Stocks Rally With Google, Tesla At The Helm, But Rising Oil Prices Spark Inflation Fears: What's Driving Markets Monday?

Author: Piero Cingari | March 18, 2024 02:01pm

Wall Street started the new week on a strong footing, as all major U.S. indices displayed gains during midday trading on Monday, highlighting investor confidence in the continued growth of AI-driven stocks.

The S&P 500 surged by almost 1%, while the tech-skewed Nasdaq 100 staged an even stronger rebound, climbing 1.3% beyond the 18,000-point mark. Blue-chip stocks saw a modest uptick of 0.4%, while small-cap stocks experienced a slight dip.

The major highlight of the day centered around the prospective AI agreement between Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), with further details provided in this article.

Investors are eagerly anticipating the market-shaping event of Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC 2024) on Monday. The majority of analysts and industry observers anticipate the company to unveil insights into its highly anticipated next-generation AI chip.

Meanwhile, Treasury yields continued their upward trajectory, with the 10-year note surpassing 4.33%, poised to conclude the day at its highest levels since late November 2023.

Oil prices maintained their robust market momentum, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbing by 1.4% to nearly $82 per barrel.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was 2% lower to $67,000, while gold inched 0.2% higher to $2,160/oz.

Monday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-Day Chg%
Nasdaq 100	18,037.86	1.3%
S&P 500	5,165.42	0.9%
Dow Jones	38,906.01	0.5%
Russell 2000	2,044.23	-0.1%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was 0.8% higher to $513.59, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.4% to $388.30, while the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) rallied 1% to $438.11, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

Sector-wise, the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) , was the top performer for the day, up 1.8%, while the Real Estate Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLRE) was the laggard, down 0.2%.

Monday’s Stock Movers

• Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose nearly 6%, marking the best performance in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 for the day, after the EV company announced price hikes for its Model Y in the U.S. and Europe.
• PepsiCo Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) rose over 4%, on track for the strongest daily performance since April 2020, following a bullish note from Morgan Stanley analysts predicting rising sales this year.
• HashiCorp Inc. (NASDAQ:HCP) rose over 6% on reports that the company is considering a sale.
• Science Applications International Corp. (NASDAQ:SAIC) fell nearly 10% after missing earnings forecasts.
• Shift4 Payments Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) fell 9% after its CEO said that buyout bids inadequately valued the company.
• Companies expected to report earnings after market close include Embraer S.A. (NYSE:ERJ) and StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE).

Read now: Fed Meeting Preview: These 2 Wall Street Analysts Still Expect 3 Cuts In 2024, But Bond Market Reflects Growing Uncertainty

Image created using artificial intelligence with Midjourney.

Posted In: $BTC AAPL DIA ERJ FOUR GOOGL HCP NVDA PEP QQQ SAIC SPY STNE TSLA XLB XLC XLE XLK XLRE