Wall Street closed higher on Monday ahead of a packed week of earnings from megacap companies and the final stretch before the Nov. 5 presidential election, while sentiment improved after energy supplies were not disrupted by weekend developments in the Middle East.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 gained 15.4 points, or 0.27%, to 5,823.52, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 48.58 points, or 0.26%, to 18,567.19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 273.17 points, or 0.65%, to 42,387.57.
Market Movers
Shares of Trump Media & Technology rose 22% on Monday after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden event in New York.
Nuclear Energy shares rallied on Monday. Oklo rose 28%; Lightbridge rose 24%; NuScale Power rose 20%.
Boeing was down 2.8% after the aerospace giant launched an offering of 90 million common shares and a concurrent offering of $5 billion of depositary shares to help repair its ailing balance sheet. Pricing for the common stock sale has yet to be determined, but including the option for brokers to purchase additional shares, Boeing should raise between $19 billion and $22 billion.
NVIDIA Corp was down 0.7%, falling after the chip maker on Friday tested record highs and its valuation neared $3.5 trillion. Nvidia trails only Apple on the list of largest U.S. companies by market cap. Apple, up 0.9% after releasing Apple Intelligence for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac on Monday, reports quarterly earnings after the closing bell on Thursday, the same day as Amazon.com. Alphabet reports Tuesday, and Microsoft and Meta Platforms post their results on Wednesday.
ON Semiconductor rose 1.4% after the company, which makes chip products in the area of power and sensors for the auto and industrial markets, reported quarterly earnings and sales that were better than analysts' estimates. The company estimated fourth-quarter earnings and revenue at the midpoint of analyst forecasts.
U.S.-listed shares of Royal Philips NV were falling 16% after the Dutch health-technology company cut its sales outlook for 2024 to "reflect deteriorated demand in China." The company said it expects comparable sales growth of 0.5% to 1.5%, and free cash flow of around EUR900 million, at the lower end of its projected range. Philips said adjusted Ebita margin will be about 11.5%, at the upper end of the current range.
McDonald's was rising 1.4% after the fast-food giant said testing ruled out beef as the source of the outbreak of E. coli linked to the company's Quarter Pounders. As of Friday, the outbreak had spread to at least 75 people in 13 states, up from the initial 49 people in 10 states reported earlier in the week. One person died in Colorado. McDonald's said it would again sell Quarter Pounders at impacted restaurants in the coming week.
3M was rising 4.4% after analysts at J.P. Morgan raised their price target on shares of the maker of Scotch tape and Post-it Notes to $165 from $160 and maintained their Overweight rating on the shares.
PROCEPT BioRobotics surged 32% after the surgical-robotics company reported a narrower third-quarter loss and boosted its fiscal-year outlook.
Market News
Bitcoin Briefly Tops $70,000 for the First Time Since June as Investors Await Earnings, Election Day
Bitcoin briefly climbed above $70,000 as investors braced themselves for MicroStrategy earnings and counted the days to the U.S. presidential election.
The price of bitcoin was last higher by about 3% at $69,925.00, according to Coin Metrics. At about 6:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday, it touched $70,207.02 and has been oscillating since.
Stocks tied to the price of the cryptocurrency were little changed in extended trading. In regular trading on Monday, crypto exchange platform Coinbase gained 5% and bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy jumped nearly 9%.
Automaker Ford Weakens Profit Outlook Amid Price War, Shares Fall
Ford said on Monday it expects to hit the lower end of its full-year profit guidance, dropping the company's shares 6% in after-hours trading, as a price war hits the U.S. automaker's bottom line.
Ford expects to earn about $10 billion in earnings before interest and taxes this year, down from its prior range of $10 billion to $12 billion.
Cadence Raises Midpoint of 2024 Profit Forecast on Robust Demand from Chip Designers
Cadence Design raised the midpoint of its annual profit forecast on Monday, betting on the boom in generative AI to drive demand for its software used to design complex chips that power those systems, sending its shares up 6.2% in extended trading.
The company, which supplies both software and specialized computer servers to leading AI-chip designer Nvidia and Apple, among others, raised the midpoint of its adjusted annual profit forecast to $5.90 per share, versus the prior $5.87 per share for 2024.
