Major indices are split this afternoon with the tech-heavy Nasdaq out in the lead with gains while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones slip. The Nasdaq’s gains have been enough to lift the index to fresh intraday highs driven by solid performance in semiconductor stocks, which are higher following comments from President Trump at the UN General Assembly (more below).

Small caps are acting better with all factors leading.

Seven sectors are trading higher with the Financials sector (XLF) standing out as the clear laggard where selling has been widespread across banks, insurers, and asset managers. Notably, strength among other mega-cap stocks faded, making Communication Services (XLC) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) slip into negative territory. Elsewhere, Consumer Staples (XLP) and Materials (XLB) are the notable outperformers.

Super Intelligence

During his UN General Assembly speech, Trump reiterated his support for continued AI development and asserted the US will use the term “Super Intelligence,” arguing that “artificial” makes the technology sound fake. He added that “whoever wins super intelligence wins,” and he believes this could become bigger than the Industrial Revolution.

New Claude Model

Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5.5 as the first model in its new Claude 5.5 family. This new model delivers Claude Fable 5.1-level performance on most tasks while costing 40% less to run than Opus 5.

Economic Data

The September Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index declined into contraction with shipments and new orders also contracting. On the other hand, employment moved into expansion and prices paid moved higher.