micron Tech (MU). The broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) rose about 0.6%.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for QQQ and SPY moved to 'bullish' from 'neutral' a day ago, with 'high' message volumes, and remained 'bearish' for the DIA. 

US Market Drivers

Crude prices eased after President Donald Trump said American officials held a productive three-hour session with Iranian representatives. Worldwide benchmark Brent crude futures fell 1.1% to $99.25 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 1.2% to $94.59 per barrel, marking a fifth straight session of declines for both contracts. Meanwhile, government bond yields ticked lower on Tuesday, as the 10-year Treasury yield hovered near 4.96%.

“Focus will stay on geopolitics, and if there's any confirmation of progress towards a ceasefire between the US and Iran, look for oil and yields to fall further and for stocks to rally,” Tom Essaye at The Sevens Report told Bloomberg. 

While cooling oil prices and yields supported riskier equities, a host of comments from top Fed officials about persistent inflationary pressure warranting rate hikes capped further gains. 

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Susan M. Collins on Tuesday reaffirmed her commitment to curbing inflationary pressures, stating that she fully supported the central bank's recent decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points.

Key Trending Stocks

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is developing a screenless health and fitness band designed to compete directly with devices from Whoop Inc.

Yorkville Ives partner Dan Ives said on Tuesday that Meta Platforms (META) and Apple (AAPL) could help drive the next phase of the artificial intelligence boom by bringing AI deeper into the consumer market. 

SpaceXAI's workplace artificial intelligence agent, Grok Bot, reached more than 400,000 weekly users approximately one month after its debut, signaling steady early demand for the firm's enterprise software push. 

Microsoft (MSFT) announced another round of workforce reduction in its Xbox business, eliminating 268 roles as it moves ahead with a major restructuring of its gaming division. 

Viking Therapeutics (VKTX): Early data showed its experimental obesity injection, VK2735, kept most patients' weight off when they took it every other week or once a month 

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