United States stocks closed higher on October 27, with the Nasdaq leading gains on a chip rally while the Dow barely moved, as investors weighed a heavy earnings slate and the Federal Reserve meeting ahead.
United States stocks closed higher on Tuesday, October 27, with technology and chip shares doing most of the lifting. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.18% to 26,477.81, the S&P 500 gained 0.60% to 7,722.60, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.03% to 52,377.57.
Chip stocks extended their rally through the session, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained more than 3%, according to the closing report. Energy shares went the other way as oil prices fell, and the day's trading unfolded against a busy earnings calendar and the Federal Reserve meeting that investors were watching for its next rate decision.
The market's fear gauge also cooled. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 4.73% to 17.52, and gold rose 0.87% to $4,073.40 while West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 1.48% to $100.25, figures carried in the nightly market digest.
The closing levels are consistent across the two independent closing summaries used for this story, which report identical index values for all three benchmarks. Earlier intraday reports during the session showed smaller gains, as expected while trading was still under way, and the closing figures supersede them.
The gains set up a consequential week for markets. Alphabet and Microsoft report after the close on October 28, when the Federal Reserve also announces its rate decision, and Amazon and Apple follow on October 29 alongside advance third-quarter GDP and the PCE price index. Those releases, rather than Tuesday's close itself, are what will confirm whether the chip-led rally holds.