Posted on October 28, 2026October 28, 2026Global stock markets have risen as investors continue to bet on bright prospects for the tech giants driving the AI boom. In the United States, all three major stock indexes rose on Tuesday, led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which gained 1.18 percent. The narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.03 percent. Five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks rose, led by Tesla, up 4.04 percent. Amazon gained 1.61 percent, while Apple and Alphabet gained 0.93 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. percent, while Microsoft fell 0.24 percent. Other big movers in technology included Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and Intel, which gained 5.45 percent, 4 percent and 3.61 percent, respectively. Korea’s SK Hynix, one of the world’s top three memory chip makers, announced blockbuster third-quarter results on Wednesday, with operating profits soaring about 630 percent year-on-year to 83.33 trillion won ($62.8 billion). SK Hynix shares listed in South Korea rose more than 8 percent following the results. In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 1.26 percent, while the TAIEX in Taipei rose 1.32 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney rose 0.11 per cent. Investors are eagerly awaiting upcoming earnings reports from major tech players as they try to gauge whether their massive investments in AI will pay dividends. Microsoft and Alphabet report their latest results on Wednesday, followed by Amazon on Thursday and Apple on Monday. On Monday, AI giant Anthropic filed paperwork for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), reporting a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half. by 2026 with revenues of $16.3 billion. Tech companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars each in AI infrastructure, fueling debate over whether a speculative market bubble similar to the one that preceded the dot-com crash in 2000 could be forming. Global investment in AI is projected to reach $2.7 trillion in 2026 and $3.6 trillion in 2027, according to Gartner, a technology insights firm. Oil prices, which have risen since the start of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, rose about 1 percent as Asian markets opened Wednesday amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, including hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, stood at around $115 a barrel, up 59 percent from before the war began.
