NextFin News - U.S. stocks rose Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite and Nvidia both posting record closes as megacap technology stocks led a broad rally. The session's central tension pitted that strength against a bond market that kept pushing higher. The 10-year Treasury yield hit a new high for the year even as last Friday's weak jobs report had reduced expectations for further Fed tightening. Political upheaval in Europe and still-elevated oil prices added background caution, but investors largely looked past them. The S&P 500 finished within about 1% of its August record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.18%
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.66%
The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.05%
Stock & Sector Performance
Technology and AI-linked names were the standout theme of the session. The Nasdaq closed at 27,477.31, well past its prior record from Sept. 22. The Nasdaq-100 also set a fresh record, helped by megacap strength and M&A chatter. SpaceX jumped more than 7%, one of the day's biggest large-cap gainers. Intel was a notable exception and dipped, after news that weighed on its expected role in Elon Musk's Terafab project. Musk has previously said that project would use Intel's upcoming 14A manufacturing process.
The Magnificent Seven were a large source of the day's gains. Nvidia rose about 2% to a new all-time closing high, its first since May and above its prior record close of $235.74 set on May 14. Tesla also gained about 2%. Meta Platforms rose almost 2% on continued enthusiasm for its AI agent products. Microsoft climbed more than 1% after a long-time bearish analyst turned positive. Alphabet and Amazon also traded higher.
Analyst sentiment is also notably bullish. FactSet data showed 60% of S&P 500 stocks now carry a Buy rating from Wall Street analysts, the highest share on record and above the five-year average of 55.9%.
Hot Sectors to Watch
Semiconductors and AI infrastructure remain the market's clearest confirmed uptrend, and Monday's session extended it. Nvidia's record close came alongside records in the Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq-100. Last week, AMD, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto Networks also set records, which points to broad participation across AI hardware, software, and security names rather than a single-stock story. Nvidia led the group on Monday with a gain of roughly 2%.
Mega-cap platform companies are the second theme worth watching. Meta's near-2% gain and Microsoft's 1%+ advance suggest investors are rewarding companies with visible AI product traction, not just chip suppliers. That is a modest rotation signal inside tech. The Nasdaq's outperformance also stands out against a Dow that has lost ground in four of the past five weeks, so tech is still doing most of the heavy lifting.
Major Story of the Day
Nvidia's record close was the session's dominant company story. The stock traded near $237 during the day, passing its May record, and it helped lift the Nasdaq to its own all-time high. The move followed Morgan Stanley's reinstatement of Nvidia as a top semiconductor pick after a meeting with CEO Jensen Huang. It also followed Friday's rally, when the stock approached its highs on soft jobs data. The milestone matters beyond the stock. It means the AI trade's flagship name has now fully recovered from this summer's volatility, even with the 10-year Treasury yield above 5.2% and West Texas Intermediate crude above $91 a barrel.
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
