The New York stock market set a new record high again on the 26th, local time, boosted by a surge in memory chip stocks.
On the day, the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index closed at 7,519.12, up 45.65 points (0.61%) from the prior session, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite finished at 26,656.18, up 312.21 points (1.19%). The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes hit a record high on the day.
However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 50,461.68, down 118.02 points (-0.23%) from the prior session.
As expectations grew that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to an explosion in demand for memory chips, the sector's shares jumped, lifting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
Memory chip company Micron Technology saw its stock surge 19.3% after UBS tripled its price target, pushing its market capitalization above $1 trillion. Other memory chip companies also posted big gains, including Western Digital (8.34%) and SanDisk (7.50%).
Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, told Reuters that Micron's break above $1 trillion in market cap is merely an "exclamation point" showing how enormous the demand is to power data centers amid the current AI revolution.
Meanwhile, as the United States and Iran conduct last-minute talks for a cease-fire, international oil prices rebounded as the United States increased pressure with airstrikes targeting Iran.
U.S. Central Command said that the previous day, as an act of self-defense, it conducted airstrikes on certain targets in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, targeting Iranian vessels attempting to lay mines and missile launchers.
On the day at the ICE Futures Exchange, July Brent crude futures settled at $99.58 per barrel, up 3.6% from the previous session.
Earlier, Brent crude had closed at $96.14 per barrel, down 7.2% from the prior session on expectations that a U.S.-Iran cease-fire deal was imminent.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures settled at $93.89 per barrel, down 2.8% from the 22nd, the day before the Memorial Day holiday.