S&P 500 hits fresh high, Bitcoin climbs to $119k despite U.S. shutdown

The benchmark U.S. index S&P 500 rose on Thursday to record a fresh high, while Bitcoin jumped to above $119,000 as investors looked past the top headlines of a U.S. government shutdown. 

S&P 500 opened higher on Thursday as Wall Street showed signs of having shrug off the initial reaction to the U.S government shutdown on Wednesday. The uptick saw the benchmark index climb further above 6,700 to hit a new all-time high, surpassing conservative forecasts in recent months.

The other major U.S. stock indexes also rose as the traders anticipated other market forces to come into play, rather than just the immediate concerns around the federal government’s partial shutdown. 

AI trade boosts S&P 500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq

Amid overall optimism of a brief pause in federal funding, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added nearly 100 points to remain near its record close reached on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a boost for artificial intelligence related companies helped Nasdaq Composite to early gains of 0.3%. 

Shares of Nvidia, AMD, and SK Hynix all rose amid the AI trade boost. Sentiment was also upbeat after OpenAI’s valuation surged to $500 billion following an employee share sale. 

Bitcoin jumps to $119,000 as cryptocurrencies bounce

As markets looked past the US government shutdown, an uptick for stocks cascaded into the crypto sector, with Bitcoin ( BTC ) gaining 2% to break above $119,000. 

The benchmark digital asset, which had soared amid flight to safe haven assets as equities initially fell on shutdown news, came close to breaching the psychological $120k level.

While sentiment could be guarded amid the expected delay in the release of September jobs report, investors across Wall Street are betting on the shutdown being brief and that the Federal Reserve will still cut interest rates at its October meeting. This is despite the Fed’s recent commentary on the U.S. labor market. 

Analysts are bullish on BTC price, with Glassnode noting that bulls are holding support at the short-term holder cost basis level.

Exchange-traded funds are showing a resurgence and selling pressure from long-term holders is slowing. Also notably, a reset in options post-expiry and spike in open interest points to an upside in the fourth quarter.