● S&P 500 HITS FRESH RECORD AFTER TWO-MONTH STALL

The S&P 500 touched a fresh intraday record of 7,817.13 points on Tuesday, barely above the 7,816.7 high it set back on August 13 — its first new peak in nearly two months. The tech-heavy Nasdaq outpaced it, climbing 0.59% the same day as megacap and AI-linked stocks led the move. $SPY technically sits at a record, but the broader index spent eight weeks going nowhere while $QQQ kept grinding higher on the AI trade.