Key Takeaways

• NAS100 traded at 29,719.42 as of 10:12 (GMT+8) on 28 October 2026, about 3% above its 23 October low near 28,840.
• The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.30% on 27 October as a closely watched gauge of chipmakers climbed 3.60%. ²
• The Federal Reserve announces its rate decision at 02:00 (GMT+8) on 29 October, and Microsoft and Alphabet report after the US close on 28 October. ^1,5

Why Is the Nasdaq Up Today? The Quick Answer

The Nasdaq 100 rose about 3% from its 23 October low as chip stocks rallied after Anthropic’s IPO filing. NAS100 traded at 29,719.42 at 10:12 (GMT+8) on 28 October, while futures priced a 73% chance of a December Fed hike, so chips and rates disagree.

The Nasdaq 100 has climbed about 3% since Friday’s low, and it did it while rate expectations leaned the other way. NAS100 traded at 29,719.42 as of 10:12 (GMT+8) on 28 October 2026, according to the Vantage price feed, even as fed funds futures priced a 73% chance of a Federal Reserve rate hike in December. ⁶

I’ll admit the pairing made me look twice. Growth-heavy indices and rising rate expectations are usually uneasy neighbours. This piece unpacks where the demand came from, how narrow it was, and what changes before three catalysts hit the Nasdaq index between 02:00 and 20:30 (GMT+8) on 29 October. ^1,7 It’s a busy calendar for a Wednesday that, in Asia, mostly happens on Thursday.

Nasdaq price snapshot: as of 10:12 (GMT+8) on 28 October 2026, NAS100 traded at 29,719.42 on the one-hour chart, about 255 points above its 200-period moving average and about 0.77% below the 21 October swing high near 29,950.

NAS100 Technical Analysis: Back Above the 200-Hour Average

For a Nasdaq 100 technical analysis, the one-hour timeframe tells the cleanest story. Pull up the NAS100 TradingView chart and the week reads like most of a round trip. The Nasdaq index slid from near 29,950 on 21 October to a floor near 28,840, then went sideways from 22 to 26 October. There’s no weekend Nasdaq session, so Friday’s floor carried straight into Monday. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) dropped to about 23 during the slide, below the 30 line the TradingView setup used for this analysis marks as oversold.

On the Nasdaq chart today, and on the Nasdaq index today more broadly, price sits above both moving averages. It crossed the 200-period average, now 29,464.18, late on 27 October, and traded at 29,719.42 at 10:12 (GMT+8) on 28 October. The 50-period average, at 29,321.91, has turned higher but still sits below the 200-period line. In plain terms, price has run ahead of its own trend gauges.

Momentum has recovered more completely than price. The RSI read 69.51 against a signal line of 68.85, just under the 70 overbought marker, having gone from oversold to the edge of overbought in four sessions, while price still sits about 0.77% below the 21 October high. Price, meanwhile, has spent the past several hours in a tight band between about 29,640 and 29,765. Price has paused; momentum sits near the top of its range.

The Nasdaq index chart shows a strong recovery. It doesn’t show what powered it.

Why Chip Stocks Pulled the Nasdaq Higher

The short version: semiconductors. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 0.80% to 26,169.38 on 26 October, ⁴ then added 1.18% to 26,477.81 on 27 October. ³ Working back from Monday’s 214.04-point gain puts Friday’s close at 25,955.34, so the Composite rose about 2.01% across the two sessions. On Tuesday, the Nasdaq 100 gained 1.30% while a chipmaker gauge climbed 3.60%. ²

The spark was Anthropic’s public Form S-1, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 26 October, which set out plans to list on Nasdaq. ^8,11 The filing showed $16.29 billion in revenue for the six months to June, CNBC reported. ¹¹ Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, put the mood plainly: “The market needed this, just like it needed SpaceX”. ¹¹

The chip names did the heavy lifting. AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) rose 5.45% on 27 October as investors focused on its commitment of more than $20 billion to supply Anthropic with systems from 2027, and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) gained 4.00%. ⁵ Those single-stock moves come from one closing summary, and Vantage has not independently verified them.

Context matters here. Anyone searching “why is Nasdaq down today” on 22 October got an answer about AI spending: TheStreet’s market coverage tied that day’s tech decline to Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) holding its capital expenditure (capex) guidance and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) cutting its full-year capex guidance by 20%. ⁹ Chuck Carlson, CEO at Horizon Investment Services, described this week’s bounce to Reuters as “a little bit of a relief rally” for chip stocks. ¹²

That explains where the demand came from. It doesn’t explain how few stocks joined in.

Breadth Says the Rally Was a Bounce, Not a Breakout

Here’s the part of the Nasdaq stock market today story that I think the headline numbers hide. Most Nasdaq stocks did rise on 27 October, with advancers beating decliners 1.86 to 1, yet stocks setting new lows still outnumbered new highs 239 to 62, and volume ran below its 20-day average. ⁵ Technical analyst Frank Cappelleri summed it up: breadth was “thinner than the headline gains suggest”. ⁵ The equal-weight S&P 500 tracker rose just 0.11% while the cap-weighted index gained 0.60%. ⁵

The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.30% on 27 October while Nasdaq stocks setting new lows outnumbered new highs by almost four to one.

So this was a bounce from depressed levels rather than a broad push to new highs, and the size of the headline gain came mostly from chips. A cap-weighted Nasdaq market index lets a handful of large chipmakers do the heavy lifting; index arithmetic can be generous like that. The so-what is concentration: one earnings line or policy sentence aimed at chips can swing the whole index, in either direction.

Narrow breadth is one soft spot. The other sits in the rates market.

Fed Hike Bets Lean the Other Way

The Federal Reserve opened its two-day meeting with rates in a 3.75% to 4.00% range. ⁶ At midday on 27 October, CME FedWatch put the odds of a hold this week at about 90.60%, easing to 88.40% later in the session. ⁶ December looks different: FedWatch showed a 73% chance of a hike, up from 42% a month earlier. ⁶ Markets have pencilled in this week’s hold; the pencil is now hovering over December.

Bonds agreed. The US 2-year yield rose more than two basis points to 4.737% on 27 October, and the 10-year closed at 4.995%, a whisker under 5%. ⁵ Higher long-term yields tend to weigh on growth-heavy indices like the Nasdaq 100, because more of those companies’ expected earnings sit further in the future and are discounted at a higher rate.

This meeting carries no new economic projections, ¹⁰ so the statement at 02:00 (GMT+8) and the press conference at 02:30 (GMT+8) on 29 October are where any firmer or softer December language would show up. ¹

Rates set the backdrop. The earnings landing about two hours later decide whether the chip rally gets company.

Big Tech Earnings Test the Capex Story

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) report after the US close on 28 October, from about 04:00 (GMT+8) on 29 October. ⁵ Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is also due this week, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) reports within the same results window. ³

After last week’s capex scare, the spending guidance is the line I’ll be reading first. A raised plan may read as support for the demand story chipmakers rallied on; an unchanged one may echo the guidance that preceded the 22 October slide. Both reports land after the US cash close, when liquidity is typically thinner and price gaps are more common.

Here’s how those catalysts line up against the Nasdaq 100 chart.

NAS100 Levels and Dates Traders Are Watching

Table 1: NAS100 Levels Traders Are Watching, as of 10:12 (GMT+8), 28 October 2026

Level	Approximate Value	What the NAS100 Chart Shows
Level 1 Resistance	Near 29,950	21 October swing high, top of the range before the slide
Recent High	Near 29,765	28 October intraday high
Last Price	29,719.42	Vantage price feed at 10:12 (GMT+8)
Level 1 Support	29,464.18	200-period moving average (H1)
Level 2 Support	29,321.91	50-period moving average (H1)
Level 3 Support	Near 28,840	Floor of the 22 to 26 October range

Source: TradingView one-hour NAS100 chart (Vantage feed), as of 10:12 (GMT+8) on 28 October 2026. Levels are approximate and indicative only; they are reference points, not trade signals.

Fed-Night Checklist: Five Things to Check on the Nasdaq Today

• Where NAS100 sits against the 200-hour average near 29,464 when you check.
• Whether the Fed statement at 02:00 (GMT+8) firms up or softens its December language.
• What Microsoft and Alphabet say about capex from about 04:00 (GMT+8).
• Whether Nasdaq new highs start to outnumber new lows.
• How large any open position is relative to account equity, given overnight gap risk.

Key Dates (GMT+8)

• FOMC Decision, 29 October, 02:00: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement, with the press conference at 02:30. ¹
• Microsoft and Alphabet Results, 29 October, From About 04:00: Capex guidance is the line most tied to last week’s slide. ^5,9
• US Q3 GDP and September PCE, 29 October, 20:30: The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) publishes the advance GDP estimate and September personal income and outlays together. ⁷

What would change the read: it weakens if NAS100 closes back below the 200-period average near 29,464, and it firms if breadth widens, with more Nasdaq stocks setting new highs than new lows, so the move no longer rests on chipmakers alone.

Nasdaq 100 Questions Traders Are Asking

Why Is the Nasdaq Up Today?

If you searched “why is Nasdaq up today”, here’s the Nasdaq 100 today in brief. As of the 27 October close, the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.18% and the Nasdaq 100 up 1.30%, led by chipmakers after Anthropic’s IPO filing. ^2,3 NAS100 today held near 29,719 at 10:12 (GMT+8). The short answer is chips; the longer one is in the breadth data. For updates after the Fed, follow the latest NAS100 news and Nasdaq news.

What Is the Difference Between the Nasdaq 100, the Nasdaq Composite, and NAS100?

The Nasdaq 100 index is the narrower, more concentrated gauge; the Nasdaq Composite index is the broad one. ¹³ NAS100 follows the cash Nasdaq 100 rather than Nasdaq 100 futures, though the two usually move closely together. Here’s how they compare, using today’s Nasdaq 100 news:

Feature	Nasdaq 100	Nasdaq Composite	NAS100 (US100)
What It Tracks	100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq	Almost every stock listed on Nasdaq	The price of the Nasdaq 100 index
Latest Reading	Up 1.30% on 27 October	26,477.81 at the 27 October close	29,719.42 at 10:12 (GMT+8), 28 October
Common Access Route	Index funds such as the QQQ ETF	Benchmark index; tracked by index funds	Trading platforms, quoted as NAS100 or US100

Sources: Wikipedia (index definitions);¹³ Bloomberg;² TheStreet;³ Vantage price feed. Data as of 28 October 2026.

Is There a Nasdaq Forecast or NAS100 Prediction for Tomorrow?

No, and this week that’s deliberate. Searches for a Nasdaq forecast, a Nasdaq 100 forecast, a NAS100 forecast, or a US100 forecast tend to jump before events like this, as do searches for a Nasdaq prediction, a NAS100 prediction, or a forecast for stock market tomorrow. This Nasdaq analysis, like any sound NAS100 analysis or US100 analysis, lays out the levels and timings that matter rather than a price call. It’s a timestamped read, not a NAS100 live, Nasdaq 100 live, or US100 live quote.

Risk Picture Into the Fed Decision

The Nasdaq 100 rebounded about 3% on a chip rally while rates markets kept a December hike largely priced in. The rebound answered last week’s question about AI spending, at least for chipmakers; it hasn’t answered the rate question. The Fed gets the next word at 02:00 (GMT+8), an hour few people would choose for reading a policy statement.

The Fed decision lands at 02:00 (GMT+8), the Microsoft and Alphabet results after the US cash close, and the GDP data before the US open, so all three fall outside Asian daytime hours and raise gap risk for positions held overnight. A Stop Loss limits losses to a planned size in normal conditions, but in a fast or gapping market a position can close at a worse level than the one set.

Leverage works in both directions: it magnifies losses as well as gains relative to the margin committed, and CFDs carry a high risk of losing money rapidly. Position sizing set as a percentage of account equity, rather than a fixed contract size, is one way traders keep a single event night in proportion to the account.

Related Reading

• NAS100 News
• Nasdaq News Today
• Federal Reserve News

RISK WARNING: CFDs are complex financial instruments and carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should ensure you fully understand the risks involved and carefully consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money before trading.

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References

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[7] “Release Schedule – US Bureau of Economic Analysis” https://bea.gov/bea/rels.htm Accessed on 28 October 2026.

[8] “Anthropic, PBC Form S-1 – US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR)” https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0002130357/000162828026067168/anthropicpbc-sx1.htm Accessed on 28 October 2026.

[9] “Stock Market Today (Oct. 23, 2026): Dow Tumbles Following Tech Sell-Off – TheStreet” https://www.thestreet.com/stock-market-today/stock-market-today-dow-jones-sp-500-nasdaq-updates-oct-23-2026 Accessed on 28 October 2026.

[10] “Meeting Calendars, Statements, and Minutes (2021-2027) – Federal Reserve Board” https://federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm Accessed on 28 October 2026.

[11] “Stocks Close Higher as Excitement Over Anthropic IPO Filing Propels Tech Sector – CNBC” https://cnbc.com/2026/10/25/stock-market-today-live-updates.html Accessed on 28 October 2026.

[12] “Wall Street Ends Higher on Revived AI Momentum (Reuters) – Yahoo Finance” https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/us-stock-futures-muted-oil-095309821.html Accessed on 28 October 2026.

[13] “Nasdaq Composite – Wikipedia” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasdaq_Composite Accessed on 28 October 2026.