S&P 500, Nasdaq close at fresh records to start week, helped by AMD gains

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite finished higher on Friday.

The broad market index rose 0.36% to end at 6,740.28, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.71% to close at 22,941.67. That marks a fresh closing high for both indexes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, slid 63.31 points, or 0.14%, to close at 46,694.97.

— Sean Conlon

AppLovin shares plummeted on Monday after Bloomberg reported that the SEC has been probing the mobile advertising company over its data-collection practices. Read more.

— Ari Levy

An unusual occurrence happened in the semiconductor world today amid the broader market rally, according to Bespoke Investment Group,

"Notable day for the semis. Just the third time since the launch of ChatGPT that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rallied more than 3% and Nvidia traded lower," the firm said in a Monday afternoon post on X.

"Today is also the first time since July of last year that the SOX (6,816) has a higher price than the S&P 500 (6,744)," the firm added.

The PHLX Semiconductor Index, which comprises the 30 largest U.S.-traded companies involved in semiconductor design, manufacturing and distribution, gained nearly 3.4% during the trading session. Nvidia, meanwhile, lost about 0.9%.

— Pia Singh

Fifth Third Bancorp's deal to buy Comerica makes strategic and financial sense, Bank of America's Ebrahim Poonawala said Monday. He called it a "low risk transaction that should add scale without sacrificing FITB's near and long term [return on tangible common equity] ROTCE/growth potential."

"We believe the cost savings, combined with added scale for FITB are reason enough to make this franchise attractive," he wrote in a note to clients.

The deal, worth $10.9 billion, won't likely be the last in the bank space, said Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo.

"Our view is that acquisitions are more likely to get announced and approved and with
more certainty of closing (targeted end of 1Q26)," he said in a note Monday.

Mayo has his eyes on names like First Horizon and Banc of California.

— Michelle Fox

Bank of America has upgraded its rating for casual-dining restaurants' owner Brinker International, a new note to BoA clients shows.

The investment firm upgraded Brinker to buy from hold. It also raised its price target to $192 from $190.

"A successful turnaround at Chili's has set in motion a flywheel of better operations, more effective marketing, and healthier topline growth," BoA analyst Sara Senatore said Monday in the note, adding the analysts expect to see strong traffic growth due to a higher concentration of older and higher income consumers at full-service restaurants.

Brinker shares were trading 1% higher on Monday.

— Liz Napolitano

Bitcoin rallied Monday to a new record price north of 126,000 as the U.S. government's shutdown entered its second week.

At its peak, the cryptocurrency was trading nearly 3% higher at $126,243.60 on the day, Coin Metrics data shows.

— Liz Napolitano

President Donald Trump could "start taking sharp measures" on Monday if the government shutdown continues after the Senate's next votes on stopgap funding bills, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said.

Hassett's warning on CNBC's "Squawk Box" came after he said Democrats will be to blame for "any government worker that loses their job" due to reduction-in-force orders issued in response to the shutdown.

The Trump administration has repeatedly asserted that the shutdown will result in thousands of federal employees being laid off, rather than merely furloughed, as has been the case in past funding lapses. Read more.

— Kevin Breuninger

BTIG is warning its clients that a shake-out in the market could be on the horizon, even though stocks are continuing to climb, according to the investment firm's recent note to clients.

"While we are becoming a broken record, we continue to think odds favor a small shakeout even if the primary trend remains firmly bullish," BTIG analyst Jonathan Krinsky said Sunday in the note.

The analyst noted that several areas of the market, including gold, silver and mining stocks as well as shares of healthcare companies, are showing signs they may soon stagnate or even pull back.

Despite BTIG's warning, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% in intraday trading on Monday.

— Liz Napolitano

JPMorgan is taking an optimistic view of Eurozone equities, upgrading the region on Monday to overweight as it looks to benefit from catalysts like German stimulus.

"US, China and Japan have all broken to new highs during the summer, in contrast to flattish Eurozone indices till most recently," said strategist Mislav Matejka in a Monday note. "The period of consolidation has taken out the positioning and expectations overhang, exuberant flows got unwound, and valuations have improved," he continued, adding that the Eurozone's risk-reward profile is "turning for the better" and that "the time is coming up to turn bullish on Eurozone equities."

Notably, the Euro Stoxx 50 has lagged S&P 500 by nearly 18% following its "strong" rally in the first quarter, Matejka said. The strategist reiterated his price target on the Euro Stoxx 50 of 5,800.

"Big picture, the starting point between US and International equity weights, as well as valuation divergence, remain extreme," he also said. "The potential resumption of the rotation into International markets, post the last 6 months pause, could work even if US were to see stagflation fears materialize."

— Sean Conlon

• Verizon Communications — The New York-based telecom provider sank nearly 4% after CEO Hans Vestberg stepped down, replaced by independent lead director and former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.
• Starbucks — The global coffee chain dropped almost 4% after a late September series of North American store closures and layoffs as part of its "Project Bloom" turnaround.
• Critical Metals — The critical mineral project developer surged more than 90% after Reuters reported that the company has discussed the Trump administration taking an equity stake. Critical Metals is developing a rare earths project in Greenland. However, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters that "there is absolutely nothing close with this company at this time."

Read here for the full list of names.

— Scott Schnipper

Tom Lee's exchange-traded fund Fundstrat Granny Shots US Large Cap ETF (GRNY) has surpassed $3 billion in assets under management in less than a year since its inception in November.

GRNY, an actively managed ETF, invests in around 35 high-quality stocks in the S&P 500. The fund, with top holdings such as Robinhood and Oracle, is up 27.8% year to date, outperforming the S&P 500's 14.6% gain.

"Granny shot" is a reference to shooting a basketball underhand at the free throw line where the player releases the ball from below the waist. For Fundstrat, it means identifying stocks that fall under multiple key investment themes over the next five to 10 years. Those themes include energy and cyber security, an AI-category called global labor suppliers, and the impact of millennials.

— Yun Li

The price of bitcoin traded near fresh highs on Monday after the cryptocurrency hit a new intraday all-time high early Sunday of $125,625.57.

Bitcoin — the world's oldest cryptocurrency — last traded 1.8% higher at $124,961 around midday trading. Shares of crypto-related stock rose on the move, with Cipher Mining jumping 4.5%, Coinbase and Strategy each gaining more than 1%, and stablecoin issuer Circle rising about 2.5%.

Ether also hit a high on Sunday of 4,618.72, the highest level since Sept. 19. Solana hit a high on Sunday as well.

— Pia Singh, Gina Francolla

Bank of America urged investors to approach gold cautiously as the precious metal appraoches $4,000 per ounce.

Gold prices have gained 50% this year on President Donald Trump's tariffs, his threats to Federal Reserve Independence, and buying by central banks around the world.

But BofA warned clients Monday that gold faces "uptrend exhaustion" as it approachs $4,000, which could lead to "a consolidation or correction" in the fourth quarter.

— Spencer Kimball

Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones believes the conditions are set for a powerful surge in stock prices before the bull market tops out.

"My guess is that I think all the ingredients are in place for some kind of a blow off," Jones said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday. "History rhymes a lot, so I would think some version of it is going to happen again. If anything, now is so much more potentially explosive than 1999."

The founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment said today's market is reminiscent of the setup leading up to the burst of the dotcom bubble in late 1999, with dramatic rallies in technology shares and heightened speculative behavior. Jones said the circular deals or vendor financing happening in the artificial intelligence space today also made him "nervous." Read more.

— Yun Li

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will remain in his role as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, with a new official to be announced as his top deputy, CNBC's Eamon Javers has learned.

Bessent took over the IRS in August after President Donald Trump removed Billy Long from the post just two months after his confirmation. No prior Treasury secretary also had led the IRS, raising questions over politicization of the tax collection service. Long has since been nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to Iceland.

Though the situation was supposed to be temporary, Trump has decided he wants Bessent to keep control of the agency, sources familiar with the matter tell CNBC. Read more here.

— Jeff Cox

The Russell 2000 index scored a fresh all-time high on Monday, rising about 1% to top the 2,500 level in morning trading.

The small-cap index's rise brings its six-month gain to nearly 37% and its year-to-date advance to more than 12%.

— Sean Conlon

Stocks traded up on Monday, kicking off the start of a new trading week.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 rose 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 57 points, or 0.1%. 

— Sean Conlon

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

AMD — The chipmaker surged more than 23% following a deal reached by OpenAI and Advanced Micro Devices that could see the ChatGPT parent take a 10% stake in AMD.

Comerica, Fifth Third Bancorp — Fifth Third Bancorp announced a $10.9 billion all-stock deal to buy regional bank Comerica, sending shares of the latter bank 12% higher. Fifth Third Bancorp's stock shed 4%.

Boeing — Shares ticked up nearly 1%, shortly after Bloomberg reported that the airplane maker plans to accelerate its production of jets in its 737 Max line. The company could reach a 42-jet output per month for its 737 Maxs as soon as October, the report said.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Verizon announced on Monday that it has appointed its independent lead director, Dan Schulman, as the company's new chief executive officer, effective immediately.

The former PayPal CEO will succeed Hans Vestberg, who had been Verizon CEO since 2018. Vestberg will now serve as a special advisor through Oct. 4, 2026, and will stay on the the company's board of directors until the 2026 Annual Meeting, the company said.

"The Board is thrilled to have Dan as Verizon's next CEO, and embark on a new chapter of growth and sector leadership," Verizon Board Chair Mark Bertolini said in a statement. "Dan is a seasoned and decisive leader with a unique set of experiences, and a proven record of transformative leadership and operational excellence. He is the right leader to chart Verizon's next phase of increased customer focus and financial growth."

Verizon shares were last up 0.5% in premarket trading Monday.

— Sean Conlon

Nvidia's strategic investment in businesses such as OpenAI could boost its stock in coming months, according to Goldman Sachs.

The bank lifted its price target on the AI trade poster child to $210 from $200. That implies a gain of 12% from Friday's close. The bank currently has a buy rating attached to shares of Nvidia. The graphics processing unit maker has rallied 40% this year.

Analyst James Schneider pointed to Nvidia's investments and partnerships with companies such as OpenAI as a driver of further gains. While these partnerships could introduce some degree of uncertainty, the analyst is optimistic that Nvidia's outperformance in other verticals could offset any potential risks.

"We expect near-term strength in Nvidia's fundamentals driven by upside from both hyperscalers and non-traditional customers — and continue to see the hyperscaler revenue contribution dominating the company's revenue mix," he wrote.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Fifth Third Bancorp said Monday it will acquire fellow regional bank Comerica for $10.9 billion in an all-stock deal that will create one of the largest U.S. banks by assets.

When the deal closes, it will create the ninth-largest U.S. bank — with roughly $288 billion in assets. The transaction is expected to finalize in the first quarter of 2026.

"This combination marks a pivotal moment for Fifth Third as we accelerate our strategy to build density in high-growth markets and deepen our commercial capabilities," Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence said in a release.

Comerica shares rallied 11% in the premarket following the announcement. Fifth Third lost about 4%. Read more.

— Fred Imbert

Shares of AMD surged 26% on Monday morning after the company reached a deal with OpenAI that could see the latter company taking a 10% stake in the chipmaker.

The ChatGPT maker said the deal was worth billions, but did not disclose an exact dollar amount. OpenAI said Monday that in the deal, it will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD's Instinct graphics processing units over several years and generations of hardware. The first 1 gigawatt rollout of chips will take place in the latter half of next year.

"AMD's leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster," said Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, in a release announcing the partnership.

The arrangement could further help OpenAI by reducing its reliance on a single vendor.

— MacKenzie Sigalos, Lisa Kailai Han

With the U.S. government going through a shutdown, Jefferies strategist Sherif Hamid thinks markets have less room for error.

"The ongoing shutdown increases the level of uncertainty and should incoming data deviate from the narrow 'Goldilocks' window, we suspect markets could be in for a bit of a rude awakening," Hamid wrote. "That's particularly true given how much of that 'Goldilocks' narrative we are pricing here."

— Fred Imbert

The S&P 500 health care sector surged 6.8% last week to lead the index to record levels. That was the sector's best weekly gain since the week of June 24, 2022, when it surged 8.2%.

Here are the health care stocks that outperformed last week:

• Bio-Techne: up 21%
• Charles River Laboratories: up 19.4%
• Thermo Fisher: up 17%
• Biogen: up 16.4%
• Moderna: up 16.3%

— Fred Imbert

Stock futures rose marginally Sunday night following a winning week on Wall Street. Dow Jones Industrial Average traded about 0.1% higher, along with S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures.

-- Fred Imbert