S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs at start of Fed meeting week; Tesla gains

The electric vehicle maker jumped 5.8% to its highest level since late January after regulatory filings revealed Musk had acquired nearly $1 billion worth of Tesla's stock on Friday

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit intraday record highs on Monday, beginning the week with the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on a strong note, while Tesla shares gained following CEO Elon Musk's stock purchase. 

The electric vehicle maker jumped 5.8 per cent to its highest level since late January after regulatory filings revealed Musk had acquired nearly $1 billion worth of Tesla's stock on Friday. 

This week, the Fed's rate decision will take center stage, with investors largely expecting a 25-basis-point cut on Wednesday following a series of economic indicators that pointed to a deteriorating jobs market. 

Traders are pricing in a total of 68.9 points in monetary policy easing by end-2025, data compiled by LSEG showed.

"Everyone is anticipating at least one (25 bps) cut, some people are thinking 50 bps. That's overreaching, but the market is certainly built for one," said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading. 

"Anything less than that (25 bps) would be a severe disappointment and we'd have a very, very sharp sell-off." Tesla's gains boosted the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector 1.4 per cent to its highest level in nearly nine months. 

The communication services sector was 1.8 per cent higher on a boost by Google-parent Alphabet, which hit $3 trillion in market capitalization for the first time. 

Conversely, Nvidia's 1.1 per cent decline weighed on the tech sector. China's market regulator said it will continue an investigation into the AI chip leader after preliminary findings showed it had violated the country's anti-monopoly law. 

Other US chipmakers that faced pressure after China launched an anti-discrimination investigation into US chip trade policies and a separate probe into dumping practices, pared earlier declines. 

At 09:37 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.02 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 45,854.24, the S&P 500 gained 23.54 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 6,607.83 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 123.71 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 22,264.81. 

Declines in UnitedHealth and Home Depot limited gains on the Dow. 

Wall Street's three main indexes had logged weekly gains in the previous session, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hitting intraday record highs on Friday as technology-linked stocks remained resilient. 

The major indexes have performed positively thus far in September, a month considered historically bad for US equities. The benchmark S&P 500 has shed 1.5 per cent on average in the month since 2000, data compiled by LSEG showed.

 

Among the final datasets before the Fed's September 16-17 meeting, Tuesday's retail sales report will provide crucial insights into the US consumer's health, following a slightly hotter-than-expected inflation reading last week. 

Intel gained 4.6 per cent after the chipmaker trimmed its full-year expense outlook.

  CoreWeave jumped 7.7 per cent after the data center operator signed a deal with Nvidia that guarantees that the chipmaker will purchase any residual cloud capacity not sold to customers. The deal's initial value is $6.3 billion. 

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.16-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.53-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. 

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 51 new highs and 16 new lows.