NEW YORK (AP) — Big Tech and other superstars of the U.S. stock market are rallying on Monday, as Wall Street recovers much of its loss from last week.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.1% to claw back about two-thirds of its first weekly loss in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 292 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.8% higher.
Nvidia led the way and rose 3.7%. It and other winners in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology had been at the center of last week’s drop. Critics say their stock prices shot too high and too fast in the mania around AI, drawing comparisons to the 2000 dot-com bubble that ultimately burst.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips for Nvidia and other companies, saw its stock that trades in United States rise 3.2% after saying its revenue climbed nearly 17% in October from a year earlier. While such growth is strong compared with other companies, it’s a slowdown from TSMC’s earlier performance.
The U.S. stock market got a boost from hopes that the U.S. government may soon end its longest-ever shutdown. The Senate took the first steps to do so on Sunday, though it’s not assured.
Hopes that air-traffic controllers may soon get paid again helped push up stocks of airlines and other travel-related companies. The cancellation of thousands of flights over the weekend because of staffing shortages of controllers helped increase the pressure on Washington to reopen the government.
United Airlines rose 2.5%, and Delta Air Lines gained 1.8%.
But stocks of health insurers fell as uncertainty remains about whether Washington will extend expiring health care tax credits, a key sticking point in the disagreement on Capitol Hill.
President Donald Trump suggested in a social media post over the weekend — with few details — that the subsidies being sent to the “money sucking” insurance companies should instead be sent directly to people so they can buy their own health insurance.
Cigna and Humana both fell 1.7%.
Besides the pain caused at airports, the U.S. government’s shutdown has also delayed many important reports on the economy. A resumption could upset financial markets if the released logjam shows data that dashes traders’ expectations for coming cuts to interest rates.
The wide expectation is that the Federal Reserve will continue to cut its main interest rate in hopes of shoring up what has been a slowing job market. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can give the economy a boost while also pushing prices for investments upwards.
But the Fed has said it may have to halt its cuts if inflation worsens because lower interest rates can give inflation more fuel.
Without updates from the U.S. government on jobs and the economy, traders have been trawling profit reports from companies for clues about how things are going.
Tyson Foods, which sells chicken and other meat, climbed 2.5% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It benefited from increases in prices of 11% to 17% for its beef and pork.
Roughly four out of every five companies in the S&P 500 have also been reporting stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected. Companies usually top analysts’ profit expectations each quarter, but the pressure was high this time around because they needed to justify the big moves upward their stock prices have made since April. Delivering bigger profits is one of the easier ways they can quiet criticism that their stock prices have become too expensive.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rallied across much of Europe and Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 3% for one of the bigger gains. Chip company SK Hynix, which is cooperating with Nvidia on artificial intelligence, leaped 4.5%. Its bigger rival, Samsung Electronics, climbed 2.8%.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.10% from 4.11% late Friday.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
