S&P 500 rises, led by tech; Dow climbs to fresh record

The S&P 500 rose on Monday, boosted by technology stocks, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached new heights as investors awaited critical economic data and another batch of earnings reports following a volatile week that ended with the 30-stock index reaching a key milestone.

The broad-based index rose 0.5%, while the blue-chip Dow was last trading around the flatline after earlier scoring a fresh all-time intraday high. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1%.

Nvidia and Broadcom were standouts yet again Monday, extending their gains from the previous session with an advance of 3% and 4%, respectively. Shares of fellow artificial intelligence player Oracle were up 10% after receiving an upgrade to buy from neutral at D.A. Davidson due to optimism around OpenAI and its beneficiaries.

The developments come after the major averages rebounded Friday, with the Dow exceeding 50,000 for the first time ever, following sizable losses suffered earlier in the week. The rout was sparked by a sell-off in tech, led by software stocks. Bitcoin also plunged before recovering some as investors took a risk-off posture.

“Investors are saying, ‘Okay, we had a tremendous bounce back. Does that have staying power? Is this something that I could get sucked into and only end up getting trounced, or is this really another buying opportunity?’” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research.