S&P 500 rises as Apple, Meta gain ahead of earnings

Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg, Investor’s Business Daily, AP, Market Watch contributed to this report.

Wall Street got a little pep in its step Monday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed ahead of a jam-packed week for megacap earnings and a closely watched Federal Reserve decision – and investors seemed happy to let Apple and Meta take the lead. The mood was cautious but constructive: a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” frame for now, but with a few interesting wrinkles beneath the surface.

The big picture: the S&P 500 rose about 0.5% while the Nasdaq outpaced it, putting both indexes on a multi-day win streak as traders priced in quarterly reports from some of the market’s heaviest hitters. Apple and Meta were among the headline movers, each adding more than 2% and doing most of the heavy lifting for the broader market, while Alphabet, Broadcom and Microsoft also posted gains north of 1.5%. The outsized influence of a handful of megacaps is back in plain view – their results this week will likely set the tone for the next leg of the market’s narrative.

Why it matters now: beyond company numbers, markets are bracing for the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting. Investors mostly expect rate holds, but any fresh hints on the Fed’s tolerance for inflation or the timing of future cuts could jostle sentiment – especially in a tech sector where valuations are already being judged against the promise (or payoff) of AI spending. As Chris Larkin of E*Trade at Morgan Stanley put it, megacap earnings “should help shape sentiment around the AI trade,” even as political developments keep headlines noisy.

There’s also an odd bipolarity to this market move: risk assets pushed higher even as safe-haven instruments surged. Gold vaulted to fresh record highs – a development that both reflected and amplified investor nervousness about currencies and policy – and miners enjoyed the upside. The dollar’s dip added fuel to the rally in precious metals and lifted resource names, undercutting the idea that the entire tape is a straightforward risk-on trade.

Currency markets added another subplot. The Japanese yen extended gains amid talk of possible intervention from Tokyo – a dynamic that has been roiling FX desks and worrying some global investors about policy spillovers. Intervention talk tends to make risk traders skittish (because it’s a sign central banks are on the ropes), but on Monday it was more a background drumbeat than a headline-dominating shock.

A couple of market plumbing notes to watch: airline stocks took a hit after a major winter storm forced cancellations, illustrating how idiosyncratic weather events can still bite sectors even when headlines are dominated by macro and megacap news. And Intel continued to lag after a gloomy outlook last week, reminding traders that not every tech name is riding the AI wave.

So what are investors doing with all this? A fair amount of trimming ahead of earnings is normal, but Monday suggested selective buying: plump up positions in AI beneficiaries and resilient megacaps, hedge with metals and select cyclicals, and keep an eye on event risk (earnings, Fed minutes, and any sudden currency interventions). The logic is straightforward – if results from Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla show concrete AI revenue or margin evidence, the rally has legs; if guidance disappoints, the crowded trade could reverse quickly.

Analyst and market commentary over the weekend – and continuing into Monday – framed the current tape as a balance between tangible AI optimism and rising geopolitical and policy uncertainty. That’s why gold and the yen have been acting like an insurance policy while the S&P and Nasdaq trade on hope. If you’re a trader, it’s an earnings-week game; if you’re an investor, it’s a reminder that headlines and fundamentals can momentarily march to different beats.

Bottom line: stocks rose, largely on the back of megacap optimism, but the broader market story is far from settled. This week’s earnings – and the Fed’s tone – will probably write the next chapter. Expect volatility, expect headlines, and expect investors to treat any big surprises as an opportunity to reset positions fast.