Stocks rise on AI-led earnings, France's 10-year bond yield hits 5%

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Dhara Ranasinghe

NEW YORK/LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Major stock indexes climbed on Wednesday, lifted by more strong results from AI-focused companies, while France's 10-year bond yield hit 5% for the first time since 2002 due to growing concern about the country's economic outlook.

The Nasdaq gained more than 1%, with Super Micro shares rising 9.5% after the AI server maker forecast quarterly revenue and profit margin above Wall Street estimates.

 Shares of SpaceX shot up 7.8% after Elon Musk said late on Tuesday that a merger of his two companies SpaceX and Tesla would be "a good idea." SpaceX also posted its first profit as a public company.

AI-related shares sold off ahead of third-quarter results on investor worries about how long the AI trade can last.

"A lot of the concerns that we had over the last few weeks that sent the market lower are being alleviated," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York. Earnings "are coming in mixed to stronger than expected," which he called a relief.

"Tech stocks fell hard last week on fears that the AI party is over," he said.

In addition, US bond yields have been falling after their recent run higher, and US interest rate hike expectations have waned, he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 360.21 points, or 0.69%, to close at 52,856.09, the S&P 500 rose 44.60 points, or 0.58%, to 7,757.17 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 278.04 points, or 1.05%, to 26,702.86.

After the closing bell, Meta Platforms shares gained after the Facebook owner raised the lower end of its annual spending forecast. Meta ended the regular session up 0.5%. Tesla shares also rose in after-hours trading as it reported a surprise positive cash flow for the third quarter. The stock ended the regular session up 3.4%. 

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 7.48 points, or 0.7%, to 1,137.88. The pan-European STOXX 600 index climbed 0.92%.

US Treasury yields edged lower, with the yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury note shedding 0.6 basis point to 5.111%. 

Stocks have slipped of late and bonds have rallied due to concerns about the effect of higher borrowing costs on AI infrastructure stocks.

FRENCH BOND YIELDS RISE

French bond yields rose again, with 10-year bond yields hitting a new 24-year high above 5%. The premium on French yields over benchmark 10-year German Bunds has also edged back toward early October's 15-year high of nearly 160 bps.

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to prevent a repeat of last weekend's violence at protests planned in the coming days, and dismissed as "stupid" and "unacceptable" comments from some foreign leaders about the unrest. 

 French supermarket operator Carrefour fell about 13% after it cut its guidance due to the recent protests.

The euro was nearly flat at $1.1237.

The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.14% to 101.65. 

The Australian dollar gained after Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser told a Citi conference that the inflation outlook looked "materially worse." The Aussie gained 0.41% versus the greenback to $0.7031.

Benchmark oil futures ended little changed, with investors weighing possible progress toward Russia-Ukraine talks against data showing a fall in US oil stocks.

Brent crude rose 3 cents to settle at $108.82 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 67 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $97.15.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Additional reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter in Singapore and Samuel Indyk; Editing by Louise Heavens, Aidan Lewis, Andrea Ricci and David Gaffen)