Danske Bank strategists highlight a stronger tone in global equities, driven by renewed optimism around artificial intelligence following Anthropic’s Nasdaq IPO filing. US stocks advanced, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.7% and the Nasdaq rising 0.8%. Asian technology and semiconductor shares followed Wall Street higher, providing a lift to regional markets after recent weakness in the AI trade.

AI optimism lifts global equities and semiconductor stocks

“Global equities had a strong session yesterday up 0.5%, led by the AI trade. S&P500 rose 0.7% while Nasdaq rose 0.8%.”

“At the top of the table was the AI related names across tech, industrials and consumer discretionary (Tesla).”

“In the US, Anthropic filed for a potentially record-breaking IPO on Nasdaq, expected before Thanksgiving, with some investors valuing the AI lab at about USD1.5tn. The filing showed revenue of more than USD33bn in the first nine months of the year, and the listing is seen as a key test of investor appetite for the AI sector.”

“Five months ago, they were reportedly valued at USD965bn, in a private funding round. Certainly, investors could build this on both a bullish and a bearish case for AI, yet market clearly took it as the bullish case.”

“Meanwhile, Meta announced plans to raise up to USD95bn in its largest-ever equity fundraising to fund its AI expansion, after posting its first negative free cash flow in over a decade. This underscores how big tech companies are increasingly turning to debt and equity markets rather than relying on their own cash flows to finance AI investments. “

“Separately, Microsoft offered buyout packages to up to 60,000 staff as it tries to keep costs under control and trim its workforce while spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI.”

“Overnight, Asian tech and semiconductor stocks followed higher, and this is noteworthy after the recent weakness in the AI trade. US futures are slightly higher overnight. “