Stock market today: Nasdaq, S&P 500 rally as Nvidia, Tesla, Google lead Big Tech surge

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US stocks surged on Monday to start the shortened Thanksgiving trading week as US policymakers buoyed hopes for an interest-rate cut in December and AI optimism fueled the tech trade.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was up almost 2.7%, its biggest daily jump since May. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced more than 1.5%, as Wall Street stocks started to extend Friday’s bounce. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which includes fewer tech stocks, put on nearly 0.5%.

Stocks notched another recovery from the pullback that has cooled this year’s AI-driven market rally. Analysts have suggested the end is near for a retreat that has driven notable losses in November, as well as turbulence.

Nvidia (NVDA) jumped more than 1.5%, while Alphabet (GOOG) closed above a record north of $300 for the first time ever. Tesla (TSLA) gained 7% on the heels of a bullish analyst call.

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) also rose as it looked to bust out of a month-long slump. It was last seen hovering above $89,000 after falling near $80,000 late last week.

Investors are heading into the shortened Thanksgiving trading week still debating the odds of an interest-rate cut. On Monday, Christopher Waller joined another influential policymaker, John Williams, in setting the stage for Federal Reserve easing next month.

Delayed economic data releases will start to flow in this week, helping with those calculations. On Tuesday, markets get September updates on producer prices and retail sales, and a November reading of consumer confidence, among other data.

On the earnings front, Alibaba (BABA), and retailers Kohl’s (KSS) and Best Buy (BBY) are the highlights as the season winds down this week.

President Trump’s tariffs are also in play, as top US and EU trade officials meet for their first talks since the two sides reached a deal in July. Markets are weighing how the Supreme Court might jump in its ruling on whether the orders imposing tariffs were legal. The Commerce Department and the Office of the US Trade Representative are reportedly preparing a roadmap if the decision goes against the administration.

LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER 19 updates

  • Stocks rally as Alphabet, Tesla surge on AI optimism

    US stocks gained, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) jumping 2.7%, the most since May as speculation over a Fed interest rate cut in December grew and AI optimism propelled tech higher.

    The S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced more than 1.5%, extending Friday’s gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.4%.

    Alphabet (GOOG) rose to a fresh record high over optimism about its next version of its AI Gemini tool, while EV maker Tesla (TSLA) surged 7% amid a bullish call from Wall Street.

  • Bitcoin rises above $88,000 as risk-on appetite grows

    Bitcoin rose above $88,000 on Monday, surging as expectations of a Fed rate cut grow.

    The token has bounced back from a low of $81,000 on Friday but is still down more than 28% from its October all-time high of $126,000.

    The recent reversal comes as Fed officials have come out with dovish comments, signaling to investors that a 25 basis point cut was likely coming in December. Still, strategists at 10X Research believe the bounce back could fade into the Dec 17 policy meeting.

    “Even if the Fed cuts in December, it is likely to be a hawkish cut, meaning this rally should be viewed as a short-term, oversold reaction amid extreme fear rather than the start of a sustainable V-shaped recovery,” according to a 10X Research client note on Sunday.

    The firm cited ETF outflows of $3.5 billion for November, suggesting that institutional investors may be sitting on the sidelines.

  • Tech leads stock market rally

    Tech stocks surged on Monday, leading the overall market rally as megacaps outperformed.

    Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) surged more than 5% on pace for a fresh record high, while EV maker Tesla (TSLA) gained 7%. Social media giant Meta (AVGO) rallied 3%, along with Broadcom (AVGO) surging 10%.

    Stocks reach session highs as expectations of a December Fed rate cut grew. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley strategists also looked past recent market volatility, expressing their bullish views for equities heading into 2026.

  • Tesla stock pops as Melius says it’s a ‘must own’ due to FSD, Musk touts AI chip progress

    Tesla (TSLA) stock popped 7% in midday trading on Monday after a note from Melius Research made the case that the stock is a “must own.” Shares also received a boost after CEO Elon Musk posted on X that the company’s own AI4 chip is currently in Tesla vehicles and that it’s preparing its next generation of AI chips.

    Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian reports:

    Read more here.

  • Congress is considering pre-disclosing their stock trades. Some see a distraction from the need for a ban.

    Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports:

    Read the full story here.

  • Nvidia rises as Trump mulls approval of H200 exports to China

    Nvidia shares climbed 2% on Monday as President Trump is set to decide whether to allow the company to export its H200 AI chips to China.

    The H200s are much more powerful than the H20 chips Nvidia is currently allowed to export to China under US trade rules. The US government effectively banned sales of Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips to the country in 2022 under Biden.

    The H20 chips have faced their fair share of turmoil, however. In April, President Trump introduced surprise export controls on Nvidia’s H20 chips, but later reversed them in exchange for 15% of more of the company’s revenue from sales to the country. But the move prompted blowback from China, as the country responded by banning Chinese tech firms from buying H20 chips.

    Nvidia’s revenue-sharing agreement with the US government has not yet been formalized, per the chipmaker’s latest quarterly filing to the SEC.

    The company’s China business fell flat in the third quarter.

    “While we were disappointed in the current state that prevents us from shipping more competitive data center compute products to China, we are committed to continued engagement with the US and China governments, and will continue to advocate for America’s ability to compete around the world,” CFO Colette Kress said during the company’s earnings call on Nov. 19.

    Trump previously teased that he would discuss Nvidia’s Blackwell chips during trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October, raising hopes about allowances for Nvidia to sell a lower-power version of its latest AI chip designs to the country — but the US president later walked back that commentary.

  • Michael Burry shifts from hedge fund to Substack

    Michael Burry — the famed “Big Short” investor who accurately predicted the collapse of the US real estate bubble in 2008 — has longed for his days writing commentary about the stock market in 1999 while working as a neurology resident physician at Stanford.

    So he shut down his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, earlier this month and launched a Substack on Sunday.

    Burry’s Substack, “Cassandra Unchained,” is the latest newsletter — and perhaps the highest profile — to take aim at the AI bubble. Others from tech commentators Gary Marcus and Ed Zitron have existed for a few years.

    Burry argues that the AI bubble is just like the dot-com bubble, with “catastrophically overbuilt supply” of internet infrastructure (then) and AI infrastructure (now), but “nowhere near enough demand” for the tech. He described both bubbles as “manic investment booms.”

  • Oracle credit default swaps hit 3-year high

    The price of five-year Oracle (ORCL) credit default swaps on Monday climbed to their highest level since October 2022, per Bloomberg.

    The annual cost to insure $10 million of Oracle’s debt against default jumped to 1.19%, or about $119,000 per year, according to Bloomberg, citing data from ICE Data Services.

    Oracle’s credit default swaps are financial contracts that act like insurance on the AI cloud firm’s debt. When their price rises, it signals that investors believe there is a higher likelihood that Oracle will default on its debt obligations.

    Oracle has issued $25.8 billion in investment-grade debt this year, per Bloomberg data. Investors have become skeptical of the AI bubble as some Big Tech players have begun to use debt to fund their AI projects — in addition to Oracle, there’s Meta, xAI, and most recently, Amazon.

    Both Oracle’s 10-year and 30-year bonds issued in September were trading below par on Monday. The former traded at roughly $0.98 on the dollar, while the latter traded at $0.93 on the dollar.

    The stock rose fractionally Monday amid a broader rebound in tech stocks.

  • Alphabet set for fresh record as Gemini 3 helps boost AI position

    Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) shares aimed for yet another record high on Monday and were set to close above $300 for the first time.

    The stock hit an intraday high of $317.75 in morning trading.

    Alphabet had already jumped to two fresh highs over the course of last week, defying the broader downturn in tech stocks amid investor fears over an AI bubble. The advance comes after the release of Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3, on Nov. 18. Experts have said the model is ahead of those of rivals OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT).

    Wall Street analysts have been bullish on Alphabet following the Gemini 3 launch, with several reiterating Buy ratings on the stock on Monday.

    “After a period of pressure from regulatory overhangs, increasing competition in search and advertising, and lack of clarity on its long-term AI positioning, GOOGL shares have begun to recover – and we see more room for multiple expansion as the company demonstrates its AI prowess,” said BNP Paribas analyst Nick Jones in a note to investors Monday, reinstating coverage of Alphabet with an Outperform rating and $355 price target.

    Also adding fuel to the stock’s run-up, Google also announced a multimillion-dollar Cloud deal with NATO on Monday.

  • Nasdaq leads surge in stocks at the open

    Tech led gains in US stocks on Monday, boosting hopes for a rebound from broad losses in November.

    The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added more than 1%, extending gains from Friday to help recover from declines earlier last week. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced roughly 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) edged up 0.3%.

  • Morgan Stanley sees pullback in US stocks coming to an end

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • Bitcoin funds head for worst month as $3.5 billion pulled

    Bitcoin (BTC-USD) traded near the $86,000 level on Monday morning, about 30% off its all-time high following a major downturn for the cryptocurrency.

    And according to Bloomberg, bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are heading for their worst month of outflows since launching nearly two years ago.

    From Bloomberg:

    Read more here.

  • Novo Nordisk says Alzheimer’s drug trial fails, hammering shares

    Novo Nordisk (NVO) stock fell 10% before the bell on Monday after the pharmaceutical company said its Alzheimer’s drug failed to meet its goal in late-stage trials.

    Reuters reports:

    Read more here.

  • Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.

  • Defense stocks in Europe drop to a near 2-month low

    Bloomberg reports:

    A key driver of this year’s gains in European stocks is falling back fast.

    Rheinmetall AG (RHM.DE, RNMBF) and other defense names resumed recent declines on Monday amid signs of progress in talks to secure Ukraine’s support for a US-backed peace plan ahead of Thursday’s deadline. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. basket of the stocks is now down about 24% from its early October peak.

    According to Graeme Bencke, a fund manager at Amati Global Investors Ltd., there’s been a change in market sentiment toward the Russian conflict in Ukraine.

    “Some investors increasingly believe the conflict will be resolved in the coming months after actions taken by the Trump administration to appease Russia,” he wrote in emailed comments. Still, “the conflict, and the US attitude change towards NATO, has led to a permanent shift in Europe’s approach to defense spending which will not reverse even if the conflict ends,” he said.

    The recent declines have taken the froth off a huge rally in European defense stocks that began around the time Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The gains extended this year as European governments have rushed to boost military spending.

    Read more here.

  • Premarket trending tickers: Tesla, Eli Lilly and WeRide

    Tesla (TSLA) stock rose 1.8% before the bell on Monday after CEO Elon Musk said on X that the electric-vehicle maker already had designed AI chips for its cars and data centers.

    Eli Lilly (LLY) stock fell 2% in premarket trading on Monday. The healthcare company saw its maret capitalization top $1 trillion for the first time ever last week.

    WeRide (WRD) stock jumped 7% before the bell on Monday after reporting a rise in its revenue within its latest earnings report. The revenue rise was mainly due to its global fleet expansion.

  • Economic data returns, retail earnings feature in holiday-shortened week: What to watch this week

    Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley takes a look at the week ahead.

    Jake writes:

    As November wraps up, a holiday-shortened week of trading — courtesy of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday — will greet investors who continue to wrestle with the fallout from Nvidia’s (NVDA) blockbuster earnings report alongside flagging confidence in the overall AI-driven market. …

    A strong September jobs report, strong earnings from Nvidia, and a positive third quarter report from Walmart were all greeted on Thursday by one of the market’s biggest intraday reversals of the last decade, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC) flipping from a gain above 1.5% at the opening bell to a loss of more than 1.5% by market close. The swing in the Nasdaq was even greater.

    In the week ahead, the economic calendar will continue to pick up steam as the government works through a data backlog following the resolution of the shutdown earlier this month.

    Data on producer prices in September from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau’s retail sales data for the same month will be highlights, with both reports due out Tuesday amid a rush of data ahead of the Thanksgiving weekend. Investors will also keep a close eye on The Conference Board’s consumer confidence reading for November, due out Tuesday.

    In the corporate world, a relatively quiet week of earnings awaits investors. Alibaba Holdings (BABA), Dell Technologies (DELL), and a smattering of retailers including Kohl’s (KSS) and Best Buy (BBY) will headline the calendar for the week.

    Read more here.

  • Alibaba’s main AI app debuts strongly in effort to rival ChatGPT

    Shares of Alibaba (BABA) rose in premarket trading, echoing gains for the Hong Kong-listed stock (9988.HK), as investors cheered upbeat figures for its Qwen AI app.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • Gold slides as potential rate-cut lowers haven demand

    Gold (GC=F) prices slipped as demand for the precious metal lowered with investors looking toward a potential rate-cut from the Federal Reserve in December.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.