U.S. equities moved higher Tuesday, driven by strength in Advanced Micro Devices and software stocks, as investor concerns about artificial intelligence disrupting certain industries began to ease.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.77% to close at 6,890.07, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.04% to 22,863.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 370.44 points, or 0.76%, finishing at 49,174.50. The blue-chip index was supported by nearly a 2% rise in Home Depot after the company posted its first earnings beat in a year. IBM shares, which had dropped in the previous session on AI-related worries, also contributed to the Dow’s advance.
AMD shares surged 8.8% after Meta Platforms announced a multiyear agreement with the chipmaker. The partnership involves deploying up to 6 gigawatts of AMD graphics processing units for AI data centers. Meta will also take a performance-based warrant that could allow it to acquire up to 160 million AMD shares.
The development follows Meta’s recent disclosure that it is already deploying millions of Nvidia chips in its data center expansion. Nvidia shares edged up 0.7%.
Docusign also posted gains of more than 2% after Anthropic said its Claude Cowork platform can now integrate with Docusign as well as existing enterprise tools such as Google Drive and Gmail. The update fueled optimism that AI could enhance software companies rather than displace them.
Strength spread across the broader software sector. Salesforce — which is also collaborating with Anthropic — rose 4%, while ServiceNow added more than 1%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) advanced nearly 2%, though it remains more than 30% below its 52-week high.
Despite the rebound, some analysts, including Sharma, remain unconvinced by the growing narrative on Wall Street that AI will quickly replace large portions of enterprise software.
Monday’s session had seen major averages decline amid renewed AI disruption fears. Markets were also watching geopolitical and trade risks after President Donald Trump threatened to raise global tariffs to 15%, while tensions between the U.S. and Iran lingered. A global 10% U.S. tariff took effect Tuesday.
All three major U.S. indexes ultimately closed the session in positive territory.
