The U.S. stock markets finished higher on Wednesday. At close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 49,482 points, up 0.6 % from the previous day. A few minutes earlier, the broader S&P 500 stood around 6,946 points, a gain of 0.8 %, while the technology‑focused NASDAQ 100 was about 25,329 points, up 1.4 %.
Investors were closely watching for Nvidia’s quarterly earnings. As the leading supplier of high‑performance graphics processors for artificial intelligence, analysts hope the results will offer clues about AI’s impact on economic growth.
Meanwhile, market participants weighed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that large data‑center operators should finance their own electricity generation. In the United States, opposition to new AI data centers has risen sharply, as expansion costs and special contracts for data‑center operators have driven local electricity prices higher. Whether Trump’s proposal ultimately benefits consumers and harms AI firms will depend on the specifics of the regulation.
The euro strengthened in the early evening: one euro traded at $1.1807, and one U.S. dollar was worth €0.8470.
Gold saw gains, trading at $5,160 per troy ounce (+0.3 %) in the evening, which equals about €140.50 per gram.
Oil prices also rose. At around 10 p.m. German time, one barrel of North Sea Brent crude fetched $70.95, an increase of 18 cents or 0.3 % over the previous close.
