Dow jumps 300 points to close above 44,000 for the first time as Trump enthusiasm continues

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 300 points on Monday and closed at a record high above 44,000 for the first time, as the benchmark's postelection rally pressed forward.

The 30-stock Dow gained 304 points, or 0.69%, to 44,293.69. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also closed at fresh records. The S&P 500 added 0.1% to end the day at 6,001.35, while the Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.06% to 19,298.76.

JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs popped 1% and 2.2%, respectively, to lead the Dow higher. Bank of America and Citigroup shares both closed up about 2%. The cohort has posted sharp gains since Donald Trump's election win last week, as investors hope his return to the White House could lead to easier regulation of the banking sector. Elsewhere, meme stock favorite GameStop surged 10%.

Tesla soared more than 9%, also adding to its postelection gain. But it was an exception among large technology stocks, with Apple slipping nearly 2%. Peers Microsoft and Amazon were roughly 1% lower each. Small caps advanced, with the Russell 2000 climbing 1.47%.

Bitcoin surged above $87,000, boosted by hopes of deregulation as well. Crypto related stocks Coinbase and Mara Holdings rallied 20% and 30%, respectively.

"The Republicans' decisive win has ignited 'animal spirits,' despite already lofty expectations," Morgan Stanley Wealth management chief investment officer Lisa Shalett wrote in a Monday note. "Rather than viewing developments as a fundamental shift toward the reflationary, no-landing scenario, we see sentiment and liquidity-driven positioning for what it is, and we are maintaining our balanced stance."

GameStop shares pop as Trump win reignites market speculation on meme trades

Shares of GameStop popped another 9% Monday, bringing their one-week advance to 20%.

The rally in the meme stock came as Donald Trump's presidential win unleashed animal spirits, pushing up speculative pockets of the market.

The video game retailer's shares have been rallying for five straight sessions. Trading was extremely volatile in May and June as meme stock leader Roaring Kitty came back to social media platforms to tout the speculative play. The stock is up more than 51% in 2024.

— Yun Li

Markets are 'correctly focusing' on outlook for lower government spending, Jefferies says

The initial sell-off in 10-year Treasury notes after President-elect Trump's victory last Tuesday, and subsequent rally that left yields roughly unchanged by Friday, suggests "markets are correctly focusing their fiscal outlook" on less government spending as well as lower revenue from taxes, Jefferies' chief market strategist David Zervos wrote to clients Monday.

The knee-jerk response to Trump's election "was a standard fiscal profligacy argument — that deficit spending would blow out under Trump tax cuts. Then, of course, the economy would start to overheat, inflation would make a U-turn higher, and the Fed would move from cuts to hikes," Zervos said.

But the recovery in fixed income prices at the end of last week, pushing down yields, showed that "many failed to think clearly about the increasing possibility of a drop" in government spending at the same time. "A smaller government spending footprint will continue to be music to the ears of BOTH the bond and equity markets," Zervos wrote.

The 10-year Treasury yield closed last week at 4.306%. Bond markets are closed Monday in observance of Veterans Day.

— Scott Schnipper

Fund that holds SpaceX continues postelection surge

The Destiny Tech100 Fund is up roughly 13% and appears to be getting a boost from Trump's election win.

The closed-end fund holds stakes in private companies, and the biggest holding is Elon Musk's SpaceX. The fund has rallied sharply since Election Day, similar to Tesla.

The fund is trading at a premium of more than 600% to its net asset value, which was last calculated as of June 30. The fund also traded an eye-popping premium earlier this year, shortly after its launch in March.

— Jesse Pound

Bristol-Myers Squibb heads for biggest gain in almost five years

Bristol-Myers Squibb rose as much as 12.8% on Monday, on pace for its largest one-day gain since March 2020, after AbbVie said its leading schizophrenia drug candidate failed to meet primary endpoints in a study. That brightened the prospects for Bristol's own schizophrenia treatment.

"This outcome is a clear positive positive for BMY (market perform), because its recently-approved schizophrenia treatment Cobenfy (KarXT) will not face competition from emraclidine," Leerink Partners analysts led by David Risinger wrote on Monday, referring to AbbVie's drug.

Emraclidine's failure blew up the logic behind Abbvie's $8.7 billion purchase of Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings last August, through which it acquired the experimental schizophrenia treatment, Cantor Fitzgerald said. "This is a major overhang removed for the stock," analyst Olivia Brayer said of Bristol-Myers. "We were all expecting a competitive entrant in the schizophrenia from ABBV at some point, and today's news essentially wipes that risk off the table."

AbbVie dropped as much as 13.4% Monday.

— Scott Schnipper

Bond index has seen record losses after Trump wins

Trump's two presidential election victories have been good for stocks and bad, on a historical level, for bonds.

In the day after the president-elect's stunning victory, the Bloomberg Long-Term Treasury Index slumped 2.3%, according to Ned Davis Research. That was the second-worst day ever for the gauge.

"The worst? 2016's -4.1%," the firm said in a note Monday, referencing Trump's initial victory.

Investors have flocked from the safe haven of bonds since the Republican's victory, sending major averages to new records and Treasury yields sharply higher.

— Jeff Cox

Another milestone for iShares Bitcoin ETF

The postelection rally for crypto has taken out another milestone for bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

As of Friday, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) now has more assets under management than the iShares Gold Trust (IAU), according to FactSet. The bitcoin fund's lead over its gold counterpart should expand once the weekend's move in bitcoin is factored in to the ETF data.

IBIT, which launched in January, is the biggest of the so-called spot bitcoin ETFs. It is still around half the size of the biggest gold ETF, the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).

The bitcoin ETF was up about 6% in morning trading Monday.

— Jesse Pound

Investors should remain patient even amid postelection optimism, says Oppenheimer

Assuming how Trump's return to the White House will influence stocks moving forward should take a back seat to balance and restraint, according to Oppenheimer Asset Management chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus.

"In our view investors could well benefit from practicing patience and avoiding jumping to conclusions as to how the election outcome will affect the markets," Stoltzfus wrote Monday.

"We favor broad diversification tuned more to cyclical and secular trends that remain in place for now rather than "betting" on the shape of things to come as a direct result of the elections that just took place," he added.

— Brian Evans

AbbVie, Tesla, Cigna among stocks making biggest midday moves

• AbbVie — Shares tumbled 12% after the pharmaceutical company said its experimental schizophrenia drug did not show a statistically significant improvement in symptoms during two Phase 2 trials. The news sent shares of competitor Bristol-Myers Squibb nearly 12% higher.
• Tesla — The electric vehicle stock popped 7% to build on last week's 29% gain as investors bet that a Trump administration would fare well for the company and CEO Elon Musk.
• Cigna — Shares of the health insurance giant gained about 8% after saying it will not be pursuing a merger with Humana, which shed 8% on the news.
• Super Micro Computer — The beleaguered server maker fell 8%. Shares have been slipping since Ernst & Young resigned as Super Micro's auditor in late October and after the company issued unaudited quarterly results that showed weaker-than-expected revenue.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Powell was prepared to contest effort to remove him as Fed chair, report says

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was prepared to fight any efforts that former President Donald Trump might have launched to remove the central bank leader from his position, The Wall Street Journal reported.

To do so, Powell likely would have had to use his own money as the Fed may not have standing to address such a challenge, the report added. The question arose after multiple public statements Trump had made condemning Powell and his colleagues during Trump's first term in office.

There have been no indications so far that Trump has any inkling to remove Powell, though he has indicated that he thinks the president should be consulted on Fed rate decisions. At a news conference last week, Powell was asked about the possibility that he could be removed, to which he responded it is "not permitted under the law."

— Jeff Cox

Wolfe Research upgrades Warner Bros. Discovery to market perform

Warner Bros. Discovery could benefit under a Trump Victory, according to Wolfe Research.

The investment firm upgraded shares of the media and entertainment conglomerate to a peer perform rating from underperform. Analyst Peter Supino added that his "probability weighted valuation points to a share price of $10," approximately 9% higher than the stock's Friday closing price of $9.18.

Supino believes Max's strong industry leverage could stabilize Warner Bros. Discovery's EBITDA.

"Max's international acceleration, DTC's inflection to meaningful profitability, and growing appetite by traditional TV distributors to carry streaming services + linear nets should provide Warner with FCF to paydown debt and invest in its healthier businesses," the analyst wrote.

Meanwhile, investor appetite for a spin or sale was low under the Biden administration, but a second Trump presidency could right the ship.

"Trump's election and Comcast's strategic initiatives signal improving chances for deals that would unlock value," Supino added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Gold futures slip to start the week

Gold ticked down on Monday and hovered near a roughly one-month low.

Gold futures lost 2.3% to about $2,633, the lowest level since Oct. 10 when bullion traded as low as $2,618.8

— Brian Evans, Gina Francolla

Stocks open higher

Stocks were higher shortly after the opening bell on Monday, as Wall Street continues its postelection rally from last week.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 353 points, or 0.8%.

— Brian Evans

Stocks on the move before the bell

These are the stocks on the move before the bell Monday:

• Tesla — The electric vehicle stock popped 7% and looked poised to build on last week's 29% surge. The Elon Musk-run company has rallied on the heels of Donald Trump's presidential victory, topping $1 trillion in market value on Friday as investors bet the company will benefit under the new administration.
• Crypto stocks — Stocks tied to cryptocurrencies rallied, with bitcoin topping $82,000 and hitting fresh highs, as Wall Street continued to bet a Trump administration would be more favorable toward the crypto industry.
• Cigna — The health insurance giant popped 8% after saying it will not be pursuing a merger with Humana. Cigna also reiterated its fiscal 2024 and 2025 guidance. Humana shares shed 8%.

Read the full list here.

— Samantha Subin

Morgan Stanley hikes Dell Technologies price target to 15% above current levels

Dell Technologies has a rosy outlook ahead, according to Morgan Stanley.

The bank reiterated its overweight rating on the personal computer manufacturer but raised its price target to $154 from $136. This updated forecast implies shares of Dell Technologies could rise nearly 15% from their current levels.

As a catalyst, analyst Erik Woodring pointed to Dell's strong server momentum. The analyst believes the company's artificial intelligence server outlook looks stronger than previously estimated for the second half of 2025 and could rise to $20 billion in 2026.

"While our 3Q24 CIO Survey showed that DELL is the best-positioned hardware vendor to capture traditional enterprise spend over the next 3 years, our recent AI server checks show that DELL's AI infrastructure momentum is building even faster," he wrote. "In fact, we now estimate DELL will ship 48k 8- GPU AI server equivalents in FY26/CY25, equivalent to 23% Y/Y growth, with our new FY26 AI Server revenue forecast now standing at just over $20B, ~60% higher than our prior forecast and a few billion dollars above the buyside Consensus."

The analyst attributed Dell's momentum acceleration to factors including strong customer demand, broad-based share gains and repeat customer purchases alongside a long-term enterprise AI opportunity.

Shares of Dell Technologies have soared 75% in 2024 but could rally more from here, Woodring added.

"While DELL has been a strong outperformer since shares bottomed 3 months ago (+49% vs. S&P 500 up 11%), we believe DELL's outperformance has further to run thanks to this AI server momentum, which is reflected in our new FY26 EPS of $10.50, 12% above Consensus, and $154 price target," the analyst remarked.

— Lisa Kailai Han

JPMorgan upgrades Cisco to overweight from neutral

Cisco faces a positive medium-term outlook, according to JPMorgan.

The bank upgraded shares of the technology and telecommunications company to an overweight rating from neutral. At the same time, analyst Samik Chatterjee lifted his price target to $66 from $55.

Shares of Cisco have climbed 15% on the year. Chatterjee's new forecast implies the stock could rise another 14% from its current valuation.

As a catalyst, Chatterjee pointed to potential earnings upgrades from a recovery cycle in Enterprise Networking demand.

"We have found renewed confidence in recent earnings prints from Juniper Networks and Extreme Networks that the path towards a Networking recovery is underway, with both companies highlighting encouraging signs relative to customer demand and activity," the analyst wrote.

Meanwhile, the company's recent investments into its security division could boost its aggregate revenue growth. The analyst added that he still sees upside potential for the stock when considering historical precedence.

"With a likely return to positive earnings revisions from the recovery in Enterprise Networking recovery, we envision a compression of the relative discount to the market multiple for the shares," he added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

UBS downgrades Vale to neutral rating from buy

A more bearish iron ore outlook should weigh down shares of Vale, according to UBS.

The bank downgraded shares of the Brazilian mining operator to a neutral rating from buy, simultaneously lowering its target price to $11.50 from $14. This updated forecast implies Vale stock could rise another 9% from its Friday close.

Shares of Vale have tumbled 33% in 2024.

"Given increasing macro risks post US election, we trim our 2025/26E iron ore premium & pellet volume forecasts & cut our 2025/26E EBITDA ~9%," wrote analyst Myles Allsop. "We remain concerned about iron ore fundamentals medium-term & see downside to the spot price; in our opinion, China steel exports are vulnerable to global restrictions & unlikely to be fully offset by stimulus."

More specifically, the analyst believes iron ore prices could be held at around $100 per ton in 2025 before falling back toward $80 to $90 per ton. However, the company could benefit in the medium term from lower costs, higher premiums and improving volumes.

Allsop also cited the upcoming Vale Day on Dec. 3 as a potential catalyst. There, he expects Vale's new CEO to discuss his key priorities, although this should not materially change forecasts since it will take time to deliver on these initiatives.

"We see a balanced risk-reward: self-help & the base dividend (~7% yield) limit the downside while the challenging iron ore outlook, increasing macro risks & high cash disbursements cap the upside," Allsop added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Hong Kong leads losses in Asia as China inflation and stimulus disappoint

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index led losses in Asia on Monday as most markets in the region fell, down 1.62% as of its final hour of trading.

This comes after China announced a five-year stimulus package worth 10 trillion yuan, or $1.4 trillion, to tackle local government debt problems on Friday. However, some analysts doubt it is enough to meaningfully stimulate growth.

The country's inflation rate also declined to 0.3%, missing expectations of 0.4% and also lower than the 0.4% seen in September.

Mainland China's CSI 300 gained 0.66% to end at 4,131.13.

Japan's Nikkei 225 ended marginally higher, while the broad-based Topix ended flat.

South Korea's Kospi fell 1.15%, while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 1.96%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Stocks come off winning week

The market is going into the next week with momentum.

The Dow and S&P 500 each climbed more than 4% last week, notching their best weeks since November 2023. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 5%. All three finished Friday's session at all-time closing highs.

Elsewhere, the small cap-focused Russell 2000 surged more than 8%.

— Alex Harring

S&P 500 futures are little changed

S&P 500 futures were near flat shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Dow futures were also little changed, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.2%.

— Alex Harring