4:11pm: Thanksgiving week off to a hot start
The Dow closed Monday up 204 points, 0.6%, at 35,151, the Nasdaq Composite added 159 points, 1.1%, to 14,285 and the S&P 500 improved 33 points, 0.7%, to 4,547. The small-cap Russell 2000 index gained 9 points, 0.5%, to 1,807.
Microsoft shares climbed more than 2% to a 52-week high after the company hired ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to lead a new AI research team. Hundreds of OnpenAI employees have signed a letter threatening to leave the company if he isn't reinstated, and Microsoft could reap the benefits of a potential talent exodus from the ChatGPT developer.
Meanwhile, chipmaker Nvidia saw its shares jump more than 2% to an all-time high, a day before the company is scheduled to report earnings on Tuesday.
12:00pm: Wall Street extends gains in strong start to shortened week
US stocks resumed their upward path as investors look ahead to the minutes of the last FOMC meeting tomorrow inthe belief that interest rates have peaked.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 116.55 points, 0.3%, at 35,063.83, the S&P 500 was up 19.84 points, 0.4%, at 4,533.86 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 106.78 points, 0.8%, at 14,232.26.
As the earnings season winds down, investors will also be on the lookout for results from a handful of retailers and tech companies, with Nvidia the standout oin Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the oil prices continued to rally, rebounding from last week’s four-month low as major oil producers weighed further production cuts.
The recent slump in prices has put pressure on the Opec+ group of major oil producers to consider extending and deepening production cuts when they meet in Vienna on Sunday.
9:40am: Nasdaq leads Wall Street higher
The Nasdaq lead US stocks higher with the fall-out from Sam Altman's departure from OpenAI continuing to doiminate the business world.
Shortly after the opening bell. the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26.94 points, 0.1%, at 34,974.22, the S&P 500 was up 5.16 points, 0.1%, at up 4,519.18 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 64.23 points, 0.5%, at 14,189.71.
Microsoft jumped 1.7% after announcing it had hired the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman, to head a new AI research team with speculation others could follow.
Elsewhere, Bloomberg reported Citigroup is eliminating more than 300 senior manager roles as part of chief executive officer Jane Fraser’s efforts to simplify the Wall Street giant.
The Wall Street bank issued a statement confirming staff had been informed of the next phase of organisational changes but gave no details on the numbers of those affected.
"Today we shared with our colleagues the next layer of changes across many of our businesses and functions as we continue to align Citi’s organizational structure with our new, simplified operating model," it said.
"As we’ve acknowledged, the actions we’re taking to reorganize the firm involve some difficult, consequential decisions, but we believe they are the right steps to align our structure with our strategy."
7:00am: US markets set to start shortened week in subdued fashion
US markets are expected to make a subdued start as Wall Street starts the shortened Thanksgiving holiday week.
In pre-market trading, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat, while those for the S&P 500 were little changed, and contracts for the Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%.
Joshua Mahoney at Scope Markets noted it is a “quiet day ahead in terms of economic data with only a very limited number of releases expected, although earnings news is set to offer a little more with Zoom set to report after the close.”
Elsewhere, Microsoft shares were up 1.7% in pre-market trading after CEO Satya Nadella said former OpenAi chief Sam Altman will be joining the tech giant to lead a new AI research team.
We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023
"We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success." Nadella said.
Otherwise, Tuesday sees the publication of the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting, plus results from Nvidia.