S&P 500 hits another record driven by tech alone as most stocks decline on the day

The S&P 500 rose to a new all-time intraday high on Wednesday as traders’ enthusiasm for the technology trade overshadowed yet another hotter-than-expected inflation report.

The broad market index rose 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 225 points, or 0.5%.

Technology stocks outperformed from the rest of the market, as inflation fears spurred by higher energy prices due to the Iran war weighed on other sectors such as retail and banking. Nvidia shares traded higher by more than 2%. Micron Technology gained more than 3%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) advanced 2%.

In contrast, roughly two-thirds of the S&P 500 were lower during the session, FactSet data showed. That included home improvement retailer Home Depot and others linked to the economic cycle such as key financial stock JPMorgan.

“The chip trade has certainly kind of taken on a life of its own where I think investors think that the kind of demand and the growth there is so structural that these other like more cyclical macro forces don’t really change the dynamic,” Ross Mayfield, Baird investment strategist, told CNBC. “Amid all the stuff going on in the world, in particular the oil shock, I think investors have felt safe hiding out in those stocks because the [artificial intelligence] boom is coming regardless.”

Wednesday’s tech moves comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined President Donald Trump on his trip to China to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. The decision signaled to investors that there could be positive developments regarding Nvidia being able to sell its artificial intelligence chips in Chinese markets, according to Mayfield, whose expectations for the meeting are still “fairly muted.”