Wall Street Rallies on AI Strength and Trump's Tariff Threat; Tesla's OpenAI Bid Surfaces

Wall Street ends higher on AI strength; steelmakers climb on Trump tariff threat

Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Monday, lifted by Nvidia and other AI-related stocks, while steelmakers surged after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Trump's latest potential trade barrier escalation came on Sunday when he said he would introduce 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, on top of existing duties on the metals. U.S. metals producers that would benefit from steel and aluminum tariffs rallied. Nucor, U.S. Steel and Steel Dynamics rose more than 4% each. Cleveland-Cliffs jumped 18%, Century Aluminum rallied 10% and Alcoa rose about 2%. AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom climbed 2.9% and 4.5%, respectively. Amazon gained 1.7%. "Investors are basically saying, 'Hey, let's go back into the areas that worked.' And one reason that investors are optimistic, in my opinion, is because of earnings," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. Tesla ended down 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that a consortium of investors led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls artificial-intelligence startup OpenAI. With fourth-quarter reporting season over halfway through, S&P 500 companies are expected to have posted year-over-year earnings growth of 14.8%, up from expectations of less than 10% at the start of 2025, according to LSEG I/B/E/S. Heavyweight technology stocks fell sharply on Friday after Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, matching the tariffs levied by them. The S&P 500 rose 0.67% to end at 6,066.44 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.98% to 19,714.27 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.38% at 44,470.41 points. Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 16.1 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 14.9 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. U.S. Steel's shares also got a boost after Japan's chief cabinet secretary said Nippon Steel was considering proposing a bold change in its plan to buy the company. McDonald's jumped 4.8% after the hamburger chain posted a surprise rise in its global comparable sales in the fourth quarter. Rockwell Automation surged 12.6% after the automation products maker posted higher-than-expected profit for the fiscal first quarter. Coca-Cola and DoorDash are set to report quarterly results on Tuesday, with CVS Health and computer-networking equipment maker Cisco reporting on Wednesday. Investors are also looking to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's biannual monetary policy report to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. Expectations for the Fed's rate cuts to stay on hold in March solidified after Friday's mixed U.S. employment report. Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.3-to-one ratio. Across the U.S. stock market, advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by a 1.9-to-one ratio.

Wall Street ends higher on AI strength; steelmakers climb on Trump tariff threat

* McDonald's climbs after Q4 global comparable sales rise * Fed Chair Powell to testify before Congress this week Feb 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Monday, lifted by Nvidia and other AI-related stocks, while steelmakers surged after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Trump's latest potential trade barrier escalation came on Sunday when he said he would introduce 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, on top of existing duties on the metals. U.S. metals producers that would benefit from steel and aluminum tariffs rallied, including Nucor, Steel Dynamics, Cleveland-Cliffs, U.S. Steel, Century Aluminum and Alcoa. AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom climbed, while Amazon also gained. "Investors are basically saying, 'Hey, let's go back into the areas that worked.' And one reason that investors are optimistic, in my opinion, is because of earnings," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. With fourth-quarter reporting season over halfway through, S&P 500 companies are expected to have posted year-over-year earnings growth of 14.8%, up from expectations of less than 10% at the start of 2025, according to LSEG I/B/E/S. Heavyweight technology stocks fell sharply on Friday after Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, matching the tariffs levied by them. According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 40.50 points, or 0.67%, to end at 6,066.49 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 190.25 points, or 0.97%, to 19,713.65. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 170.97 points, or 0.39%, to 44,470.35. U.S. Steel's shares also got a boost after Japan's chief cabinet secretary said Nippon Steel was considering proposing a bold change in its plan to buy the company. McDonald's jumped after the hamburger chain posted a surprise rise in its global comparable sales in the fourth quarter. Rockwell Automation surged after the automation products maker posted higher-than-expected profit for the fiscal first quarter. Coca-Cola and DoorDash are set to report quarterly results on Tuesday, with CVS Health and computer-networking equipment maker Cisco reporting on Wednesday. Investors are also looking to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's biannual monetary policy report to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. Expectations for the Fed's rate cuts to stay on hold in March solidified after Friday's mixed U.S. employment report. (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Pooja Desai, Shinjini Ganguli and Rod Nickel)

Wall St. ends higher on AI strength; steelmakers climb

STORY: U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday, with the Dow gaining almost four-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 adding nearly seven-tenths and the Nasdaq climbing almost one percent. Metal companies flexed some muscle, with shares of U.S. Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs and Alcoa all gaining after President Trump announced additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. AI-related stocks gained, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, helping to lift Wall Street's main indexes. Despite some turbulence, stocks will continue to soar higher, said Jason Browne, president of Alexis Investment Partners. "You know, we ended last year what we consider pretty fully valued right around 6000 on the S&P. But our targets for this year are in this sort of 6500 to maybe even 7000 range, so higher than we are today. We just also think with all the uncertainty and all the various things that are going on, we're gonna see an increase not only in stock prices, but also in volatility. And we have seen some of that so far. We just don't think that's inconsistent with the bull market." Shares of Tesla closed down 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that a consortium of investors led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls artificial-intelligence startup OpenAI. Other movers included McDonald's, which jumped 4.8% after the hamburger chain posted a surprise rise in its global comparable sales in the fourth quarter. And shares of Rockwell Automation surged 12.6% after the automation products maker posted higher-than-expected profit for the fiscal first quarter. Investors now look to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's biannual monetary policy report, delivered to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.