Wall Street hits records amid AI rally

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at new records on Monday, April 27, with Nvidia leading another narrow advance into one of the busiest earnings weeks of the quarter. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) The S&P 500 added 0.12% to 7,173.91, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.20% to 24,887.10, both record closes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 62.92 points, or 0.13%, to 49,167.79. (cnbc.com) Nvidia rose 4% to a fresh high, according to Bloomberg, while the market’s leadership stayed concentrated in a handful of large technology names. Bloomberg said only three of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors finished in the green. (bloomberg.com) That concentration has been building for days. Bloomberg reported on April 22 that the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index logged a record 16 straight gains and had climbed about 39% in April, its biggest monthly jump since February 2000. (bloomberg.com) The records are arriving even as other signals stay unsettled. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $96.37 a barrel and Brent at $108.23 on Monday as U.S.-Iran talks remained stalled and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz stayed in focus. (cnbc.com) This week’s calendar is crowded with catalysts beyond oil. Saxo said the Federal Reserve is expected to leave rates unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75% on Wednesday, while companies including Visa, Coca-Cola, BP, Starbucks, General Motors and Robinhood are reporting. (home.saxo) The macro backdrop is mixed rather than cleanly bullish. The International Monetary Fund said in its April 2026 World Economic Outlook that the Middle East war threatens growth and disinflation, while faster artificial-intelligence productivity gains could still lift activity. (imf.org) Labor data tell a similar story of cooling without collapse. J.P. Morgan wrote in December that U.S. monthly payroll growth averaged 50,000 in 2025, unemployment is expected to peak at 4.5% in 2026, and improvement may not come until the second half of the year. (jpmorgan.com) Bloomberg reported that the S&P 500 entered this week up almost 10% since the end of March, putting April on pace for its best monthly advance since late 2020. The same report said investors were already questioning whether the speed of the rally itself could become a risk. (bloomberg.com) For now, Wall Street is still paying up for companies tied to artificial-intelligence spending, even with oil above $100 for Brent and the Fed decision still ahead. The next test is whether earnings from the biggest technology companies can justify prices already sitting at records. (bloomberg.com) (cnbc.com)