The Nasdaq Composite is up 2.39% to start the week at 27,156.80, leaving the index just 42 points shy of its all-time high of 27,190.21 set in June, as a powerful mix of falling yields, easing crude oil prices, and renewed enthusiasm for artificial intelligence infrastructure sent technology stocks sharply higher across the board.
The day’s rally was broad-based but unmistakably led by the AI hardware and semiconductor names. Arm Holdings surged 16.54% to $321.20, making it the standout performer of the day, followed by Meta Platforms with a 12.57% advance to $749.46. Next up were Astera Labs, up 12.21% to $340.26 and Intel up double digits (11.95%) to $121.58 towards the close.
The broader semiconductor stocks also joined the rally, with AMD shares up 9.85%, Qualcomm 9.12% , and Marvell Technology adding 6.51% to $260.16. Outside of chips, Warner Bros. Discovery surged 10.83% to $30.81, AppLovin advanced 8.89% to $335.44, and Rocket Lab climbed 7.32% to $69.30. Strategy Inc, the Bitcoin treasury vehicle formerly known as MicroStrategy, rose 9.32% to $168.27 as Bitcoin crossed $86,000 for the first time in weeks.
The Nasdaq’s year-to-date gain now stands at 16.9%, a figure that dramatically outpaces both the S&P 500, which is up 13.36% over the same period, and the ASX 200, which has fought back to a gain of just 0.05% since the start of 2026.
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Driving The Move Today
Several macro and structural forces are supporting the rally, as U.S. Treasury yields eased meaningfully during the session, reducing the discount-rate pressure that has historically weighed on high-multiple growth stocks. Simultaneously, crude oil prices dropped 2% to multi-week lows below $100, softening near-term inflation concerns and giving the Federal Reserve more room to manoeuvre, at least in theory.
The most significant structural driver, however, was a renewed wave of conviction around AI infrastructure spending. The market’s focus has been shifting in recent months from the training of large language model, a compute-intensive phase dominated by Nvidia, toward the deployment of those models through live inference applications running in data centers and on edge devices. That transition plays directly into Arm Holdings’ strengths. The company’s low-power chip architecture, which underpins a significant share of mobile and increasingly data center silicon, is viewed as a natural fit for the energy efficiency demands of inference at scale.
Hyperscalers including Meta are at the center of that buildout. Meta’s multi-generational data center expansion, which involves substantial procurement of custom GPUs and CPUs, continues to generate strong returns in advertising targeting and AI-powered user engagement features. The company’s open-source AI strategy through its LLaMA model family has also given it unusual credibility in enterprise AI circles, helping to justify the premium the market is assigning to its shares.
What Lay Ahead
The technical picture for the Nasdaq is as compelling as it has been at any point this year. With the index sitting just 0.16% below its all-time high, a close above 27,190.21 would represent a genuine breakout into uncharted territory and would likely attract additional momentum-driven buying. The index has now recovered all of the ground lost during the mid-year volatility episode and is approaching that ceiling with considerably stronger breadth than was evident during the June peak.
The fundamental case for continued AI-related outperformance rests on the durability of hyperscaler capital expenditure commitments. Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon have all signalled multi-year infrastructure spending programs, and the supply chain for AI accelerators, interconnects, and custom silicon remains sufficiently constrained that pricing power is not under immediate threat.
The Nasdaq’s near-record close on is a testament to the enduring power of the AI infrastructure narrative and the macro relief that falling yields and oil prices can provide to growth-oriented markets, but with the index just a handful of points from its all-time high and several key constituents priced for perfection, the next leg of this rally will need to be earned through execution rather than enthusiasm.
