Wall Street ends higher on AI strength; steelmakers climb on Trump tariff threat

Trump’s latest potential trade barrier escalation came on Sunday when he said he would introduce 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, on top of existing duties on the metals.

U.S. metals producers that would benefit from steel and aluminum tariffs rallied. Nucor, U.S. Steel and Steel Dynamics rose more than 4% each. Cleveland-Cliffs jumped 18%, Century Aluminum rallied 10% and Alcoa rose about 2%.

AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom climbed 2.9% and 4.5%, respectively. Amazon gained 1.7%.

“Investors are basically saying, ‘Hey, let’s go back into the areas that worked.’ And one reason that investors are optimistic, in my opinion, is because of earnings,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Tesla ended down 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that a consortium of investors led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls artificial-intelligence startup OpenAI. With fourth-quarter reporting season over halfway through, S&P 500 companies are expected to have posted year-over-year earnings growth of 14.8%, up from expectations of less than 10% at the start of 2025, according to LSEG I/B/E/S. Heavyweight technology stocks fell sharply on Friday after Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, matching the tariffs levied by them.

The S&P 500 rose 0.67% to end at 6,066.44 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.98% to 19,714.27 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.38% at 44,470.41 points.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 16.1 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 14.9 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

U.S. Steel’s shares also got a boost after Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said Nippon Steel was considering proposing a bold change in its plan to buy the company.

McDonald’s jumped 4.8% after the hamburger chain posted a surprise rise in its global comparable sales in the fourth quarter.

Rockwell Automation surged 12.6% after the automation products maker posted higher-than-expected profit for the fiscal first quarter.

Coca-Cola and DoorDash are set to report quarterly results on Tuesday, with CVS Health and computer-networking equipment maker Cisco reporting on Wednesday.

Investors are also looking to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s biannual monetary policy report to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

Expectations for the Fed’s rate cuts to stay on hold in March solidified after Friday’s mixed U.S. employment report.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.3-to-one ratio.

Across the U.S. stock market, advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by a 1.9-to-one ratio.