[New York Stock Market Briefing] "Thank You Broadcom and Tesla"... Nasdaq Hits Another All-Time High

The major indices of the New York stock market showed mixed results. It seems that both anticipation and caution are reflected ahead of this year's last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly adjusted, but the Nasdaq index hit an all-time high thanks to the strength of tech stocks.

On the 16th (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 43,717.48, down 110.58 points (0.25%) from the previous session. In contrast, the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index rose 22.99 points (0.38%) to 6,074.08, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 247.17 points (1.24%) to 21,173.89.

Semiconductor stocks continued to surge. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, composed of major semiconductor stocks, soared over 3% on the 13th and surged over 2% again on this day. Micron jumped 5%, Marvell Technology rose more than 3%, and Teradyne increased by about 5%.

Broadcom surged 11%. It is considered a company that could challenge Nvidia (-1.68%) as a leading AI semiconductor company. Although Broadcom does not develop its own AI chips like Nvidia, it is developing custom chips with big tech companies. Broadcom announced at its quarterly earnings call on the 12th that it is developing AI chips with three major cloud companies. These companies are known to be Google, Meta, and China's ByteDance, which operates TikTok.

Tesla also rose 6.14% to close at $463.02, hitting a record high for consecutive days. This is due to analysts continuously raising their target prices. According to U.S. financial media Barron's, Dan Ives, a well-known Tesla analyst from Wedbush Securities, raised his target price for Tesla from $400 to $515 in a report the previous day. He also projected that if Tesla's bullish trend continues, it could rise to $650.

Expectations of an interest rate cut are believed to have stimulated investor sentiment. The market expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 25 basis points (1bp=0.01%) at the December FOMC. The Fed cut the benchmark interest rate twice in a row in September and November.

However, recent inflation indicators, which the Fed uses as a basis for monetary policy, have exceeded expectations or rebounded from a slowdown, leading to forecasts that next year's interest rate cut path may be revised. Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said, "Since the first rate cut in September, the unemployment rate has stabilized, but inflation rates have slightly increased in contrast," adding, "In fact, inflation has risen every month since the rate cuts began, raising questions about whether this is just 'sticky' or the start of a new trend."

Youngki Jin, Hankyung.com journalist young71@hankyung.com