By Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal
2025 -The S&P 500 and Nasdaq kicked off November on firmer ground on Monday, after a slew of AI deals boosted megacap companies Amazon and Nvidia, while Kenvue shares soared after Kimberly-Clark’s buyout deal.
Amazon.com hit a record high after signing a multi-year $38 billion deal to supply cloud computing services to OpenAI, giving the ChatGPT maker access to Nvidia’s graphics processors.
Nvidia gained 2.5% after President Donald Trump said the company’s most advanced chips will be reserved for U.S. companies and Microsoft secured export licenses to use its chips in UAE data centers.
Loop Capital raised its price target for Nvidia stock by $100, which also helped gains.
Optimism around AI has been driving markets to record highs after several so-called “Magnificent Seven” companies pointed to a surge in spending on the technology. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq marked their longest monthly winning streaks in years in October.
Investors await results from Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm, among others this week.
Michael Sansoterra, CIO at Silvant Capital Management, said the market was seeing earnings growth for most companies outside the big tech names.
“That tells us that the market’s on track beyond the AI theme. The fundamentals of the economy have been surprisingly resilient given some of the fears around inflation and jobs,” he added.
The consumer discretionary and information technology sectors gained 1.9% and 0.5%, respectively, buoying the S&P 500, as most other sectors declined.
Kenvue jumped 17.4% after Kimberly-Clark said it will acquire the Tylenol maker in a deal valued at more than $40 billion. Kimberly-Clark slid 11.8%.
At 10:02 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 177.70 points, or 0.37%, to 47,385.17, the S&P 500 gained 4.14 points, or 0.06%, to 6,844.34 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 128.77 points, or 0.54%, to 23,853.72.
Industrial heavyweights Caterpillar and Honeywell fell 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively, weighing on the Dow.
PRIVATE ECONOMIC DATA AWAITED
Private sector economic data, including Wednesday’s private payrolls, will be closely watched this week, with the second-longest U.S. government shutdown contributing to data fog and monetary policy uncertainty.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell had tempered optimism for a December rate cut and a clutch of Fed officials aired discomfort with the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates last week.
U.S. manufacturing contracted for an eighth consecutive month in October as new orders remained subdued, data showed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a case around the legality of Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday.
IDEXX jumped 13% after raising its annual forecasts, among the biggest gainers on the S&P 500.
Berkshire Hathaway’s class B shares fell 0.8% after its quarterly results, reversing their premarket course.
IREN jumped 19.8% after the data center operator signed a near $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft to provide it with access to Nvidia GB300 processors over a five-year period.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.9-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.61-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and 25 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 95 new lows.
(Reporting by Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
