Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 01, 2025, in New York City.
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The S&P 500 rose slightly on Wednesday, a day after it snapped a seven-day win streak because of a drop in Oracle that called to question the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade. The government shutdown is also in its second week.
The benchmark index climbed 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 62 points, or 0.2%.
Nvidia shares rose more than 1% after CEO Jensen Huang said that demand has risen in recent months, telling CNBC that “this year, particularly the last six months, demand of computing has gone up substantially.”
The move comes just a day after the AI chip darling finished lower in sympathy with Oracle shares in the wake of Oracle reportedly seeing lighter margins in its cloud business than analysts are currently forecasting and that the enterprise software company is losing money on some of its deals to rent out Nvidia’s chips.
The report added to fears that the stock market is currently caught up in an AI bubble that harkens back to the late 1990s, when a feeding frenzy on early internet companies eventually led to the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Many market observers are urging investors to rebalance their portfolios, while also acknowledging there could be further upside before the AI rally exhausts itself.
“We had a long rally. Everything feels extended. It feels exciting. It feels euphoric,” Liz Thomas, head of investment strategy at SoFi, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Tuesday. “In reality, I still think that the euphoria can get even more euphoric before something has to actually turn.”
The shutdown also stretched into its eighth day Wednesday. The stoppage has weighed little on equities thus far, but poses a greater risk to sentiment the longer it wears on.
Wall Street will also be awaiting the latest Federal Reserve minutes on Wednesday, which could give investors insight into the makeup of the Fed following a highly divisive September meeting.