Stock market today: Nvidia and other tech stocks pull Wall Street higher

NEW YORK (AP) — Rising technology stocks on Monday are helping U.S. indexes recover more of their holiday-season slide that bridged the new year.

The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in afternoon trading and on track for a second straight gain following five straight losses, its longest losing streak since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost an early gain to slip 15 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher with an hour remaining in trading.

Trading was mixed, and roughly as many stocks were falling in the S&P 500 as rising. Tech companies were the clear leaders, including those swept up in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Nvidia climbed 3.7% ahead of a speech by CEO Jensen Huang at the annual CES convention in Las Vegas after trading ends for the day.

Nvidia and other AI stocks keep climbing even as criticism rises that their stock prices have already shot too high, too fast. Despite worries about a potential bubble, the industry keeps talking up its potential.

Microsoft Vice Chair Brad Smith said on late Friday the company is on track to invest about $80 billion to build out AI-enabled datacenters to train AI models this fiscal year. Smith said AI is the biggest opportunity “to harness new technology to invigorate the nation’s economy” since the invention of electricity. Microsoft rose 0.6%.

Uber Technologies drove 2.7% higher after the ride-hailing app said it would accelerate $1.5 billion in purchases of its own stock, part of a previously announced $7 billion buyback program. Uber’s chief financial officer, Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, said it’s making the move because its stock price looks cheap compared with the strength of its business.

In the old economy, U.S. Steel climbed 6.7% after it and Japan’s Nippon Steel filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s decision to block a proposed nearly $15 billion deal for Nippon to buy its Pittsburgh-based rival.

The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, alleges that it was a political decision and violated the companies’ due process. Japanese leaders have also said there is scant evidence that the merger would create a security concern for the U.S.

This upcoming week will have one fewer day of trading than usual. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will close their stock and options markets on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

But the calendar is nevertheless packed with potentially market-moving events. Tuesday will deliver the latest updates on monthly job openings advertised by U.S. employers and on the health of businesses in the services industries. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its last policy meeting, where it cut its main interest rate for a third straight time but hinted fewer reductions may come in 2025.

Friday will bring the week’s headliner: the monthly jobs report, along with an update on how U.S. consumers are feeling.

So far, the economy has remained remarkably resilient despite high interest rates the Fed instituted in recent years to stifle inflation. A report on Monday said business confidence also has improved since the presidential election, and a measure of activity for services businesses hit its highest level in nearly three years.

“Business activity in the vast services economy surged higher in the closing month of 2024 on fuller order books and rising optimism about prospects for the year ahead,” according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The Fed has also been trying to give the economy an easier time, and it began cutting interest rates in September after inflation pulled nearly all the way down to its 2% target. But getting the last percentage point of improvement from inflation may prove more difficult. Worries are also rising that tariffs and other policies coming from President-elect Donald Trump could put upward pressure on inflation.

Treasury yields have climbed in the bond market as a result. That can hurt stock prices because higher-paying bonds can peel away investors who otherwise might buy stocks.

At Morgan Stanley, strategist Michael Wilson says the sweet spot for U.S. stocks is likely a yield of between 4.00% and 4.50% for the 10-year Treasury. It drove above that level in mid-December and has remained there. It’s up to 4.61%, up from 4.60% late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. France's CAC 40 jumped 2.2%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 slumped 1.5%.

___

AP Writers Matt Ott, Zimo Zhong and Mari Yamaguchi contributed.