Dow Rips 3.1% Higher in Its Best Day in 18 Months as Bitcoin Climbs Back

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Wednesday up 3.10% — its biggest single-day surge in 18 months. The S&P 500 gained 1.65%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.97%, putting all three major U.S. indexes in the green.

Crypto came along for the ride. Bitcoin rebounded off its session low, Ether clawed back nearly 10% from its trough, and altcoins bounced broadly across the board.

Not everything rallied. AI and data center stocks got smoked: Cipher Digital cratered 19.95%, IREN sank 11.24%, CoreWeave dropped 9.90%, Lumentum fell 7.85%, Marvell Technology lost 7.08%, and Coherent slid 5.98%.

Gold caught a bid, climbing roughly 3% to 4% from around $3,940 to above $4,000, with prices pushing into the $4,060-$4,090 zone. Oil went the other way — West Texas Intermediate fell from about $96 to roughly $88, while Brent slid from around $104 to $94-$95. Both crude benchmarks finished down about 8%-10% on the day.

The split session tells the story: stocks and crypto drew buyers, gold played defense, and crude got sold down hard. Investors now watch whether the Dow's momentum holds or fades in the sessions ahead.