Market Today: Rio Tinto's Major Acquisition and Google-Bentley Partnership

Market Overview - The stock market experienced a rally with the S&P 500 increasing by 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising by 1.0%, reaching new record highs [1] - The rally was driven by ongoing momentum from the previous day and strength in mega-cap and semiconductor-related stocks [1] Sector Performance - The health care and information technology sectors were the top performers, each up by 1.0%, together comprising 43% of the index [3] - The real estate sector saw the largest decline, falling by 0.9% as yields rose [3] Bond Market - The 10-year yield increased by three basis points to 4.06%, while the 2-year yield also rose by three basis points to 4.01% [4] Federal Reserve Insights - The market showed little reaction to the FOMC meeting minutes, which indicated diminished upside risks to inflation and increased downside risks to employment [5] - Dallas Fed President Logan expressed concerns about inflation potentially remaining above the Fed's 2% target [5] Global Concerns - Despite ongoing concerns regarding the Middle East and Hurricane Milton, the market remained stable [6] Year-to-Date Index Performance - Nasdaq Composite: +21.9% - S&P 500: +21.4% - Dow Jones Industrial Average: +12.8% - S&P Midcap 400: +12.1% - Russell 2000: +8.6% [6] Economic Data Review - Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index fell by 5.1%, compared to a prior decline of 1.3% [7] - August Wholesale Inventories increased by 0.1%, slightly below the consensus of 0.2% [7] - Weekly EIA crude oil inventories rose by 5.81 million barrels, following last week's increase of 3.89 million barrels [7] Today's News - Rio Tinto agreed to acquire Arcadium Lithium for $6.7 billion, positioning itself as the world's third-largest lithium miner [8] - Bentley Systems partnered with Google to enhance its digital twin platform [8] - Costco reported a year-over-year increase in net sales for September, driven by strong comparable sales growth and a rise in e-commerce sales [8] - Google entered a cloud computing agreement with Sequoia Capital to support AI development [8] - Qualcomm appointed HP's CFO Marie Myers to its board of directors [8] - Apple executive Dan Riccio is set to leave the company, marking a significant change in hardware leadership [8] - Robinhood Markets announced its retirement savings business reached $10 billion in assets under custody [8] - 10x Genomics reported a slight decrease in preliminary third-quarter revenue, leading to a drop in its share price [8]