Stock market today: Global stocks continue to climb as Japan's Nikkei and Wall Street set new records

Global stocks advanced on Thursday after another record rally on Wall Street, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index closing above 42,000 points for the first time.

The German DAX gained 0.2% to 18,439.72 points and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.5% to 7,613.09 points. In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.4% to 8,226.10 points.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&The P 500 fell 0.1%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 jumped 0.9% to end at 42,224.02, again surpassing its all-time high after closing at records on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Buying was strong across a broad range of stocks, with electronics makers leading the gains. Sony Group Corp. jumped 3.6% and Disco Corp., which makes precision tools, gained 3.4%. Electrical components maker Murata Manufacturing gained 2.8%.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 2.1% to 17,832.33 and the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.1% to 2,970.39.

In Seoul, the Kospi rose 0.8% to 2,891.35 points.

Australia S&The P/ASX 200 index rose 0.9 per cent to 7,889.60 points. Taiwan's Taiex gained 1.6 per cent while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. jumped 3.4 per cent.

U.S.-listed shares of TSMC rose 3.5% on Wednesday after it reported that its revenue rose nearly 33% in June from a year earlier. The company makes chips for Nvidia and others that have pushed the business world to embrace artificial intelligence technology.

In India, the Sensex fell 0.2%.

The promise of big profits in the future from AI has propelled Nvidia in particular to dizzying heights over the past year, and Nvidia rose another 2.7% on Wednesday to bring its year-to-date gain to 172.5%. It’s still the most powerful single force driving S&P 500 up as Wall Street rally extended into seventh day as big tech companies paved the way.

The U.S. stock market hit new all-time highs on Wednesday, driven by big tech companies whose shares soared on the frenzy around artificial intelligence.

Hopes of lower interest rates also pushed markets higher.

THE&The P 500 jumped 1% and broke above the 5,600 level for the first time, closing at 5,633.91.

The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.2% to 18,647.45 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1% to 39,721.36 points.

Advanced Micro Devices was the other major force behind the stock market rally, jumping 3.9% after announcing a $665 million deal to buy Silo AI, a European AI lab.

Markets hit record highs despite a slowing US economy and tighter monetary policy. pressure on low-income households.

Hope that inflation The slowdown in economic activity is significant enough that the Federal Reserve could deliver long-awaited interest rate cuts later this year, which is also boosting buyer enthusiasm.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell returned to Capitol Hill to testify on interest rates, where he echoed many of his comments from the day before. He said he was not sending any signals about when rate cuts might come, but he highlighted the downsides of coming too late.

“More positive data would boost our confidence and pave the way for a reduction,” Powell said.

Much of Wall Street expects the Fed to begin cutting its main interest rate in September, but traders have a a long history of precipitationPowell acknowledged a recent improvement in inflation, but reiterated that the Fed was not convinced that inflation was heading sustainably toward its 2% target.

On Thursday, the U.S. government will release its latest monthly update on inflation. Economists expect that American consumers paid 3.1% higher prices for food, airfare and everything else in June than they did a year earlier. That would be slightly slower than May’s 3.3% inflation rate.

While the Federal Reserve is keen to see more positive data, US inflation will play an important role in validating whether markets are pricing in a rate cut as early as September this year, IG's Yeap Jun Rong said in a commentary.

In other trading Thursday morning, benchmark U.S. crude oil gained 12 cents to $82.22 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, gained 16 cents to $85.24 a barrel.

The US dollar fell from 161.66 to 161.51 Japanese yen. The euro rose from 1.0832 to 1.0853 dollars.