By Shashwat Chauhan and Utkarsh Hathi
Oct 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main stock indexes advanced on Tuesday as optimism around the AI trade persisted ahead of a raft of key corporate earnings, while easing oil prices also supported risk appetite heading into the Federal Reserve's policy decision this week.
The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady on Wednesday following an increase last month, though markets are pricing in at least two more hikes by mid-2027 as key inflation indicators remain elevated amid the ongoing US-Iran conflict.
Brent crude slipped for the second straight session in volatile trading, though it still held near its highest level since late April.
At 11:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 60.34 points, or 0.12%, to 52,423.99. The S&P 500 gained 51.97 points, or 0.68%, to 7,728.74, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 325.50 points, or 1.25%, to 26,495.17.
Steep losses in Boeing, however, capped gains on the Dow. The planemaker's shares slumped 9.5% after CEO Kelly Ortberg said it would not reach its 737 production rate target until early 2027.
Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors advanced, with tech leading gains, while energy lagged.
Megacap and growth stocks were mostly higher. Tesla shares climbed 3.8% to hit their highest in more than three months.
Chip stocks rose 3.2%, up for the third straight day after a bruising few weeks. Broadcom added almost 4% after several Wall Street banks and Blackstone lined up to finance the company's AI chips for Anthropic.
The advances suggest momentum in AI-linked stocks remained intact a day after Anthropic revealed its filing for a potentially record-breaking IPO.
"(Anthropic's) explosive revenue growth is being matched by eye-watering losses and spending commitments, and that same tension will be front and center as Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon report this week," said Lukman Otunuga, head of market research at FXTM.
Neocloud firms CoreWeave and Nebius, AI server makers Dell, Super Micro and data storage company Western Digital were some of the best-performing stocks on the day.
Data on Tuesday also showed new orders for key US-manufactured capital goods increased in September, suggesting the AI-driven spending boom continues.
Meanwhile, Meta fell 0.8% after the company increased its largest-ever equity fundraising to $97.5 billion to fund AI expansion. The effort has also drawn interest of up to $5 billion in total from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom.
The plan comes as investors increasingly scrutinize the sustainability of debt-funded AI spending amid rising borrowing costs while also looking for evidence that the sector's multibillion-dollar investments are translating into growth.
Among other movers, water-management company Xylem dropped 11.8% after trimming full-year forecasts, while General Motors gained 6.3% following its plan to switch its stock listing to Nasdaq.
Investors are also looking ahead to the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide control of the US Congress.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.78-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 41 new highs and 177 new lows.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)