Stocks Sprint to Fresh Highs as Gold Loses its Shine — Again

Reuters, AP, CNBC, Bloomberg, and the New York Times contributed to this report.

Wall Street came into Monday like it had someplace to be. The S&P 500 climbed about 1% by late morning, the Dow added roughly 258 points, and the Nasdaq outpaced them both with a 1.6% jump. All three were building on the record levels they set Friday, powered by a familiar cocktail of softer inflation, looming Fed easing, and a diplomatic thaw that — if it holds — could cool US–China trade tensions.

The calendar helps explain the pep. Investors are staring down a stacked week: a likely quarter-point rate cut from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, a heavyweight slate of Big Tech earnings, and a high-profile meeting Thursday between President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping. Hope is doing some heavy lifting. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there’s a framework for the leaders to discuss; Trump chimed in with a breezy “We feel good.” That was enough to send Asia higher overnight — Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.5%, Seoul’s Kospi rose 2.6%, and Shanghai and Hong Kong pushed up too — before Europe and then the US carried the baton.

Stateside, technology did what technology does in this market: lead. Chip names were firm after Qualcomm’s splashy move into data-center AI sent its stock up more than 12% and helped pull Nvidia higher by nearly 3%. The broader semiconductor gauge punched to a fresh record. The AI trade is still doing laps around the tape, even as some on the Street whisper “bubble” under their breath. Outside chips, the earnings drumbeat kept the mood constructive. Keurig Dr Pepper’s revenue beat and higher outlook gave the stock a jolt, and deal chatter added spark: Huntington’s bid for Cadence Bank reshuffled regional banks, while Novartis’ $12 billion swoop for Avidity Biosciences sent that stock screaming higher.

The macro backdrop remains the market’s spine. Traders have all but penciled in a 25-basis-point Fed cut this week — the second straight — after a cooler-than-expected CPI print at 3% year over year. With the government shutdown still gumming up some official data, Powell is expected to keep options open on December, but the path of least resistance tilts toward a bit more easing if the labor market continues to soften at the edges. That expectation bled into rates: the 10-year Treasury yield drifted near 4.01%, a touch below Friday’s close, keeping financial conditions friendly enough for equities to grind higher.

If stocks were all appetite, gold was indigestion. The metal, which flirted with $4,400 an ounce last week, slipped back toward the $4,000 line as the risk-on tone and fresh records stole its safe-haven thunder. It’s still up more than 50% year to date, but the latest slide is a reminder that when equities party and volatility cools, bullion usually doesn’t get an invite.

Geopolitics kept feeding into sector moves. Talk of a US–China framework that pauses new tariffs and eases rare-earth export tensions lifted US-listed Chinese tech names and knocked rare-earth miners, which had been bid up on supply-chain angst. The VIX slid to a one-month low as the market leaned into the idea that cooler heads might prevail — at least for a news cycle.

Back at home, the “Magnificent Seven” will have to earn their superlatives. Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta report Wednesday, with Amazon and Apple stepping up Thursday. After a monster run and eye-watering capex on AI infrastructure, investors want proof that all that spending keeps translating into revenue and margins. Valuations can live on hope for only so long; earnings week is where hope gets audited.

There were plenty of side plots too. Argentina-linked stocks ripped higher in the US after President Javier Milei’s party notched a decisive win, a political tailwind that markets read as pro-reform. In Texas, the Dallas Fed’s survey showed production holding up even as overall activity stayed slightly negative, a tidy microcosm of an economy that’s cooling without cracking. And small caps, which tend to love falling rates, crept higher alongside the majors as the Russell 2000 hovered near records.

Put it all together and the picture is simple enough. The market wants to go up, and right now it has reasons: a friendlier Fed, better-than-feared inflation, a possible détente between the world’s two biggest economies, and an earnings season that — so far — hasn’t broken the spell. Gold’s stumble fits the mood. As long as those pillars hold through the week’s data, decisions, and podium moments, the path of least resistance is still higher. But if any of them wobble — a hawkish Powell, a messy mega-cap print, or a trade headline that turns from warm to chilly — this rally will need to prove it can sprint without the tailwind. For now, it’s running hard.