The US stock market continued its upward trajectory during Tuesday's midday session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index reaching new intraday records.
Traders were closely monitoring the latest developments in US-Iran relations alongside the performance of major technology stocks.
The Dow Jones rose by 96.09 points, or 0.19%, to 51,174.97. The Nasdaq Composite gained 44.47 points, or 0.16%, reaching 27,131.28. The S&P 500 increased by 12.05 points, or 0.16%, to 7,612.01.
Major technology stocks provided significant support to the market.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)
NVIDIA's stock price advanced by 1%.
Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL)
Marvell Technology's shares surged by 26% following comments from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who suggested the semiconductor company could become the next to reach a trillion-dollar market valuation.
Huang noted, "When you break a computing problem into many parts and distribute it across a data center, connectivity is essential. That's why Marvell is so important."
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise's stock price soared by 25% after the technology company provided an optimistic outlook for the current quarter and raised its full-year guidance, significantly exceeding Wall Street expectations.
The company's second-quarter results also marked its largest earnings beat since 2018.
However, shares of Alphabet declined by 1%, underperforming the broader market. The company announced plans to raise $80 billion through a stock sale to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure, which includes a $10 billion investment from Berkshire Hathaway.
David Krakauer, Vice President of Portfolio Management at Mercer Advisors, commented, "The market remains resilient. Clearly, there's still anticipation that the US might reach some agreement with Iran, but everything seems quite stable for now."
Major indices had already set new record highs on Monday, led by NVIDIA and the technology sector. The market's strong performance over recent weeks has been fueled by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-related trades.
Given the recent rally has been driven by a handful of tech stocks, Krakauer expressed concern that investors might be becoming "overly concentrated."
He added, "When you see this kind of narrow market advance, you need to be cautious."
Oil prices rose on Monday after an Iranian state media report indicated the country's negotiators would cease exchanging messages with the US through intermediaries.
The Iranian Tasnim news agency also stated that Iran would act to completely block the Strait of Hormuz.
The report stated that "no dialogue will take place" until Israel completely halts all attacks on Lebanon and Gaza and fully withdraws its forces from occupied Lebanese territories.
In response, former US President Donald Trump stated in a telephone interview that he "doesn't care at all" if peace talks with Iran break down.
In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump mentioned he had "a very productive call" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In another post, Trump added that negotiations with Iran were "proceeding at a rapid pace."
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