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Another record high for stocks as tech heavyweights put market on their shoulders

All of the gains on Monday are attributable to Nvidia and Apple.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 set fresh record closing highs to kick off the week, up 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively, while the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 0.6% advance.

While indexes are making new highs, breadth is not. Over the past 15 trading days, the S&P 500 has moved higher despite more of its constituents falling than rising on seven occasions, including today. That’s tied for the highest frequency of the US benchmark index and its components diverging over a three-week span on record, based on data going back through 1997.

Tech and utilities were the only two S&P 500 sector ETFs to go positive on the day. Consumer staples was far and away the worst performer.

Gains on the day were led by Teradyne, which jumped nearly 13% after the semiconductor test equipment maker got a price target hike from Susquehanna to $200 from $133. Declines were led by Kenvue, which fell 7.5% following reports that President Donald Trump would soon announce a link between prenatal use of Tylenol and autism. Elsewhere…

Nvidia surged nearly 4% as the company said it would invest as much as $100 billion into OpenAI as part of an unprecedented data center buildout.

Apple was up more than 4% after Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives raised his price target on the tech giant to $310 from $270 thanks to “early strong demand signs” for the iPhone 17.

Of the 46 basis points in total return for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF on Monday, Nvidia and Apple contributed 58 basis points, as most other components went down.

Oracle leapt over 6% after the hyperscaler announced that its CEO for the past 11 years, Safra Catz, is stepping down and being replaced by two new co-CEOs.

Snap soared 4.3% as the stock receives a lot of positive attention from the r/WallStreetBets subreddit.

Oklo jumped almost 4% after Ives boosted his price target on the stock to a whopping $150 from $80 on Sunday.

Pfizer ended virtually flat after the vaccine maker announced that it would acquire anti-obesity drug developer Metsera. Metsera soared over 60% on the news.

Moderna rose more than 5% after a federal vaccine panel adopted a recommendation for the COVID-19 vaccine that was better than investors were pricing in.

Fox rose after Trump said that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, the chief executive of Fox, are “probably” going to be involved in the investor group looking to buy TikTok in the US.

Shares of Better Home & Finance spiked nearly 47% after EMJ Capital founder Eric Jackson posted on X, dubbing the online mortgage lender the “Shopify of mortgages.”

BYD was marginally positive even as Berkshire Hathaway fully exited its stake in the world’s largest EV maker, according to a CNBC report over the weekend.

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Broadcom jumps after locking down Google as a customer for future generations of TPUs

Shares of Broadcom rose more than 3% in postmarket trading on Monday after its most important customer doubled down on the custom chip specialist’s ability to produce its most valuable commodity.

In a filing, Broadcom said that it entered into a long-term agreement with Google to supply future generations of TPUs (custom AI accelerator chips) as well as a supply assurance agreement for networking and other equipment “through up to 2031.”

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon indicated that Broadcom’s investor relations team told him that Google’s long-term agreement “has revenue commitments that go along with it through the timeline.”

Gemini 3 launched to rave reviews in November. The model was trained on TPUs co-developed by Broadcom and Google.

The same Monday filing showed that Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic expanded a partnership that will see the Claude developer access 3.5 gigawatts of AI compute capacity beginning in 2027, powered by the TPUs co-designed by the custom chip specialist and the search giant.

Bernstein’s Rasgon added that Broadcom’s team suggested these 3.5 gigawatts are “only part of a larger partnership over time.” He thinks Broadcom’s fiscal year 2027 guidance for AI revenues of $100 billion “is looking increasingly light” thanks to this news.

For what it’s worth, the enhanced pact with Anthropic hinges upon the firm’s ability to afford AI compute. But based on the insane trajectory of its run-rate revenue that may not be a big hurdle to clear.

“Broadcom’s expanded agreements with Google and Anthropic add rare multi-year visibility, reinforcing a $40-$50 billion AI revenue opportunity tied to Anthropic’s 3.5 gigawatt deployment starting in 2027, while building on the previously disclosed 1GW ($10 billion) starting in 2H,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Kunjan Sobhani and Oscar Hernandez Tejada.

markets

Health insurers surge after Medicare agrees to pay 2.48% more in 2027, a bigger-than-expected boost

Health insurance stocks are surging after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it plans to boost Medicare Advantage and Part D payments by 2.48% in calendar year 2027.

The likes of CVS, Humana, UnitedHealth, Molina Healthcare, Oscar Health, and Elevance Health are gaining in postmarket trading.

Wall Street analysts had anticipated that rates for 2027 would go up between roughly 1% and 1.5%.

These stocks had gotten crushed in late January when the Trump administration proposed relatively flat federal payment rates.

Insurance companies that provide government-sponsored plans, like Medicare Advantage, faced headwinds from higher-than-expected costs in 2025.

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Iran war winners Dow, LyondellBasell downgraded by Bank of America

Dow, Inc. and LyondellBasell — two petrochemicals stocks that surged as markets priced in shortages due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — should decline as investors focus on the long-term outlook for normalized petrochemical prices once the war resolves, Bank of America analysts wrote in a note downgrading the two stocks Monday.

BofA moved its rating on the shares from “neutral” to “underperform,” writing:

“Over time, as chemical markets normalize, we expect 1) investor focus to shiſt back to ‘normal’ or ‘sustainable’ earnings profiles and 2) the conflict to resolve without material asset rationalization, both of which likely bias shares lower over the next twelve months.”

Analysts also lowered their stance on another petrochemicals and building materials stock, Westlake, to “neutral” from “buy.”

While cutting those ratings, BofA actually raised its more near-term price targets for the shares. It upped LyondellBasell to $68 from $55, and Dow to $35 from $31.

But those price targets still imply declines of more than 10% compared to where both shares were trading late Monday morning. Both stocks are up roughly 30% since the start of the Iran war.

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