Wall Street hits record highs as tech rally lifts S&P 500 past 7,800

Wall Street reached historic highs on Tuesday as tech stocks rallied, oil prices dipped, and Treasury yields eased, though Asian markets retreated on Wednesday ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s September meeting minutes.

In South Africa, the rand held relatively steady around R16.58 to R16.63 against the US dollar, showing resilience despite lower precious metal prices and rising domestic pressures.

ETM Analytics noted that heavy fuel imports have heightened the currency’s sensitivity to fluctuations in oil prices.

Domestically, the JSE All Share index hovered near 108,300 points following a drop in the S&P Global South Africa PMI to 49.0 for September, signaling contracting factory activity. Consumers also face a steep domestic petrol price hike of R3.33 per litre, pushing the inland price of 95-octane to a record R30.25.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 closed above the 7,800 milestone for the first time at 7,818.93, driven by record peaks from Nvidia and AMD, while the Dow Jones rose to 51,521.28.

In contrast, Asian indices fell, with Japan’s Nikkei dropping nearly 1% and South Korea’s Kospi shedding almost 2% amid lingering investor caution. Meanwhile, prediction platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket indicate that traders are heavily pricing in a rate hold (around 84% probability) for the Fed’s upcoming late-October meeting, following weaker US employment data.

Sources: CNBC, Reuters, Rio Times, Yahoo Finance, ABC, RTTNews, Investing.com & DeFiRate