Nasdaq Composite closes 2% higher Monday as tech stocks’ revival lifts major averages: Live updates (2024)

Stocks closed higher across the board.

• Theclimbed 1.41% to end at 4,763.54.
• TheNasdaq Compositeadvanced 2.2% to settle at 14,843.77.
• TheDow Jones industrial Averagegained 216.9 points, or nearly 0.6%, to close at 37,683.01.

— Pia Singh

Ariel Investments' Charles Bobrinskoy believes that investors are too optimistic for their own good right now.

"You pay a big price for a cheery consensus," the investor said on CNBC's The Exchange, citing a Warren Buffett quote. "We went from a lot of pessimism, a lot of certainty that we were going to have a recession to a lot of optimism ... and there's way too much consensus that there's not going to be a recession, interest rates are going to drop and the stock market's going to do well."

While the investor generally agrees with the positive consensus, he added the caveat that too much optimism makes him nervous. "Things can still go wrong often for reasons that we don't expect," he said.

Bobrinskoy added that he's currently most worried about the Chinese market, citing possible headwinds such as a residential real estate collapse and a possible Taiwan blockade.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The recent strength in financial stocks is helping boost the relative performance of value stocks over growth names, according to Strategas Securities' technical analyst Chris Verrone in a note to clients Monday.

More than four out of five financial stocks in the S&P 500 are in an uptrend, as measured by their 50-day moving averages topping their 200-day moving averages, the best of any S&P 500 sector, Strategas said. "The persistent leadership from the sector remains an asset in our work as Banks continue to act well into earnings, along with the Brokers, Investment Managers, Life Insurers, Consumer Finance names, and more recently, even the long-beleaguered Payment Processing stocks are firming."

Over the past month, S&P 500 consumer finance stocks have jumped 11.2% and are higher by 30.1% over the past three months; S&P 500 banks are up 8.2% in one month and 24.4% in three; equity real estate investment trusts are ahead 4.3% in one month and 17.8% in three.

Financial stocks are showing "significant improvement ... and currently sport the highest % of issues in an uptrend," Verrone noted.

3-month performance of S&P 500 financial stocks.

U.S. crude oil fell more than 4% on Monday after Saudi Arabia slashed prices for its key crude product, renewing concerns that global demand is weakening.

The West Texas Intermediate futures contract for February lost $3.04, or 4.12%, to settle at $70.77. The Brent futures contract for March shed $2.64, or 3.35%, to settle at $76.12.

The selloff came after Saudi Aramco slashed prices for Arab Light crude to Asian customers by $2 a barrel.

The Saudis are trying to defend their market share in the face of record U.S. production and cheap barrels from Iran and Russia, said Bob Yawger, energy futures strategist at Mizuho.

"Obviously they're hitting the panic button a little," Yawger told CNBC.

"You're getting closer and closer to a 2020 situation here where they try to claw back market share by cutting everything to bare bones minimum and sparking a price war," he said.

— Spencer Kimball

Energy stocks restricted gains for the on Monday.

The broad market index advanced more than 1% in the session, with 10 of 11 of its sectors trading higher. Energy was the sole laggard, dropping more than 1.5%.

Baker Hughes and Schlumberger led the sector down, falling more than 3% each. Marathon Oil, EOG Resources and Halliburton were the next worst performers, with all sliding more than 2.5%.

Marathon Petroleum was able to buck the trend, climbing nearly 2%. With a gain of 0.2%, Kinder Morgan was the only other energy name on pace for gains in the session.

— Alex Harring

Morgan Stanley has downgraded the European energy sector to "in line" for 2024 as the oil and gas markets have turned soft.

Analyst Martijn Rats argued that the case for outperformance for the sector has weakened. Third quarter earnings were disappointing, the OPEC production cuts have failed to impress the market and expectations for a cold winter have proven elusive, Rats wrote.

Rats sees negative revisions to estimates for earnings and shareholder distributions this year. Still, he views TotalEnergies and BP as top picks in the energy space.

TotalEnergies has a diversified portfolio with a rare combination of thriving old and new energies, according to Rats. BP has significant room for upside if its quarterly performance improves and concerns over its direction diminish.

Morgan Stanley has a price target of $79.70 for TotalEnergies, implying 17% upside. BP has a target of $46.80 suggesting 31% upside.

— Spencer Kimball

Berkshire Hathawaysettled a billion-dollar lawsuit with theHaslamfamily over how Berkshire accounted for the value of Pilot Travel Centers, which would affect the price paid in a forced buyout of the family's remaining stake in that truck-stop giant, both sides said Sunday night.

The settlement, whose terms were not disclosed, avoided a two-day trial to resolve the dispute that had been scheduled to begin Monday in Delaware Chancery Court.

The trial would have been a rare one involving Berkshire Hathaway. Greg Abel, who has been designated by Berkshire as the successor to longtime CEO Warren Buffett, was expected to testify at the trial.

— Dan Mangan, Yun Li

Crypto related equities rose Monday afternoon as the price of bitcoin climbed to its highest level since April 2022.

Crypto exchange Coinbase rose 3%, while Block and Robinhood, which also offer bitcoin trading services, added 3% and 5%, respectively. Mining stocks enjoyed bigger gains. Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms advanced 8% each. CleanSpark and Iris Energy both added 6%.

On Monday bitcoin rallied more than 6% to above $47,000 as BlackRock, Grayscale and other potential bitcoin ETF issuers submitted final updates to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including key fee disclosures that bolstered investors confidence that an approval is more likely than not.

— Tanaya Macheel

The SEC's imminent decision on whether to allow spot bitcoin ETFs to trade in the U.S. have big implications for bitcoin but it's unclear what the impact will be on Coinbase.

Barclays raised its price target on the stock from $67 to $110 on Monday but maintained its underweight rating, as did Raymond James.

"We remain unconvinced that this surge in trading activity is sustainable," Barclays analyst Benjamin Budish said in a note, "and continue to see risk that crypto asset trading could increasingly move off of crypto exchanges and into ETFs, which could put meaningful pressure on Coinbase's transaction take rate."

Meanwhile, Needham remained bullish on the stock, naming it a top pick for 2024 with the potential to "maintain an elevated retail trading take rate." It reiterated its buy rating and raised its price target from $160 to $180.

— Tanaya Macheel

Berenberg analyst Kerry Holford estimates large pharma companies have $26 billion of unallocated cash ready to deploy for dealmaking or business development before making a move to boost their leverage. That should give the industry sufficient firepower to keep the recent M&A boom going, according to the analyst.

The last few weeks have been particularly busy ones in the sector, with planned acquisition of Ambrx Biopharma, the lastest announcement.

Holford named Merck, Roche and Sanofi as three companies that likely have the capacity to strike deals this year.

"Therapeutic category 'hot spots' included oncology (focused on antibody drug conjugates and radioligand therapies), neuroscience (focused on schizophrenia), autoimmune (focused on inflammatory bowel diseases), rare diseases and obesity," Holford wrote.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

The first five trading sessions of the year, considered a predictor for how markets will perform going forward, looks set to flash a bearish signal.

The S&P 500 on Monday was headed for a loss for the first five trading days of January after megacap tech stocks such as Apple pulled back last week, weighing on the major averages. The broader index was last down by about 1% for the month.

Chris Larkin, managing director at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley, said that would imply near-term weakness could continue for the broader index, in the month of February.

"Unless the S&P 500 closes today above 4,769.83, the index will have a negative return for the first five trading days of the year, something that has been followed by a negative February 73% of the time since 1957," Larkin wrote Monday.

Meanwhile, Bank of America Securities' Stephen Suttmeier on Thursday noted the S&P 500 advance for the year, and the February through December period, is better when the broader index rallies in the first five trading days of January, citing data going back to 1928.

"When the first five sessions of the year are up, the year is up 75% of the time with an 11.2% average return," Suttmeier wrote. "When the first five sessions are down, the year is up 50.0% of the time with an average return of 1.1%."

Elsewhere, the Stock Trader's Almanac's Jeff Hirsch on Thursday said the January selling, while more typical in an election year, is "notable and a warning sign."

— Sarah Min

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler reiterated some of his previous cautionary statements to investors about cryptocurrencies on Monday, ahead of a looming decision by the SEC on bitcoin ETFs.

In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Gensler warned that companies offering crypto investments may not be following the law and that the investments could be "exceptionally risky."

"Those offering crypto asset investments/services may not be complying w/ applicable law, including federal securities laws. Investors in crypto asset securities should understand they may be deprived of key info & other important protections in connection w/ their investment," Gensler said in one of the posts.

The SEC Chair did not mention any particular firm or cryptocurrency in his series of posts. The SEC under Gensler has cracked down on crypto firms, including major exchanges like Binance, but did lose a court case last year about its attempt to block a bitcoin ETF.

— Jesse Pound

The Dow underperformed on Monday as a selloff in Boeing shares dragged on the blue-chip average.

The 30-stock Dow shed 0.1% in the session and was the only of the three major indexes touching negative territory. By comparison, the added 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.5%.

The Dow, 1-day

Boeing led the average down, tumbling more than 6%. The move came as investors reacted to the grounding of dozens of Max 737 9s after a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight.

Chevron and JPMorgan were the next worst performers, down more than 1% each.

Those slides outweighed notable gains seen among other Dow members. Intel and Salesforce, the two best performers, each climbed more than 3% in the session. Apple and Walgreens followed, with both adding more than 1.5%.

— Alex Harring

Nvidia's stock popped more than 4% to trade near an all-time high after revealing three new AI chips aimed at running AI from home. Shares also headed for their best day since August.

The new graphics processing units, known as the RTX 4060 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super and RTX 4080 Super, will range in price between $599 and $999. While primarily designed for gaming, the graphics cards can also power AI applications and run on PCs and laptops.

These chips will also comply with the export controls on China.

Nvidia hits all-time high

These are the stocks moving the most in midday trading:

• Nvidia— The chipmaker popped 4% to an all-time high as Nvidia announcedthree new graphics chips that can on PCs or laptops and are able to power AI at home.
• Boeing— Shares of the aerospace and defense giant lost more than 6% after a door panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9blew out midair during an Alaska Airlines flight, leading the Federal Aviation Administration toground dozens of the planes.
• Alaska Air Group— The airline slid nearly 6% following the Boeing incident and announcements that it hadcanceled dozens of flightsafter grounding its 737 Max 9 fleet.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The dropped 1.5% as investors digested the latest news about Boeing planes.

Monday's slide comes after a weekend of chaos in the air travel industry. A door plug blew out in an Alaska Airlines plane during a Friday flight, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to ground dozens of Boeing Max 737 9 jetliners. Alaska canceled more than 200 flights following the order.

The ITA ETF, 1-day

Spirit AeroSystems, the maker of 737 Max fuselages, led the fund down with a drop of nearly 8%. Boeing was the next biggest loser, sliding 6.8%.

— Alex Harring, Leslie Josephs

Oil prices fell more than 3% on Monday after Saudi Arabia slashed key crude prices amid worries that the market is oversupplied.

The West Texas Intermediate contract lost $2.54, or 3.44%, to trade at $71.27 a barrel. The Brent contract for March fell $2.49, or 3.16%, to trade at $76.27 a barrel.

Saudi Aramco cut its official selling price by $2 a barrel, according to Reuters. The price cut comes as OPEC and its allies are slashing crude production this quarter in an effort to support the market in the face of record production in the U.S.

Crude prices settled higher for the first week of 2024 on rising tensions in the Middle East, but supply and demand concerns have persistently overshadowed geopolitical risks in the market.

— Spencer Kimball

Consumer inflation expectations continued to trend lower in December, with the one-year outlook hitting its lowest since January 2021, according to a New York Federal Reserve survey released Monday.

The central bank's Survey of Consumer Expectations saw expectations decline at the one-year horizon to 3%, down from 3.4% a month ago. The three-year outlook dipped to 2.6% from 3%, while the five-year horizon slipped to 2.5%, down 0.2 percentage point from November.

Expectations for food and rent costs declined, while the outlook for gasoline was unchanged at 4.5%. Household spending expectations nudged down to 5%, off 0.2 percentage point from the previous month.

—Jeff Cox

Twilio shares popped more than 7% amid news that company's co-founder Jeff Lawson will step down as CEO.

"The time has come for me to pass the reins of this extraordinary company to a new CEO to lead Twilio through its next chapter," Lawson said in ablog postannouncing the change," he wrote.

The enterprise communications software company's faced pushback in recent weeks from two activist investors pressing for changes at Twilio. Longtime executive Khozema Shipchandler will strep in as CEO.

Twilio shares pop as CEO steps down

NVDA rises to record

Here's how the major indexes opened:

• The added 0.1%.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%.
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.

— Pia Singh

These are some of the companies making the most significant moves before the bell:

• Boeing — The stock sank nearly 8% as the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a temporary grounding of roughly 171 of the company's 737 Max 9 aircrafts for inspection after a section of an aircraft blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight.
• Alaska Air Group — The airline stock also dropped more than 5% after the midair incident. Alaska Air canceled dozens of flights on Sunday and Monday. United Airlines fell about 2% after also grounding that fleet.
• Axonics — The medical technology stock rallied more than 21% after agreeing to be acquired by Boston Scientific for $71 a share, or about $3.7 billion in equity value.

Read the full list of stocks on the move here.

— Samantha Subin

Multiple ETF issuers filed updated registration statements for bitcoin ETFs on Monday morning that included key fee information, a sign that approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission could come within days.

Asset management giant BlackRock said in its filing that its ETF would have an annualized fee of 0.30%, with a temporary waiver so that the fee is just 0.20% for the first $5 billion of assets during the first year of the fund.

The Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF is proposing an even lower fee, at 0.25% annualized. That fund's temporary fee waiver will knock that to zero for the first six months or the first $1 billion in assets. Notably, this is down from 0.80% in previous filings, a sign that competition in the ETF market is already driving down the fees.

The latest updated registrations are believe to be the last round of changes before the SEC makes a decision on whether to approve bitcoin ETFs. More than 10 firms are vying to launch a fund.

The SEC must first make a decision on rule change applications to allow a bitcoin ETF, which is expected this week. The regulator then can approve individual fund filings, after which fund launches could quickly follow.

— Jesse Pound

Shares of Lululemon were down more than 2% in the premarket even after the athleisure company raised its fourth-quarter earnings guidance.

The apparel maker sees earnings per share between $4.96 and $5. That's up from a previous range of $4.85 per share to $4.93 per share.

"Our sales trend remains balanced across channels, categories, and geographies, enabling us to raise our guidance for the fourth quarter and close out another strong year," CFO Meghan Frank said in a statement.

— Fred Imbert

Shares of Boeing fell in premarket trade Monday, as markets digested the news that the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered a temporary grounding of dozens ofBoeing737 Max 9 aircraft.

Shares were down around 8.43% at 6:45 a.m. ET.

Meanwhile, Airbus shares rose 2.45% Monday morning in France, bucking the downward trend in Europe.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday said around 171 Boeing planes worldwide would be affected by its emergency airworthiness directive, which requires aircraft to be inspected before flying again.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, noted that Friday's blowout incident is the latest in a "string of problems for the company," and suggested airlines using 737 Max planes will be "thinking long and hard about their future aircraft requirements."

Read the full story here.

- Elliot Smith

The electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing arm of property developer China Evergrande has called for a trading halt pending a company announcement.

In a filing to the Hong Kong Exchange, Evergrande New Energy Vehicle said the announcement was "in relation to inside information of the company." It did not provide more details.

Evergrande NEV fell more than 18% last week, after the company revealed its planned share sale to U.S.-listed NWTN had been scrapped.

Bank of Korea will hold the first central bank meeting of the year among major Asia economies on Thursday.

South Korea's central bank is expected to hold interest rates steady at 3.50% for its eighth straight meeting.

"We expect the decision to be unanimous and the Board to retain the wording 'maintain a restrictive policy stance for a sufficiently long period of time' in its forward guidance," HSBC economist, Jin Choi wrote in a client note.

Choi said even if the BOK holds rates, there might be a change in tone which could hint at a possible easing in the near term that some market participants' expect, but warned that "inflation is likely still too high for a near-term start of easing."

The central bank's inflation target is 2%.

—Shreyashi Sanyal

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered a temporary grounding of dozens ofBoeing737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, a day after a piece of the aircraft blew out in the middle of anAlaska Airlinesflight.

Images and video of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that were shared on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers using oxygen masks before it returned to Portland shortly after taking off for Ontario, California, on Friday afternoon.

The FAA's emergency airworthiness directive will affect about 171 planes worldwide and applies to U.S. airlines and carriers operating in U.S. territory, the agency said.Alaska and United Airlines said late Saturday that they were grounding their entire fleets of Boeing 737 Max 9s.

— Leslie Josephs

Congressional leaders announced a $1.59 trillion deal on top-line spending Sunday as the government races to avoid a potential shutdown.

— Samantha Subin, Christina Wilkie

Total U.S. consumer credit in November is expected to have risen to $8.0 billion, according to economists polled by Dow Jones. That would be a rise from $5.2 billion in the prior reading.

The data is set to release 3 p.m. ET.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures opened little changed Sunday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 38 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.02% and 0.05%, respectively.

— Sarah Min