Wall Street Rises on AI Stocks and Steel Tariff News

By Noel Randewich and Shashwat Chauhan

(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher on Monday, boosted by Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and other AI-related stocks, while steelmakers surged after U.S. President Donald Trump announced potential new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Trump’s latest proposed trade barriers, introduced on Sunday, include a 25% tariff on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, in addition to existing duties on these metals.

U.S. metal producers that could benefit from the tariffs saw significant gains: Nucor (NYSE:NUE), U.S. Steel, and Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) all rose more than 4%. Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) jumped 18%, Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) rallied 10%, and Alcoa (NYSE:AA) increased approximately 2%.

AI chipmakers also excelled, with Nvidia and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) climbing 2.9% and 4.5%, respectively. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained 1.7%.

“Investors are essentially returning to sectors that previously performed well. Optimism stems from earnings results,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) ended down 3% following reports of a consortium led by CEO Elon Musk offering $97.4 billion to acquire the nonprofit controlling AI startup OpenAI.

As the fourth-quarter earnings season progresses, S&P 500 companies are projected to have achieved a year-over-year earnings growth of 14.8%, an increase from expectations of under 10% at the beginning of 2025, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.

Technology stocks lost momentum on Friday after Trump announced reciprocal tariffs against all countries, setting sanctions equivalent to those they impose.

The S&P 500 rose 0.67%, closing at 6,066.44 points. The Nasdaq increased by 0.98% to 19,714.27 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.38% to 44,470.41 points.

U.S. exchanges experienced heavy trading, with 16.1 billion shares changing hands, higher than the 14.9 billion average from the previous 20 sessions.

U.S. Steel’s shares also benefitted after Japan’s chief cabinet secretary indicated that Nippon Steel might propose a significant change in its plan to acquire the company.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) surged 4.8% following a surprising rise in its global comparable sales for the fourth quarter. Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) skyrocketed 12.6% after exceeding profit expectations for the fiscal first quarter.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and DoorDash (NASDAQ:DASH) are set to report quarterly results on Tuesday, while CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) will report on Wednesday.

Investors are eagerly awaiting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s biannual monetary policy report to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

Recent employment reports have solidified expectations for the Fed to keep rates unchanged in March.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.3-to-one ratio. Overall, across the U.S. stock market, advancing stocks outpaced those that fell by a 1.9-to-one ratio.