S&P 500 closes higher as AI leader Nvidia rebounds, EA surges on takeover

The three leading U.S. indexes finished with gains on Monday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.26% to close at 6,661.21, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.48% to end at 22,591.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average grew by 68.78 points, or 0.15%, to reach 46,316.07.

— Sean Conlon

Tesla's recent rally can be attributed in part to its roots as a meme stock, according to Barclays.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker have rallied more than 32% over the past month, bringing its year-to-date return above 9%. This rally can "be put in the context of Tesla as the 'OG meme stonk,'" said analyst Dan Levy, who uses slang for original ("OG") and stock ("stonk").

Levy said Tesla's performance also reflects technical factors, excitement from retail investors and a catch-up to other Magnificent Seven names. However, he said there jump has brought more attention to what he described as an "ongoing disconnect" between the stock's moves and its near-term earnings power.

Additionally, Levy said investors are likely excited by CEO Elon Musk's commitment to the brand following his stint leading President Donald Trump's government efficiency initiative.

— Alex Harring

Shares of Etsy and Shopify soared after OpenAI announced Instant Checkout, a feature that will allow ChatGPT users to buy products through the artificial intelligence chatbot. The feature will work initially with Etsy, and then eventually add more than one million merchants via Shopify.

OpenAI will take a fee for transactions that are completed via this service.

Etsy shares were recently up nearly 14%, and the stock hit a fresh 52-week high intraday, on the news. The e-commerce site's stock is up more than 38% year to date.

Shopify shares rallied about 6% on Monday. Its stock has gained about 39% year to date.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

Barclays initiated coverage of Oklo on Monday after shares of the nuclear startup sold off sharply last week.

The firm rated Oklo as overweight with a price target of $146 per share, suggesting 32% upside from Friday's close of $110.53. Oklo shares were up nearly 6% on Monday.

Oklo tumbled about 20% last week after executives dumped a large number of their shares and Goldman Sachs cautioned investors to approach the stock with caution.

Barclays also initiated coverage of NuScale as equal weight with a target of $45, indicating 18% upside from current levels.

Oklo and NuScale are both developing small advanced nuclear reactors, though neither company has actually deployed a power plant yet.

"Ultimately though, if either or both OKLO and SMR are successful in deployment and commercialization, the stocks could have material upside potential from current levels, as it would result in growth well above the run-rates we are currently assuming," Barclays analyst Christine Cho told clients.

— Spencer Kimball

There's a technical indicator coming from the stock market that investors need to pay attention to, according to BTIG.

The S&P 500 has gone 103 trading days without touching its 50-day-moving average, the longest streak since April 2024, said Jonathan Krinsky, the firm's chief market technician. It is the fifth longest streak since 1990, he added.

"The primary trend remains firmly bullish, but a shakeout is long overdue," he wrote in a note Sunday. "High vol. names and retail favorites appear to be cooling off, and sentiment remains complacent."

— Michelle Fox

• CSX — the railroad operator rose more than 3% after it named Steve Angel chief executive, replacing Joe Hinrichs. The management shake-up follows pressure by activist investor Ancora Holdings, which criticized declining efficiency at CSX and pushed for the company to consider mergers and acquisitions as the industry consolidates.
• Merus — The biotech company popped 36% after it agreed to be acquired by Denmark-based Genmab for $8 billion, or $97 per share, in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.
• Pony AI — The Chinese autonomous vehicle tech company surged 9% after Citi initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating and a price target that signaled 37% upside from Friday's close. Citi said China's "robotaxi sector is at an inflection point."

Read more here.

— Fred Imbert

Coal stocks are rising after the Trump administration unveiled a plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to keep power plants from closing.

Peabody Energy jumped nearly 8%, Ramaco Resources rose more than 3%, and Core Natural Resources was up more than 1%.

The Department of Energy will invest $625 million to support the struggling industry, with $350 million dedicated to upgrade and recommission coal plants.

And the Interior Department announced Monday it would make 13.1 milion acres of federal land available for the industry to lease.

President Donald Trump signed a series of exceutive orders in April aimed at boosting coal production in the U.S. The coal inudstry has struggled as plants have been displaced by cheaper natural gas and renewable energy in recent years.

— Spencer Kimball

The Labor Department is preparing for what would amount to a news and data blackout should the U.S. government suspend operations.

In a contingency plan released Friday, the department said it was looking "to ensure that DOL agencies can perform an orderly suspension of programs and operations should a lapse occur, while continuing those limited activities authorized to continue during a lapse."

While the department's scope covers a multitude of areas, the impact on data releases will be pressing for investors. The DOL, in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, has several key reports upcoming that will provide important clues about the direction of the economy and inform Federal Reserve policymakers ahead of their next meeting in October.

"BLS will suspend all operations," the 73-page plan stated. "Economic data that are scheduled to be released during the lapse will not be released."

Read more.

— Jeff Cox

Alibaba shares gained about 4% on Monday, reaching a fresh 52-week high, after Morgan Stanley earlier lifted its price target on the Chinese cloud giant.

After Alibaba's Apsara Conference 2025, analyst Gary Yu walked away more bullish on the company's cloud revenue business, upgrades in its AI models and accelerating international expansion. He maintained his overweight rating on the stock while lifting his price target by $40 to $200, which suggests 16.3% potential upside from its latest close.

Yu pointed out that Alibaba management during the conference highlighted strong demand, saying the number of tokens it was processing has been doubling every 2 to 3 months.

"BABA also announced new developments during the conference, such as 1) its flagship model Qwen3-Max (ranking top 3 globally) and Bailian agent platform upgrades, 2) partnership with NVIDIA on physical AI, and 3) accelerating overseas expansion with the first data centers launching in Brazil, France, Netherlands etc," Yu added. "We expect these initiatives, in addition to increased capex, to further accelerate cloud growth, and thus we raise our cloud growth estimates to 32% for F26 and 40% for F27 (vs. 30% for each of F26 and F27 previously."

— Pia Singh

Novo Nordisk could be due for even more losses over the coming months, spurred by a pullback in the growth rate of U.S. GLP-1 prescriptions, according to Morgan Stanley.

U.S. shares of the Danish pharmaceutical giant were under pressure in late morning trading Monday after analyst Thibault Boutherin downgraded the stock to underweight from equal-weight, saying that there's a "tough path ahead." The analyst also cut his price target to $47 from $59, which reflects more than 15% downside from Friday's close.

"We expect downward revisions to 2026-27 consensus from slower US GLP-1 prescription growth and competitive pressure, and we see catalysts with downside risk over the next 6 months," Boutherin wrote on Monday. He added that a "lack of momentum" in U.S. prescriptions for Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus specifically makes him "cautious on the short-term growth profile."

"As the window before semaglutide US/EU [Loss of Exclusivity] narrows, we expect valuation multiples to compress," Boutherin also said.

Monday's losses put the stock's year-to-date fall at more than 35%.

— Sean Conlon

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack on Monday said the U.S. central bank faces challenges as it attempts to balance fighting stubborn inflation or protecting jobs.

"On the inflation side right now, I continue to be worried about where we are from an inflation perspective," Hammack told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe."

"We have been missing our mandate on the inflation side, our objective of 2%, for more than four-and-a-half years and I continue to see that we have pressure in inflation both in the headline, in the core, and particularly, where I am worried about it, is I'm seeing it in the services," she added.

Asked whether it is mistake for the Federal Reserve to be cutting interest rates given the economic backdrop, Hammack described it as "a challenging time for monetary policy," saying the U.S. central bank was facing pressure on both sides of its mandate.

Read the full story here.

— Sam Meredith

There was more good news for the housing market Monday as pending home sales unexpectedly rose in August.

The National Association of Realtors reported that houses under contact increased 4% for the month, much better than the Dow Jones forecast for no change.

"Lower mortgage rates are enabling more homebuyers to go under contract. In the Midwest, low mortgage rates combined with high levels of affordability are attracting more buyers compared to other regions," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.

Borrowing costs declined during the month, with a typical 30-year mortgage rate falling from 6.75% to 6.58%, according to Bankrate.

— Jeff Cox

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he's going to impose a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas.

"Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing 'candy from a baby.' California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!" Trump said in a Truth Social post. "Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States."

Trump first announced such plans early May. He previously said foreign productions could be a national security threat.

Shares of media and entertainment companies came under pressure Monday on the heels of the announcement. Warner Bros Discovery and Comcast, for example, dipped 0.5%. Others like Disney and Netflix were last higher, however, after initially falling in premarket trading.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast's planned spinoff of Versant.

— Yun Li

Stocks opened in the green on Monday morning.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% just after 9:30 a.m. ET, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also climbed 98 points, or 0.2%.

— Sean Conlon

There could be more room to run for stocks, according to Goldman Sachs.

The firm upgraded global equities to overweight from neutral for the next three months, saying that "good earnings growth, Fed easing without a recession and global fiscal policy easing will continue to support equities."

"Markets have continued with their 'risk on' shift supported by a Goldilocks backdrop based on optimistic growth expectations (boosted by AI) with dovish Fed expectations," said Christian Mueller-Glissmann, Goldman's head of asset allocation research in London, in a Monday note. "While Goldilocks regimes with strong growth and low inflation can last for a long time as seen since the 1990s, the current backdrop is different as weak labor market conditions drive Fed dovishness rather than anchored inflation.

Mueller-Glissmann noted that investor sentiment and positioning has "not picked up materially" even with the risk-on performance in the market.

"Unlike previous Goldilocks periods, positioning hasn't reached very bullish levels - flows into bonds, gold, and money markets stay strong while surveys remain somewhat bearish (only retail investors are more bullish)," he said. "We remain modestly pro-risk in our asset allocation," he added.

To be sure, Mueller-Glissmann pointed out that the Goldilocks backdrop could meet a bearish scenario in one of three ways: firstly, a growth shock due to rising unemployment rate or AI disappointments; secondly, a rate shock from the Federal Reserve not delivering on more dovish expectations or from long-term yields signaling more risk of fiscal dominance; or thirdly, increasing pessimism about the prospects of the U.S. dollar.

— Sean Conlon

These companies are making the biggest moves before the opening bell Monday:

• Electronic Arts — Shares rose 5% shortly after a consortium of investors announced it had struck a $55 billion deal to acquire the videogame maker and take it private, confirming earlier reports.

• Cannabis stocks — The group surged after President Donald Trump posted a video on Truth Social touting the benefits of cannabinoids for seniors. The AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis ETF (MSOS) ripped 22% higher. Aurora Cannabis jumped 14%.

• Novo Nordisk — U.S.-listed shares of the Danish pharma stock fell 3.2% following Morgan Stanley's downgrade to underweight from equal weight. Morgan Stanley cited rising competition in the GLP-1 space and other downside risks.

• Lam Research — The semiconductor equipment maker climbed 3% after a Deutsche Bank upgrade to buy from hold. The bank said Lam Research will benefit an improving outlook for wafer fabrication equipment and a valuation that's somewhat in line with peers.

For the full list, click here.

— Liz Napolitano

Electronic Arts will be taken private by PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners in an all-cash deal valued at $55 billion, the video game company said Monday. The stock was halted during premarket trading.

— Sarah Min

Oracle and Nvidia, two key stocks that traders are watching to assess the sustainability of artificial intelligence trade, gained 0.9% and 1.1% in the premarket on Monday, respectively.

The moves come after shares of the two AI-names saw some selling pressure last week, which kicked off on Tuesday in the wake of Nvidia announcing a $100 billion investment in OpenAI a day prior.

— Sean Conlon

President Donald Trump warned Sunday of widespread layoffs if the federal government shuts down this week, telling NBC News that "we are going to cut a lot of the people that ... we're able to cut on a permanent basis."

″[I'd] rather not do that," he told NBC News in an exclusive interview.

The White House is doubling down on warnings that thousands of government jobs could be on the line if the government shuts down at midnight on Tuesday.

Read more here.

— Erin Doherty

Cannabis stocks ripped higher on Monday after President Donald Trump put up a video on Truth Social that endorsed the use of cannabinoids for seniors.

The AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis ETF (MSOS) soared 25%, while the Amplify Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ) popped 12.9%. Aurora Cannabis jumped nearly 14% in the premarket.

— Fred Imbert

Stock futures rose to start the week as Wall Street tries to regain momentum.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% last week, its worst weekly performance since Aug. 1, and now sits 0.8% off its record high. The Nasdaq dropped 0.7%, also its weakest since early August. The Dow edged down 0.2%, its first loss in three weeks.

Oracle shares fell more than 8% last week to lead the AI trade lower.

— Fred Imbert, Yun Li