Stocks rose broadly Wednesday as investors continued a 2024 rally that had briefly hit pause this week. The major indexes were all finished higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average — still short of crossing the 40,000 mark for the first time ever — rose 1.2%, or 477 points, to close at 39,760. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Nasdaq was up 0.5%.
The Federal Reserve officials will release data on its preferred inflation gauge on Thursday, which indicates personal consumption expenditure prices, excluding food and energy prices. And Thursday will also mark the end of the first quarter, with markets closed for Good Friday.
Here’s what happened in the markets.
Amazon also wants a piece of AI
Apple, Google, Microsoft — they all want a piece of AI. Now Amazon has joined the race, making its largest outside investment in three decades. The company added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic, a San Francisco-based startup at the forefront of generative artificial intelligence.
Amazon stock closed up about 0.9%.
Donald Trump’s Truth Social’s rises
Stock in the newly public company behind Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social surged Wednesday, adding almost $1 billion to the company’s market cap just one day after its debut on the public markets.
Trump Media stock closed up 14.2%
Renewable energy stocks shine
Some of the top-performing stocks were for renewable energy companies. Enphase Energy closed up 9.5%. First Solar stock rose 9.3%, and Eversource Energy jumped 4.7%.
Nvidia and Netflix in the red
A week after rallying high, AI chip maker Nvidia hit the brakes. Nvidia stock dropped 2.5%
Netflix stock also fell 2.5% after an analyst an analyst downgraded. Alicia Reese of Webush removed Netflix stock from her “Best Ideas List,” citing concerns about declining subscriber growth.
Coinbase and crypto down
Crypto exchange Coinbase’s stock fell almost 4% after a court ruling allowed the SEC to sue it for selling unregistered securities.
And all the major cryptocurrencies were in the red. Bitcoin, which was almost at its all-time high of $73,000 on Tuesday, traded at $68,000 on Wednesday. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, dropped 2%, hovering around $3,400.