Nasdaq rises to fresh record high led by tech; traders eye oil and yields: Live updates

The Nasdaq Composite sailed to a fresh all-time high as traders looked past rising U.S. Treasury yields and digested new economic data.

The Nasdaq Composite was up more than 0.8% and hit an intraday record of 27,438.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 41 points, or about 0.1% higher. The S&P 500 advanced roughly 0.6%.

Several stocks tied to the artificial intelligence trade led the way higher for the Nasdaq. SpaceX jumped roughly 5%, while hyperscalers Meta and Microsoft ticked up more than 2% and 1%, respectively. Nvidia gained more than 1%, while Tesla rose 2%.

Tech is “sort of like the inverse bond trade,” Infrastructure Capital Advisors founder and CEO Jay Hatfield told CNBC. “It’s buy tech, sell everything else, and so it’s kind of an unstoppable juggernaut.”

Hatfield added that tech has served as a kind of safe haven since the pandemic, citing the sector’s high earnings-related growth and relatively low sensitivity to interest rates.

“It really doesn’t matter what they pay for debt, and the demand for compute is so strong, [so tech is] not really impacted by interest rates,” Hatfield said.

As tech stocks rallied, bond yields also advanced. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield was last up more than 6 basis points to 5.341%, while the 30-year was rose about 7 basis points at 5.699%. Both yields surged to multiyear highs in recent weeks, as traders fretted that inflation would lead the Fed to keep rates higher for longer.

Stocks and bonds moved as traders processed the Institute for Supply Management’s latest report on economic growth in the services sector. The ISM report showed that the Purchasing Manager’s Index grew 54.9% in September, or roughly in line with expectations. However, that figure came in modestly below the index’s rate of growth for the previous month.

Investors now turn their attention the Fed, which will release the minutes from its September meeting — potentially shedding light on its decision to hike rates by a quarter of a percentage point last month.

Traders also monitored oil prices, which were lower on Monday. Brent crude futures shed more than 0.7% to trade at $101.51 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude was trading down 1% at $88.53 a barrel.

Stocks are coming off a week defined by surging Treasury yields and a surprisingly lackluster jobs report that helped ease concerns about another Fed rate hike this month. The data provided some relief after a week of pressure from rising bond yields.

“Despite a growing list of headwinds (e.g., geopolitics, higher rates), global equities have climbed c12% YTD and are just below all-time highs,” wrote Citi strategist Beata Manthey. “Does this relative calm suggest equity fundamentals will prove resilient to ongoing macro shocks, or will stocks eventually need to correct to more accurately reflect the current risk backdrop? While uncertainty remains high, we still find ourselves in the ‘resilience’ camp for now.”