Wall Street opened higher on Monday, clawing back some of last week’s losses, as a landmark IPO filing from artificial intelligence company Anthropic lifted the battered tech sector and oil prices pulled back from their recent highs.
In early trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 212 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%. All three indexes are coming off a losing week, after a spike in oil prices and a broad sell-off in technology shares. On Friday, the Dow closed at 52,215.16, the S&P 500 at 7,623.68 and the Nasdaq at 25,955.34.
Anthropic is going public
The biggest story of the morning is Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, which publicly filed for an initial public offering and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ANT,” according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It would be the first of the major AI model makers to test the public market, and investors treated the news as a shot in the arm for the whole sector.
Chip stocks rose in early trading: Nvidia gained 1.4%, Micron jumped 2.3%, Broadcom added 1.5% and Advanced Micro Devices climbed 1.3%.
Why it matters: the AI boom has driven much of the stock market’s gains in recent years, but the past two weeks brought sharp losses as investors questioned whether the enormous sums being spent on AI data centers will pay off. A successful Anthropic debut would signal that public investors still have an appetite for AI, and it would give ordinary investors their first chance to own a piece of one of the companies at the center of the boom.
Not every AI name is rising. Shares of so-called neocloud companies, which rent out computing power to AI firms, fell again after Elon Musk predicted that companies in the space without other sources of revenue face “guppy-level death and consolidation.” CoreWeave dropped more than 5% in premarket trading, while Iren fell more than 4% and Nebius Group lost 3.8%. Musk confirmed in a social media post that SpaceX has closed on a $40 billion debt raise tied to a deal with an Apollo Global Management-run company to lease data center hardware and AI chips.
A make-or-break week: the Fed, tech earnings and inflation data
The next few days could set the market’s direction into the end of the year.
The Federal Reserve announces its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday. Fed funds futures trading implies a roughly 90% chance the central bank holds its benchmark rate steady at the current 3.75% to 4% range. But with inflation running well above the Fed’s 2% target, many economists expect Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh to deliver a “hawkish pause,” holding rates steady while signaling that increases could still come. CME’s FedWatch tool currently shows an 84% probability of a quarter-point hike in December.
Thursday brings the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures index, which economists expect to show prices rose at a 3.7% annual rate in September, well above the Fed’s target. The government’s first estimate of third-quarter economic growth arrives the same day.
Then there are earnings. More than a third of S&P 500 companies, 179 in total, report quarterly results this week. The spotlight is on Big Tech: Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet report Wednesday after the closing bell, and Amazon reports Thursday afternoon. Investors want proof that the billions these companies are pouring into AI are building real profits.
In a sign of how expensive that buildout has become, Meta on Monday launched offerings of about $35 billion in common stock and convertible preferred shares to fund its AI expansion, the company announced, with plans for another $60 billion program in 2027. Meta shares fell as much as 4% before reversing to trade higher.
Why it matters: the Fed’s decision feeds directly into what households pay on mortgages, credit cards and car loans, and what savers earn at the bank. A hawkish message would mean borrowing costs stay high for longer.
Oil pulls back as diplomats head to Tehran
Oil prices, a major source of the market’s recent anxiety, eased on Monday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 1.4% to $115.02 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate slid 2% to $101.01. Brent settled Friday at its highest level since April, capping a week of rising concern over possible U.S. or Israeli strikes on Iran following the midterm elections.
High-level delegations from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey are in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian authorities aimed at averting a return to open fighting, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said. President Trump said Sunday that it is getting to be “decision time” on whether to strike a deal with Tehran.
Why it matters: oil has surged from less than $97 a barrel in early October, and that increase filters into the cost of gasoline, shipping and groceries. A sustained pullback would offer households some relief just as the Fed weighs whether inflation is under control.
Around the world
Asian markets were mixed overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% to close at 62,189.65, its third straight decline, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 23,211.81 and the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.19% to 3,697.52. South Korean shares fell more than 1%. Markets in Taiwan and New Zealand were closed for holidays.
Europe was mostly higher in late-morning trading: Germany’s DAX rose about 1% to 25,438.59, France’s CAC 40 added 0.9% to 7,852.71 and Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.5% to 10,744.30.
Shares with ties to Brazil slid after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated Flavio Bolsonaro in Sunday’s election. Beverage giant Ambev tumbled more than 12% in premarket trading, Nu Holdings dropped more than 25% and Vale fell 3%.
Bonds, gold and the dollar
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held around 4.99% in early trading, little changed after a three-week decline that brought it near one-month lows. Gold held above the $4,000-an-ounce mark, trading near $4,010, as softer oil prices eased some inflation concerns. The dollar rose to 157.38 Japanese yen, while the euro slipped to $1.1201.
What to watch today
Anthropic’s IPO filing is the kind of information many investors did not know they were waiting for: it will open the books of one of the world’s most important AI companies for the first time. Watch whether the early strength in tech holds through the afternoon, and keep an eye on oil. With the Fed on Wednesday, the month’s biggest inflation report on Thursday and the heart of earnings season all week, Monday’s calm open may not last.
JBizNews Desk | Wall Street
© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
