Stocks rise in AI optimism and value US hopes

NEW YORK, October 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) – Stock markets hit new records on Friday. This was driven by investor optimism about artificial intelligence and hopes of US interest rate reductions.

The Dow and S&P 500 notched fresh records, but Wall Street's main indexes were mixed at the end of the day.

“This is the stock market that remains fairly resilient in selling interest for all reasons. Perhaps the most support I support is the expectations of multiple interest rate cuts by the end of the year,” said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 set a record high led by banks and mining stocks. In Paris, the CAC 40 also rose, close to its peak in March, and the Dax 40 was soaked in Frankfurt, but still remained close to that record level.

The high-tech inventory rally was given another lift on Friday due to an agreement on AI and energy work between Japan's Hitachi and ChatGpt developer Openai.

Hitachi's stocks jumped over 10%, following lawsuits by other Japanese tech companies and investment giant SoftBank.

This advancement has helped push Tokyo's Nikkei up 1.9% higher.

Hong Kong retreated and Shanghai was closed for holidays.

This year's surge in AI investments helped push the valuations of some of the sector's biggest names to eye-opening levels – US Chip Titan Nvidia broke over $4 trillion and recorded some stock markets best.

Nvidia's shares were pulled back slightly on Friday.

This week, it gained even more momentum after South Korean semiconductor giants Samsung and SK Hynix said they had made a backup deal with Openai to supply chips and other equipment for the Stargate project.

Additionally, in recent months pointing to slowing the US labor market, positive sentiment has been supported by data, indicating that the Federal Reserve could reduce borrowing costs and bring in more easing.

Traders have brushed off standoffs in Washington, where the government has been partially shut down, leading to some services shutdowns and delays in key monthly job figures that were normally published on Fridays.

While non-farm payroll measures are the Fed's main guide to monetary policy decisions, analysts said it's unlikely that the closure will block the Fed from the expected double cut this month.

“We are pleased to announce that we are committed to providing a range of services and services to our customers,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

“The lack of market response highlights the lack of investors who believe shutdowns are important for their medium-term outlook on growth or interest rates,” he added.

However, the US senator voted Friday to refuse to amend the StopGup Republican funding to reopen the government. This means that the federal closure will last until next week.

-2020 Key figures from around GMT –

New York – Dow: 46,758.28 points to 0.5% increase (close)

New York-S&P 500: Less than 0.1% at 6,715.79 (close)

New York – Nasdaq Composite: 0.3% reduction at 22,780.51 (close)

London – FTSE100: 0.7% increase at 9,491.25 (close)

Paris-CAC40: 0.3% increase at 8,081.54

Frankfurt-Dax: 0.2% reduction at 24,378.80 (close)

Tokyo-Nikkei225: 1.9% increase at 45,769.50 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Sen Index: 0.5% reduction at 27,140.92 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: Closed on holidays

Euro/Dollar: Rise from 1.1720 on Thursday at $1.1742

Pounds/Dollars: $1.3446 to $1.3482