U.S. stocks closed slightly higher on Monday, May 11, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices reaching new record highs. Market sentiment remained influenced by uncertainty in the Middle East, driving up crude oil prices. Precious and industrial metals also advanced, with silver soaring over 7% and copper posting its largest gain in over a month. Investors are awaiting the release of April's Consumer Price Index data on Tuesday.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19% to 49,704.47. The S&P 500 gained 0.19% to 7,412.84, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.10% to 26,274.13.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the current ceasefire agreement with Iran remains in effect but is "extremely fragile" and in a "precarious" state. He emphasized that the core of the U.S. position is that "Iran must never possess nuclear weapons," a commitment he claims Iran has not made in its response. Iran's Foreign Ministry indicated that its negotiation priorities are ending the war, lifting sanctions and blockades, with decisions on issues like uranium enrichment to be made at an appropriate time.
On the economic data front, the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales in the U.S. for April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, up a mere 0.2% from the previous month. Meanwhile, the median existing-home sales price rose 0.9% year-over-year to $417,700, setting a record high for the month of April.
Most major technology stocks declined. Google's parent company fell over 3%, while Facebook's parent company and Amazon each dropped more than 1%. Microsoft declined 0.59%, and Apple edged down 0.13%. Tesla rose nearly 4%, and Nvidia gained close to 2%.
Reports indicate that Apple's upcoming A20 Pro chip will feature two major core upgrades. First, it will utilize TSMC's latest 2nm manufacturing process, an advancement from 3nm, enabling stronger performance output with similar chip dimensions and improved power efficiency. Second, it will introduce the Wafer-on-Wafer Chip-on-Substrate (WoW-CoS) advanced packaging technology, marking its first application in an iPhone processor. This technology involves vertically stacking and interconnecting multiple chips on a wafer before dicing, resulting in a chip with no interposer, short interconnect distances, and high integration.
Data shows Nvidia's equity investments have surpassed $40 billion this year. Industry analysts note this investment model helps secure downstream customers and, to some extent, ensures stable demand for its hardware. Nvidia has finalized mass production plans for its Vera Rubin platform with ODM partners, with trial production scheduled for June and shipments to major North American cloud service providers, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle, beginning in July.
Elon Musk stated that Tesla's AI vision system can deploy airbags before a collision to reduce the risk of injury or death, a feature provided free on all new vehicles. Separately, Tesla announced a recall of 173 Cybertrucks due to potential wheel bolt failures that could, in severe cases, lead to wheel detachment, increasing driving risk.
On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Netflix, accusing the streaming giant of illegally monitoring users, misusing children's data, and deliberately designing its platform to be addictive.
The state of Texas alleges that Netflix has told consumers it does not collect or share user data while, in reality, it tracks and sells viewers' habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and ad-tech companies, generating billions in annual revenue.
Specific demands from Texas include requiring Netflix to disable autoplay by default on children's profiles and delete all data collected through deceptive means. The state also seeks to prohibit Netflix from sharing data with third-party data brokers without users' explicit, informed consent.
A Netflix spokesperson stated the company plans to respond to the allegations in court.
Oil prices rose following Trump's rejection of Tehran's latest peace proposal. June WTI crude gained 2.8%, settling at $98.07 per barrel. July Brent crude increased 2.9%, settling at $104.21 per barrel.
Emily Ashford, Head of Energy Research at Standard Chartered, commented, "The market had expected more positive outcomes from certain diplomatic channels, but we remain in a stalemate. Every day and week of delay means more loss of crude supply."
Copper prices posted their largest gain in over a month, nearing intraday record highs. LME copper for three-month delivery closed up 2.7% at $13,943 per metric ton.
Gold prices moved higher, while silver surged over 7%, marking its biggest one-day gain in more than a month. Spot gold was up 0.4% at $2,733.90 per ounce as of 4:52 p.m. New York time. Silver jumped 7.1% to $28.05 per ounce.
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