Financial Markets                      10/02 15:25

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks edged up to more records on Thursday as 
technology stocks kept rising and as Wall Street kept ignoring the shutdown of 
the U.S. government.

   The S&P 500 added 0.1% to its all-time high set the day before. The Dow 
Jones Industrial Average rose 79 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite 
climbed 0.4%. Both also hit records.

   Thursdays on Wall Street typically have investors reacting to the latest 
weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.'s 
shutdown meant this week's report on jobless claims has been delayed. An even 
more consequential report, Friday's monthly tally of jobs created and destroyed 
across the economy, will likely also not arrive on schedule.

   That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors' 
expectation that the job market is slowing by enough to convince the Federal 
Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a 
recession.

   "The Fed has been on record that they are very data dependent, and the lack 
of data from public sources is likely to be problematic," said Brian Rehling, 
head of global fixed-income strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

   So far, the U.S. stock market has looked past the delays of such data. 
Shutdowns of the U.S. government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock 
market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if 
President Donald Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers 
this time around.

   That left corporate announcements as the main drivers of trading Thursday.

   Stocks in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries climbed after 
OpenAI announced partnerships with South Korean companies for Stargate, a $500 
billion project aimed at building AI infrastructure.

   Samsung Electronics rose 3.5% in Seoul, and SK Hynix jumped 9.9%.

   The announcement also sent ripples around the world. On Wall Street, 
Advanced Micro Devices climbed 3.5%, and Broadcom gained 1.4%. Nvidia's 0.9% 
rise was the strongest single force pushing the S&P 500 upward.

   Excitement around AI and the massive spending underway because of it has 
been a major reason the U.S. stock market has hit record after record, along 
with hopes for easier interest rates. But AI stocks have become so dominant, 
and so much money has poured into the industry that worries are rising about a 
potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors.

   Occidental Petroleum fell 7.3% after it agreed to sell its chemical 
business, OxyChem, to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion in cash. It could be 
the final big purchase for Berkshire Hathaway with famed investor Warren 
Buffett as its CEO.

   Fair Isaac jumped 18% to its best day in nearly three years after announcing 
a program that will streamline access to its FICO credit scores, potentially 
cutting out such big credit bureaus as TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

   TransUnion's stock tumbled 10.6%, while Equifax slid 8.5%.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 4.15 points to 6,715.35. The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average added 78.62 to 46,519.72, and the Nasdaq composite gained 88.89 to 
22,844.05.

   The stock of a third credit bureau, the United Kingdom's Experian, fell 4.2% 
in London. It helped drag London's FTSE 100 down by 0.2%, but indexes were much 
stronger across Europe and Asia.

   South Korea's Kospi leaped 2.7% for one of the world's largest gains 
following the big jumps for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.08% from 
4.12% late Wednesday.

   ___

   AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

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