4:12pm: Record-breaking session
The Nasdaq led Wall Street higher, closing up 0.9% at a record high 22,348 points.
The S&P 500 crossed 6,600 points for the first time, up 0.5% at 6,615 points and the Dow Jones edged 0.1% higher to 45,883 points.
3:54pm: Proactive news headlines
- T Stamp Inc (NASDAQ:IDAI, EURONEXT:AIID), doing business as Trust Stamp, announced an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Identity Agency of the Republic of Ghana (NIA) to provide identity tokenization for the use of NIA and the numerous government ministries and agencies that it serves, together with private sector clients.
- Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NYSE-A:OPTT) (OPT) announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Gradient Marine, a US-based provider of advanced digital modeling, simulation, and hardware-in-the-loop environments.
- Tiziana Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ:TLSA) announced that it has been awarded a US Department of Defense (DoD) research grant to advance its intranasal anti-CD3 therapy in traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).
- Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd (TSX-V:GMG, OTCQX:GMGMF) (GMG) announced that THERMAL-XR ENHANCE Powered by GMG Graphene is now successfully patented in Australia for 20 years from the date of its grant.
- First Phosphate Corp. (CSE:PHOS, OTCQX:FRSPF) announced that it has closed a follow-on tranche of its oversubscribed non-brokered private placement financing, raising $3.78 million.
- Gunnison Copper Corp (TSX:GCU, OTCQB:GCUMF) announced what it called “encouraging” results from the initial mineralized material sorting test program at its flagship Gunnison Copper Project in Arizona, which could result in significant savings on operating costs.
2:47pm: Market movers
- Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) reduced its third quarter earnings guidance on Monday, citing elevated fuel costs and operational challenges during the summer, which included weather and air traffic control issues, sending its shares lower.
- Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC, ETR:INL) shares moved higher after the chipmaker announced a reduction in its full-year 2025 adjusted operating expense target, following the sale of a majority stake in its Altera programmable chip unit.
- CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) revealed on Monday that it has signed a $6.3 billion initial order with Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD), in which Nvidia will purchase CoreWeave’s excess cloud computing capacity. Its shares added more than 8%.
- Chegg (NYSE:CHGG) shares moved lower after it was revealed that the educational technology platform has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims that it made it difficult for consumers to cancel recurring subscriptions.
- Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Class A shares gained more than 3% to $248.27 in late-morning trading on Monday as the parent company of Google became the fourth company to achieve a market capitalization of at least $3 trillion.
- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares gained nearly 6% after a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that company CEO Elon Musk bought 2.57 million Tesla shares on Friday, at prices between $371.38 to $396.54 per share, valued at about $1 billion.
- Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD) shares were under pressure on Monday after China’s markets regulator decided that the US company broke antitrust laws.
1:33pm: Stocks, gold at record highs
US stocks hit new record highs ahead of this week’s Fed decision.
“Friday’s record for the Dow has been followed up by new milestones for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
“Of course, there might be some ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact’ action later in the week, but for the moment stocks continue to ignore any possibility of September weakness.”
Gold also rallied, trading about $3,700 per ounce in the early afternoon.
“A rate cut is bound to be a boon for gold prices too, though last week saw the commodity consolidate after its impressive surge from $3350 to $3650,” Beauchamp said.
“Like stocks, however, gold perhaps risks some short-term losses if the Fed doesn’t display a firm conviction about rate cuts at its next two meetings.”
12:11pm: Alphabet hits $3T
Alphabet's Class A shares gained more than 3% to $248.27 in late-morning trading on Monday as the parent company of Google became the fourth company to achieve a market capitalization of at least $3 trillion.
Apple and Microsoft have already hit a market valuation of $3 trillion, while Nvidia has surpassed the $4 trillion mark.
Alphabet shares have surged more than 20% over the past month after a US District Court in early September rejected the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s most severe antitrust proposals, sparing Google from having to spin off Chrome or Android, introduce mandatory choice screens, or share advertising data.
Investors have also been bidding up the stock after the company’s cloud-computing unit saw its second quarter revenue rise nearly 32% year over year, exceeding expectations as investments in in-house chips and the Gemini AI model began to pay off
11:29am: Tesla gains
Tesla shares gained 6.6% to about $422 on Monday morning after a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that company CEO Elon Musk bought 2.57 million Tesla shares on Friday, at prices between $371.38 to $396.54 per share, valued at about $1 billion.
Following the transaction, Musk now owns 509,362,808 Tesla shares.
The stock purchase was Musk’s first since February 2020, when he bought about Tesla 200,000 shares worth around $10 million, according to data provided by Verity.
Tesla shares have risen about 10% year to date, underperforming the nearly 13% gain from the S&P 500 index, as the company has been hurt by Musk’s political activities, along with the end of certain incentives for electric vehicles (EVs) by the Trump administration.
10:32am: Week ahead
Wall Street’s attention this week centers on the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting Wednesday, where investors are broadly expecting a 25 basis point rate cut.
Markets are pricing in the move after recent weak jobs data and cooling inflation, but the bigger question is whether policymakers will endorse the aggressive easing path traders anticipate.
Deutsche Bank economists expect the Fed to deliver a 25 basis point rate cut and signal that more reductions are likely to follow over the remaining meetings this year.
They project three cuts in total for 2025 to bring the fed funds rate to 3.5–3.75% by year-end.
They caution that the decision may not be unanimous, with potential dissent from both hawkish and dovish members.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, noted that there are currently just under six rate cuts priced between now and January 2027, raising the risk that the Fed could push back on market expectations if inflation remains stubborn.
The Fed will also release updated economic projections and its “dot plot” of future rate forecasts.
Markets will closely parse these for signs of whether officials plan a measured path of easing or a faster pivot.
Chair Jerome Powell is expected to underscore data dependence in his press conference, with Deutsche Bank suggesting he will avoid calling the labor market “solid” after recent weak job gains, but still describe unemployment as historically low.
Investors are bracing for volatility. Options markets are pricing in “a 1% swing in either direction, which would be one of the biggest daily moves in weeks,” according to Brooks.
After a 10% rally in the S&P 500 over the past three months, she warned that “the market sells the news of the Fed meeting” is a real possibility if guidance falls short of expectations.
9:55am: Front foot start for stocks
The main US stock indices had a mixed start to the week but were quickly all battling higher, led by Tesla and other tech giants.
After an initial wobble in the red, the Dow Jones had climbed 0.2% to 45,927.38, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.4% and 0.6% to new all-time highs just above 6,613 and 22,278 respectively.
Tesla was the top riser on the S&P, up over 6% after Elon Musk bought a $1 billion chunk of the EV maker's shares.
Elsewhere, Nvidia fell 1.2% on China regulatory news, acting as the main drag on the Dow.
8:02am: S&P and Nasdaq predicted to advance to new highs
Wall Street stock futures were moderately higher ahead of the first trading session of a week that is widely expected to bring the first interest cut of the year from the US Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 has been called 0.2% higher, while futures for the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 were up 0.15% and 0.1% respectively.
This follows a mixed end to last week, where a succession of new all-time peaks were capped off with another for the Nasdaq Composite, while the S&P and Dow closed lower to wrap things up.
Ahead of the midweek Fed decision, the US has a trade delegation in Spain for talks with China.
"Attention in the US remains fixed on trade and monetary policy, with US-China negotiations in Madrid likely to be strained by the Chinese ruling that Nvidia had violated anti-monopoly laws," said market analyst Joshua Mahony at Rostro
A ruling by the Chinese market regulator has dragged Nvidia shares down 1.4% in pre-market trade, putting downward pressure on the wider markets and dragging the main index futures back from earlier levels.
Also before the Fed decision, Donald Trump will touch down in London for a two-day state visit, accompanied by Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, OpenAI founder Sam Altman and several other CEOs from the tech and finance industries.
The Fed decision is expected to be a be limited to a quarter-point cut, after last week’s stronger-than-expected CPI print, though markets are still pricing three-quarters of a percent in cuts by the end of the year.
There is "only a small tail risk" of a cut of 50 basis points, says market analyst Daniela Sabin Hathorn at Capital.com, reflecting inflation hovering higher than target and a softer labour backdrop.
"It’s enough to justify easing, but not an outsized move," she said. "The focus in this meeting is going to be less on the decision and more the path forward."
The Fed 'dot plot' will be the market’s "anchor", Sabin Hathorn adds. "Given how much dovishness is already priced, any median path that signals fewer cuts or a slower easing cycle in 2026 would read as hawkish.
"A split vote or dissent (for 50bp or even a hold) would underscore internal debate and lift uncertainty around the rate trajectory. And with positioning primed for a steady easing cycle, even a neutral press conference from Chair Powell could disappoint markets and nudge equities toward a dovish-to-neutral repricing."