The bond market finally blinked, and equity investors used the opening to push two indexes to fresh records.
The S&P 500 closed Tuesday at 7,818.98, up 45.03 points or 0.58%, an all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite added 122.48 points to 27,599.79, a gain of 0.45% and its second straight record finish. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 253.32 points to 51,521.22, up 0.49%.
Breadth was the warning sign underneath. The Russell 2000 fell 21.12 points, or 0.74%, to 2,826.01 — small caps declining on a day the large-cap benchmarks set records.
Treasuries Pull Back From a 24-Year Peak
The relief came from rates. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped about four basis points to 5.27%, backing away from Monday's highest closing level in 24 years. Earlier in the session it had again touched territory last seen in 2002, pushing above 5.3%. The 30-year bond yield eased to 5.64% after briefly breaching 5.7%.
Traders are treating Wednesday as the week's real event. Minutes from the September 15–16 FOMC meeting are due at 2 p.m. ET, covering the session where the committee lifted its target range a quarter point to 3.75%–4.00% in a 12-0 vote — the first Fed hike since 2023.
Expectations for a repeat have thinned considerably. CME Group's FedWatch tool shows roughly an 80% chance the Fed holds at its next meeting, after Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and New York Fed President John Williams both pushed back on any urgency. Williams said there is "no need for urgency" on changing policy, while allowing that "one further upward adjustment" could be appropriate late this year.
Nvidia Closes In on an Unprecedented Milestone
Nvidia hit an all-time high and moved within reach of becoming the first company valued at $6 trillion. Shares traded near $238.90, leaving market capitalization around $5.76 trillion — less than $300 billion short, and roughly $248 a share away from the threshold, according to Bloomberg.
The stock has gained 28% in 2026, and no single company has contributed more to the S&P 500's 14% advance this year. The recent leg higher followed a strong revenue outlook and the largest share buyback authorization on record.
AMD also helped carry the tape, with CEO Lisa Su noting that computing demand continues "to outrun supply."
AI's Power Bill Becomes a Trade
The day's biggest single move came from the electricity side of the AI build-out. Constellation Energy jumped roughly 13% after announcing a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google covering 890 megawatts of new nuclear capacity on the PJM grid, with Constellation committing more than $4.3 billion to fund it.
The capacity comes from turbine, steam generator, and digital control upgrades across 11 nuclear units in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, with the first uprate expected by 2028. A separate 15-year supply agreement covers an additional 2,700 megawatts from Constellation's existing PJM fleet. The companies said the work should sustain about 4,400 existing jobs and create roughly 7,200 construction jobs.
Elsewhere, Marvell climbed about 8% after raising its fiscal 2028 revenue guidance to $20 billion. Novavax fell 9% after the World Health Organization characterized plague risk as "low."
Commodities were quieter. November crude settled at $89.82 a barrel, up 0.44%, with Brent near $98. Gold futures rose $38.20, or 0.92%, to $4,195.00 an ounce.
Sources: Yahoo Finance; Bloomberg; CNBC; Quartz; Google Cloud Press Corner; CME FedWatch; Admiral Markets (FOMC minutes schedule)