Artificial intelligence gives real boost to US stock market

Recent advances in artificial intelligence are fueling optimism over how businesses can operate more productively in the years ahead. They are also providing a big boost to the stock market.

The S&P 500’s 9% rally this year has been driven by a handful of the index’s biggest stocks, a number of which are at the center of the AI frenzy that has spread in the wake of the chatbot sensation ChatGPT.

Five stocks – Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet , Nvidia, Apple and Meta Platforms – are responsible for the S&P 500’s entire year-to-date return, said Jessica Rabe, co-founder of DataTrek Research. About 25% to 50% of those gains are owed to “the buzz around artificial intelligence,” she noted.