Weekday edition
Apple's market value lead, J&J pill win, and small-company funds
Why Nvidia's slide outweighed Apple's gain in a broad index fund, and what October prices could do next.
At Monday’s close: S&P 500 +2.35%, Nasdaq-100 +3.40%, Dow +2.15%
Apple jumps past Nvidia in market value on data-center rules bet
Apple Inc. jumped 2.4% on Monday to $350.69, a 52-week high, and passed Nvidia Corp. in market value. CNBC reported Friday that, with Democrats now controlling both chambers of Congress, tighter data-center rules could favor Apple. Its iPhone sales do not depend on rapid data-center expansion. Bloomberg reported Apple sold $7.5 billion of high-grade bonds, debt from top-rated borrowers, on Thursday, drawing about $31 billion in orders at the peak.
Nvidia tumbled 4.3%. The same CNBC report said the chipmaker could be hit earlier if data-center construction slows. Apple added $120 billion in market value, reaching $5.1 trillion against Nvidia's $4.3 trillion. On $100,000 spread across the 500 largest U.S. companies by size, Apple's gain added $140 and Nvidia's drop took $207. Reuters reported Monday that Apple registered Apple Intelligence, its AI features, for tablets and laptops in China. The companies expect Alibaba Group-powered features to reach Chinese users in December.
For readers
What it means for you: On $100,000 in a technology sector fund (XLK), Monday added $3,730. That beat the $2,430 the same stake in Apple shares gained. Nvidia went the other way: $100,000 in its shares lost $4,270, more than Apple added. Nvidia accounts for 4.8% of the value of the 500 largest U.S. companies. That is why, in a broad fund, its slide outweighed Apple's gain. Its shares jumped 1.0% after hours. October consumer prices, out today at 8:30 a.m. ET, could move nearly every holding in a tech fund, Apple and Nvidia included.
Read the full story, AAPL price history and analyst ratings, NVDA price history and analyst ratings
Markets
Monday’s close
| Market | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,549.94 | +2.35% |
| Nasdaq-100 | 27,907.63 | +3.40% |
| Dow | 52,389.75 | +2.15% |
| 10-Yr | 4.88% | +2 bp |
| Bitcoin (24 hr)As of this edition | $74,416 | +0.31% |
The day ahead
Tuesday’s setup
Inflation data shapes the week: consumer prices and real wages today, weekly jobless claims Thursday and producer prices Friday, after Apple's climb to a 52-week high led Monday's session.
8:30 a.m. ET Consumer Price Index, October. Card, auto loan and mortgage rates hang on the core line, which leaves out food and energy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said prices rose 0.6% in September, and core prices rose 0.3%. The 2-year Treasury yield, which tracks Fed expectations, rose 5 basis points on Monday to 4.56%. A hotter core reading could keep loan rates high and savings yields firm; a cooler one could ease the 10-year yield that mortgages follow, now 4.88%.
8:30 a.m. ET Real Earnings, October. The line that matters is average hourly pay after inflation: whether October paychecks kept pace with October prices. A decline could mean household budgets are stretched further. Card and auto loan rates stay tied to Fed policy. Strong pay gains before inflation could instead add to Fed caution about cutting rates, since faster wage growth can feed later price increases.
If you own
Industrial funds climbed 3.8% on Monday, adding $3,820 on every $100,000 held. That beat the $2,350 an S&P 500 fund added on the same stake. If you own a fund of factory, airline and machinery companies, the question is whether orders and sales back up a one-day gain this large. The companies' next quarterly reports could show it.
Broadcom shares surged 8.8% on Monday, adding $8,780 on every $100,000 held. The chipmaker gained $120 billion in market value, to $1.5 trillion. Broadcom accounts for 1.7% of the value of the 500 largest U.S. companies, so its rise added $151 to $100,000 spread across them by size. If you own the shares directly, the question is whether sales keep pace with the price. Broadcom's next earnings report could show it.
Small-company funds such as the IWM fund climbed 3.2% on Monday, adding $3,230 on every $100,000 held. That is a little less than the $3,400 a Nasdaq-100 fund added on the same stake. For a small-company fund, the question is how much borrowing costs weigh on smaller firms. The 2-year Treasury yield, whose rise appears above, may show which way those costs are heading.
Need to know
Top stories
- 1
Berkshire operating profit falls as insurance earnings shrink. Berkshire Hathaway's third-quarter operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.705 billion, the company reported Saturday. Insurance underwriting earnings dropped 42.9%. Earnings at the BNSF railroad climbed 19.3%. Revenue rose 11.2%. Berkshire bought back about $9.6 billion of its own stock in the quarter, which leaves each remaining share a bigger slice of the company. Net earnings fell further as investment gains shrank; Berkshire cautioned that those swings can distort reported profit. The question for shareholders is whether insurance profits recover, which the next quarterly report could show. Read more
- 2
JNJ · +2.13% Johnson & Johnson jumps after arthritis pill meets trial goal. Johnson & Johnson shares jumped 2.1% Monday to close at $282.11, a 52-week high. On Saturday the company presented late-stage trial data for Icotyde, an oral psoriatic arthritis drug, at the American College of Rheumatology conference. About 58% of patients on the drug reached a standard joint-improvement mark, against 41% on placebo, with no new safety signals, the company said. J&J accounts for 0.76% of the value of the 500 largest U.S. companies, so its gain added $16 to $100,000 spread across them by size. Read more
- 3
UBER · +3.76% Uber rallies as McDonald's makes it preferred app delivery partner. Uber shares rose 3.8% and McDonald's jumped 1.8% Monday, the day the companies announced a multiyear expansion of their delivery partnership. Under the deal, Uber becomes the preferred delivery partner for orders placed in the McDonald's app in markets including the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Bloomberg reported that McDonald's will prioritize Uber over DoorDash for those orders. McDelivery generates more than $20 billion a year, McDonald's executive Mason Smoot said. Even after Monday's gain, Uber stock sits 24.4% below its 52-week high. Read more
AI corner
Three changes that matter
Topics: Startups, Deals
Anthropic briefly sends banks IPO filing, then retracts its pricing
A filing Anthropic briefly sent banks showed its IPO raising up to $69.3 billion, including a $26 billion private placement from Google, Nvidia and Microsoft, Reuters reported. Anthropic then said pricing details were inaccurate, so the final price behind those big-tech backers' stakes may still change.
Topics: Big Tech, Deals
Microsoft rethinks rented AI computing as CoreWeave heads into results
Microsoft is winding down rented Oracle computing and has debated signing new deals with neoclouds, firms that rent out AI chips, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg said Microsoft has committed more than $80 billion to such rentals, and CoreWeave, which counts Microsoft as a top customer, reports results Tuesday.
Topics: Chips, Big Tech
Google picks AMD processors for new secure AI chip system
Google Cloud executive Mark Lohmeyer said a new system pairing Google's in-house AI chips with AMD's EPYC processors brings hardware-enforced data protection to cloud TPUs. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates Google's TPU-related sales could top $135 billion by 2028, though most Google systems use its own processors, not AMD's.
How it works
52-week highs
A 52-week high shows recent demand, not where a stock goes next. A 52-week high is the top price a stock hit in the past year: proof buyers paid up lately, not a forecast. Apple jumped 2.4% to $350.69, its 52-week high; Nvidia sits 25.3% below its peak of $239.24. A stock at a high may keep climbing or may already price in the good news. Apple makes up 5.8% of the 500 largest U.S. companies' combined value, so its gain added $140 to $100,000 spread across them by size.
Coming up
Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims. The Labor Department counted 189,000 new filings in the week ended Oct. 31. A clear rise in layoffs could change the outlook for interest rates, which set what savings accounts pay and mortgages cost.
Cisco earnings. Cisco surged 5.1% on Monday, adding $19 billion in market value, yet it still sits 24.1% below its 52-week high. The report may show whether that gap reflects the business or the mood.
Producer Price Index, October. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said producer prices jumped 1.3% in September. Prices businesses charge can flow into what shoppers pay, and firmer inflation could keep mortgage and credit card rates higher for longer.
The close
The big picture. Monday's rebound ran far beyond Apple: 86 percent of stocks rose. Big technology's losses have not fully healed. The Nasdaq-100 remains 1.7% lower for November, on top of an October drop of 6.7%, and is up 10.5% for the year. The S&P 500 is down 0.4% this month after losing 0.9% in October; its yearly gain is 10.3%. The Dow added 1.7% in October and 1.2% since, and is up 9.0%.
On the calendar. The Fed's minutes, its record of the October meeting, come out Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2:00 p.m. ET, after this week's price data. The 3-month Treasury bill yield, which money-market funds tend to follow, rose 5 basis points to 4.24% on Monday. Minutes wary of rate cuts could keep cash paying near that rate and credit-card rates high.
Not investment advice.