Markets hung quietly around record levels early Tuesday as announcements related to artificial intelligence continued to propel companies’ shares higher.
Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq were all effectively unchanged a couple of hours before the opening bell.
One of the big winners in premarket was IBM, whose shares jumped 4.5% after the New York technology giant announced an AI partnership with Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI chatbot. The companies said that Claude will be integrated into certain IBM software in an effort to boost clients’ productivity while maintaining the security of their code.
Shares of Trilogy Metals more than tripled overnight after the White House announced late Monday that it’s taking a 10% equity stake in the Canadian company while allowing the Ambler Road mining project in Alaska to go forward.
President Donald Trump late Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals used in production of cars, electronics and other technologies.
Trilogy is seeking to develop the Ambler site along with an Australian partner.
The frenzy around AI is a key reason Wall Street has been hitting record after record, though that’s also raising worries that prices have potentially shot too high.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday France’s CAC 40 edged 0.3% higher as investors snapped up bargains following losses a day earlier after its prime minister abruptly resigned on Monday.
The resignation was the fourth in more than a year of almost ceaseless political upheaval for French President Emmanuel Macron ‘s government.
Germany’s DAX was up 0.2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3%.
Many Asian markets were closed for holidays on Tuesday, including those in mainland China and Hong Kong. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose just 6 points to 47,950.88 giving up nearly all of its earlier gains after jumping almost 5% to a record close on Monday.
Investors piled in after Japan’s ruling party chose conservative Sanae Takaichi as its leader, virtually ensuring she will become the country’s first female prime minister.
Takaichi, an admirer of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is expected to push for market-boosting policies similar to those he championed.
But the ruling Liberal Democrats need coalition partners to stay in power, and it’s unclear how aggressively Takaichi can push her agenda to boost Japan out of its economic doldrums while facing resistance from within her own party as well as the opposition.
Elsewhere in the region, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 8,956.80.
Taiwan’s benchmark jumped 1.7%, helped by heavy buying of AI-related shares, while India’s Sensex added 0.3%. Shares in most Southeast Asian markets also climbed.