By AP with Doloresz Katanich
Published on
09/10/2025 – 16:44 GMT+2
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Traders on Wall Street showed caution on Thursday morning although US stocks continue to hover near their record highs.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in the first few minutes of trading on Thursday, before slipping 0.35%. The index is coming off its eighth gain in the last nine days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.41%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.43%, following a tech rally that kept US markets in a good mood over recent weeks. On Wednesday, AI chip giant Nvidia and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index both hit new records.
However, the rally has been increasingly accompanied by a growing chorus of concerns that AI-related investments are overpriced. On Wednesday, the Bank of England and the IMF both issued warnings about growing risks of an AI-led market bubble bursting. The announcements add to the current uncertainty due to the shutdown in the US, among others.
“Concerns around excessive valuations, elevated levels of government borrowing, uncertain economic growth, and political turbulence are omnipresent,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“There are a multitude of factors that could trigger a market pullback, but for now, it is another day where there are more bulls than bears.”
In other corporate news, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, on Thursday reported its third-quarter revenue climbed 30% year-on-year, beating market forecasts.
“There is no real sign of a slowdown in AI-driven demand in the latest numbers from TSMC,” Mould said. “The chip manufacturing giant may have seen a slight easing in demand month-on-month, but year-on-year the levels of growth are still impressive for a company of its size.”
Shutdown weighs on the market sentiment
Trading has been relatively muted recently following the US government’s latest shutdown. The closure is delaying the release of several major economic reports that usually move the market. Stocks have been drifting without them or other signals to change expectations for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, one of the major reasons the stock market has been on a tear since April.
Oil prices fell after Israel and Hamas agreed Wednesday to pause fighting in Gaza so that the remaining hostages there can be freed in the coming days in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The acceptance of elements of a plan put forward by the Trump administration represents the biggest breakthrough in months in the devastating two-year war.
US benchmark crude dipped 21 cents to $62.34 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged down 18 cents to $66.07 per barrel.
Gold shed some of its stellar gains but was still at $4,054.50 per ounce as of Thursday morning in the US.
Corporate news fuelling the trade
PepsiCo shares inched up over 1% on Thursday after the snack and beverage giant reported better-than-expected revenue in the third quarter despite weaker demand for its snacks and drinks in North America.
PepsiCo’s net income fell 11% to $2.6 billion (€2.24bn), but adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $2.29 per share, beating analysts’ forecasts by 3 cents.
Delta Air Lines easily topped Wall Street expectations for third-quarter profit. Delta expects recent momentum to carry through the end of the year and forecasts full-year profit of $6 per share, in the upper half of its previous guidance range. Delta shares rose 5.8% in premarket, lifting other major airlines’ shares along with it. United rose 3.9% and American jumped 4.9%.
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, the maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy, announced that it was acquiring San Francisco’s Akero Therapeutics for $4.7bn (€4.05bn) in cash.
Meanwhile, Ferrari saw its shares lose more than 13.8% after the Italian luxury sports carmaker offered a cautious earnings forecast on Thursday.
European sentiment remains mixed
Elsewhere, European markets opened in a mixed mood as traders weighed the details of the Israel–Hamas peace deal and mounting concerns over an AI bubble, with corporate updates, the looming US shutdown, and France’s political turmoil humming in the background.
Germany’s DAX added 0.28% while France’s CAC 40 was mostly flat. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.29%.