Wall Street ended higher on Monday, with both the S&P 500 and the Dow posting fresh record finishes, as investors bought into technology stocks ahead of a busy week packed with corporate earnings and crucial economic data.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 201.36 points, or 0.47%, to 43,065.22, the S&P 500 rose 44.82 points, or 0.77%, to 5,859.85 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 18,502.69 points, or 0.87%, to 18,502.69.
Market Movers
Tesla was up 0.6% after shares fell 8.8% on Friday following investors' disappointment over the electric-vehicle maker's robotaxi event. The company unveiled a physical robotaxi but Wall Street was hoping for more details on how Tesla has been improving its self-driving technology, and how the company will make money from the robotaxi service. Tesla shares have closed lower four of the past five days.
Nvidia stock reached its highest closing on record. Shares were up 2.4% at $138.07, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9%. It had traded as high as $139.60 on Monday.
The stock’s prior record closing of $135.58 was set on June 18, after Nvidia’s 10-for-1 stock split. The stock hit an intraday high of $140.76 two days later.
Shares of Boeing fell 1.4% after the plane maker said it would cut 10% of the global workforce, or roughly 17,000 jobs. While Boeing deals with a costly monthlong strike by its biggest union, the job cuts were related more to reducing operating costs at the struggling company. "Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together," CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a memo to employees. "Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term." Boeing also said it would further delay the launch of the 777X, the company's new airplane that already is years behind schedule.
SoFi Technologies jumped 11.4%. The fintech company announced a $2 billion agreement for personal loans with funds managed by affiliates of investment-manager Fortress Investment Group. "The agreement will expand SoFi's capabilities in its loan-platform business, where the company refers prequalified borrowers to loan-origination partners as well as originates loans on behalf of third parties," the company said in a statement.
Sirius XM Holdings rose 7.9% to $26.90. Berkshire Hathaway recently added to its stake in the satellite-radio company, buying 3.6 million shares for about $87 million late last week. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway now holds 108.7 million shares of Sirius XM, a 32% interest. Berkshire Hathaway made the recent purchases on Wednesday through Friday of last week at an average price of close to $24.50 a share, according to a regulatory filing.
Caterpillar declined 2% to $393.95 after analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of the construction-equipment maker to Underweight from Equal Weight and reduced their price target on the stock to $332 from $349. Earnings could be near a peak and destocking at dealer inventories could offset any benefit from infrastructure spending in the U.S., according to Morgan Stanley.
Vistra rose 5.6%. Shares of the utility company have risen 245% this year, boosted by demand from power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers.
Bank of America was up flat Monday and Citigroup gained 0.4% after banking giant peers JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reported third-quarter earnings last week that fell from a year earlier but topped analysts' expectations, sending the stocks down 0.4% and up 2.5%, respectively, on Friday. Bank of America and Citigroup are scheduled to report earnings Tuesday before the stock market opens.
Market News
Global EV sales up 30.5% in September as China shines, Europe recuperates
Global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose by an annual 30.5% in September, as China surpassed its record numbers recorded in August and Europe resumed growth, market research firm Rho Motion said on Tuesday.
Chinese carmakers are seeking to grow their sales in the EU despite import duties of up to 45% and amid cooling global demand for electric cars. Chinese and European automakers were going head-to-head at the Paris car show on Monday.
EVs - whether fully electric (BEV) or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) - sold worldwide reached 1.69 million in September, Rho Motion data showed.
Adobe Starts Roll-Out of AI Video Tools, Challenging OpenAI and Meta
Adobe on Monday said it has started publicly distributing an AI model that can generate video from text prompts, joining the growing field of companies trying to upend film and television production using generative artificial intelligence.
The Firefly Video Model, as the technology is called, will compete with OpenAI's Sora, which was introduced earlier this year, while TikTok owner ByteDance and Meta Platforms have also announced their video tools in recent months.
Facing much larger rivals, Adobe has staked its future on building models trained on data that it has rights to use, ensuring the output can be legally used in commercial work.
US Weighs Capping Exports of AI Chips From Nvidia and AMD to Some Countries
Biden administration officials have discussed capping sales of advanced AI chips from Nvidia Corp. and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ artificial intelligence capabilities.
The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for certain countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials are focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people said.
