S&P 500, Nasdaq close higher Monday as tech stocks make a comeback: Live updates

Nvidia shares gained 7.09% during Monday's main trading session. Monday's gains come after a sell-off in the chipmaker's stock the prior trading week, when it lost 8.56%.

Morgan Stanley reiterated the stock as a "top pick" ahead of Nvidia's earnings report. The firm cited the influx in AI-spending and an "exceptional" supply-demand imbalance that looks to continue over the next several quarters.

The stock has gained nearly 200% year-to-date.

— Hakyung Kim

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite closed higher Monday.

The broad market index rose 0.58%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.05%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up just 26.23 points, or 0.07%.

— Hakyung Kim

Paul Meeks is preparing for a tech pullback in the weeks ahead, and that could offer up unique buying opportunities for investors looking to snatch up some of this year's artificial intelligence winners.

"Unfortunately, the whole sector got grossly overbought, and now we're starting to see some reality," the portfolio manager at Independent Solutions Wealth Management told CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Monday. "We're starting to see some consolidation, and I actually think that consolidation might continue a bit further."

Meeks added that while he hasn't bought Micron Technology due to the recent explosion in stock price, he's keeping an eye on the stock, and expects AI application growth to boost demand for its memory chips over the long haul.

"Memory companies do sell into some of those same pesky consumer applications like smartphones and PCs, but the AI driver from Micron over time — not necessarily today — will be unmistakable," he said.

— Samantha Subin

Investors awaiting quarterly results out of Home Depot on Tuesday will keep a close eye on revenue.

In its most recent report, the home improvement retailer missed revenue expectations for a second straight quarter — a streak that hasn't happened since 2019. If it disappoints for a third consecutive time Tuesday, it will be the first that has happened going back to 2007 — or 16 years ago.

Home Depot's report is an important one to watch for several reasons. For one, it is a Dow component and, for another, it has the largest earnings weighting of any retailer outside of Amazon in the S&P 500. In fact, Home Depot is more influential to the S&P 500 than Walmart and Target combined when it comes to earnings.

Still, a slew of reports from other home-related retailers suggest there could be trouble for Home Depot. Companies such as paint and coatings maker PPG Industries recently cited lower existing home sales for softer demand.

— Robert Hum, Sarah Min

Half of the eight stocks in the S&P 500 reaching fresh, 52-week highs on Monday are also at all-time highs, and one of them (Walmart) is also in the Dow Jones Industrials:

• Comcast, highest since since April, 2022
• News Corp., highest since April, 2022
• Wal-Mart, highest since 1972 IPO
• CBOE Holdings, highest since 2010 IPO
• Eli Lilly, highest since going public in 1952  
• Jacobs Solutions, highest since July, 2022
• Broadridge Financial Solutions, highest since Dec., 2021
• Constellation Energy, all-time high back to spinoff from Exelon in Jan., 2022

Other notable 52-week highs in the market Monday:

• Celsius, ll-time high going back to start of trading in 2006
• Interactive Brokers Group, all-time high back to May 2007 IPO
• Exelixis, highest since August, 2022
• Clean Harbors, all-time high back to 1987 IPO
• EMCOR Group, all-time high back to 1995 reorganization
• ICON, highest since April, 2022

S&P 500 52-week lows on Monday:

• Conagra Brands, lowest since March, 2022
• Illumina, lowest since July, 2022
• Moderna, lowest since Nov., 2020
• Enphase Energy, lowest since May, 2022
• SolarEdge Technologies, lowest since August, 2020
• Corteva, lowest since July, 2022
• AES Corporation, lowest since June, 2022
• Eversource Energy, lowest since arch, 2020

Other notable 52-week lows on Monday:

• AMC Entertainment, lowest since Jan., 2021
• Hanover Insurance, lowest since Nov., 2020
• Fortrea, all-time low since spinoff from Labcorp in June, 2023
• Concentrix, all-time low back to spinoff from SYNNEX in Nov., 2020
• Alcoa, lowest since April, 2021
• Agree Realty , lowest since Feb., 2022
• Healthcare Realty Trust, all-time low back to 1993 IPO
• W.P. Carey, lowest since Nov. 2020
• Hawaiian Electric Industries, lowest since 2010
• UGI, lowest since March, 2020
• Alteryx, lowest since 2018
• Petco Health & Wellness, lowest since Jan. 2021 IPO

— Scott Schnipper. Christopher Hayes

Note: Comcast is the parent company of NBC Universal and CNBC

Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge noted that, while the market's sideways action can be nerve-wracking, investors should keep calm.

"The sideways price action of the last few weeks has weighed on sentiment and while we envision the trading range persisting for a while longer (buy dips below 4450 and fade rallies above 4550 for now), we don't think investors should dive too far down rabbit holes of despair. On US inflation specifically, core price gauges face a significant source of downward pressure going forward as shelter/housing costs adjust lower," he said in a note.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

Eli Lilly's stock is up more than 47% year to date, and it hit a fresh all-time high of $542.30 in trading Monday, but UBS analyst Colin Bristow expects there's more upside ahead. He recently raised his price target above the Wall Street average. Although some of his optimism is owed to the outlook for its weight loss medications, Bristow sees other news in its pipeline helping investor sentiment and contributing to higher revenue growth.

Wage pressures remain the "final obstacle" for the Federal Reserve even as recent data signals some disinflationary progress, according to Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management's Brent Schutte.

"Until annualized wage increases consistently register in the low to middle 3 percent range, we believe the Fed will likely continue to use its tools to drain liquidity from the economy in hopes that growth slows and wage pressures ease," the chief investment officer wrote in a Monday note.

While the odds of a soft landing have improved, the firm remains "skeptical" that the central bank can "declare victory" without weakening wage growth, Schutte said.

— Samantha Subin

Consumers grew more confident last month that the inflation rate will continue to fall over the short and long terms, according to a New York Federal Reserve survey released Monday.

The July Survey of Consumer Expectations showed that respondents expect inflation a year from now to be at 3.5%, down from the 3.8% projection June. The three- and five-year outlooks also edged lower to 3% and 2.9% respectively.

Despite the outlook for a declining rate, households expect sending to increase 5.4% a year from now, up from 5.2% in June but below the long-term average of 6.1%. Expectations for home price growth nudged lower to 2.8% while expectations for gas and food price increases also fell slightly to 4.5% and 5.2% respectively.

—Jeff Cox

Dick's shares climbed 3.3% after Bank of America reiterated its bullish call ahead of earnings.

Analyst Robert Ohmes said the sports retailer could be helped by a rebound in consumer discretionary valuations. He also said the company could fare better than competitors when student loan payments restart given the higher median household income of customers.

Ultimately, Ohmes reiterated his buy rating on the stock ahead of its quarterly earnings report expected Aug. 22. He raised his price target for shares by $10 to $180, now implying the stock could rally 28% over the next year.

That would mean the stock's rally has more upside ahead, with shares already up about 20.5% since 2023 began.

— Alex Harring

Evercore ISI thinks retail giant Walmart may surpass Wall Street consensus estimates for the second quarter on Thursday.

The firm added Walmart to its tactical outperform list in a Monday note.

"It's the stickiness of the customer traffic that gives us confidence that the turn at Walmart is for real," Evercore analyst Greg Melich said. "Over the medium term, alternative profit streams, supply chain autonomation, and store-revamping provide upside to global EBIT margin which appears to have hit trough in 2022 at 4.9%."

Walmart stock is down roughly 1.1% in midday trading.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Diversifying investment portfolios to include fixed-income securities may be a smart play, according to Charles Schwab.

Kevin Gordon, senior investment strategist at Schwab, said stocks appear "pretty expensive relative to history" across the firm's valuation metrics.

"At a time when you should definitely be diversifying within the equity market, take a bigger step back and look at things from a broader asset class perspective," Gordon said.

The strategist added that equities have jumped to expensive levels in a short time frame.

"Typically when you're starting a new bull market, you don't get to this expensive territory that fast. So that's another thing that we've been really trying to emphasize to people; to the extent it makes sense for the investor and what their needs are, fixed income just looks relatively attractive, especially where [we] were just a couple of years ago," said Gordon.

— Hakyung Kim

Despite U.S. Steel rejecting its $7.3 billion buyout offer, Cleveland-Cliffs is confident that the deal will eventually go through.

"We believe we have a compelling case that the government should be not only approving, but enthusiastically supporting this deal" CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

"We will finally have, after a few decades, a steel maker that is among the top 10 in the world," he added. "Our main competitor is always imports. ... So we will finally have a [company] tat the same level."

"This is a deal for people who understand M&M, not people that hide behind consultants," Goncalves added.

Cleveland-Cliffs shares were up 6% on Monday. U.S. Steel popped more than 28%.

— Fred Imbert

Energy stocks remain in an uptrend and are showing the best price dynamics of any other group in the stock market in recent weeks, Strategas Research technical analyst Chris Verrone wrote to clients premarket Monday.

The S&P 500 Energy Index is down about 0.6% in early trading Monday, but is higher by about 2.2% in August — the best of any of the S&P 500's 11 main sectors — and up 9.5% in the third quarter, also the highest. Strategas said 100% of S&P 500 Energy stocks are above their 50-day moving average, contrasting that with less than 40% for S&P 500n Technology Index stocks.

"Energy stocks remain firm with roughly 75% of the sector trading to a fresh 3-month high last week," Verrone wrote Monday. "We've been very vocal in documenting the sector's improvement over the last few months, and with over 90% of issues above the 200-day (the strongest reading of any sector), Energy remains in an envious technical condition even as the broader market comes in."

Strategas noted a "big surge in energy sector new highs last week," referring to three-month highs, and added that, "Energy new high data [is] reminiscent of 2021/2022 as the sector reclaims the flag of leadership."

— Scott Schnipper, Michael Bloom

July consumer price index data shows a disinflationary trend that, with some exclusions, is nearing the Federal Reserve's goals, according to Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.

He said attention is now on shelter inflation falling, though other gauges of rent prices show a disinflationary trend. Yardeni said it's "baked in the cake" that lower rent inflation will come.

"Overall, we're still looking at a disinflationary trend," he said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

Yardeni also said it's clear that Federal Reserve officials have put out signals of interest rate cuts in the next year. But there's a challenge with communicating that to bond investors.

What should happen in the bond market is that both short-term and long-term rates come down, with short-term rates falling at a faster pace, he said. But there's also the possibility for long-term yields to rise near their shorter counterparts, a possibility he said could lead to rattled confidence in the banking system and impact the commercial real estate market.

— Alex Harring

Hawaiian Electric shares dropped 36% on Monday, after earlier falling about 40%, amid Wall Street concerns about the company's potential liability in the Maui wildfires.

A class-action lawsuit was filed against the utility company on Saturday that alleged the destruction in Maui "could have been avoided" if the company shut down power lines before the high winds hit, NBC News reported.

On Sunday, Wells Fargo lowered its price target on the stock to $25 per share from $35 on Sunday. The Wall Street firm reiterated its underweight rating.

The cause of the wildfires are still under investigation. Hawaiian Electric spokesperson Jim Kelly told NBC News the company doesn't comment on pending litigation and said it is supporting emergency response efforts.

Read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Check out some of the companies making headlines in midday trading.

U.S. Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs — The steel maker founded by Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan climbed nearly 32% after rejecting a buyout offer from peer Cleveland-Cliffs on Sunday, with the company asserting plans to consider other offers. Cleveland-Cliffs stock, meanwhile, climbed more than 8%.

Tesla — Shares slipped 2% after the company announced lowered prices on some models in China.

Hawaiian Electric — Shares plummeted more than 33% after Wells Fargo lowered its target price on the stock earlier and maintained an underweight rating on Monday, citing wildfires in Maui as a looming risk.

Read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Despite the recent sell-off, Morgan Stanley remains confident in Nvidia in the long run.

Analyst Joseph Moore reiterated his $500 price target on the chipmaker, implying the stock stands to gain 22.4% from Friday's price.

"With a backdrop of the massive shift in spending towards AI, and a fairly exceptional supply demand imbalance that should persist for the next several quarters; we think the recent selloff is a good entry point," Moore wrote in a Monday note. 

The company's second-quarter results are due Aug. 23 after the closing bell. Shares gained 5.3% Monday afternoon.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Pia Singh

Monster Beverage could be the frontrunner of the global energy drink market, according to HSBC. Analyst Carlos Laboy initiated a buy rating on the stock in a Monday note.

"We forecast revenue growth for Monster in the U.S. ahead of industry growth, achieved through more targeted marketing and brands," Laboy wrote in a Monday note, adding that he expects margin recovery to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024. 

The firm's target price is based on four primary growth drivers, including Monster growing its demographic base, Laboy said.

Shares gained 1.7% as of Monday afternoon

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Pia Singh

Real estate stock EPR Properties slid 1.2% in Monday morning trading after Bank of America warned the Hollywood strikes could weigh on its multiple.

Analyst Joshua Dennerlein said the concurrent writers' and actors' work stoppages could particularly impact EPR given the company's exposure to movie theaters. Dennerlein downgraded shares to neutral from buy and cut his target price for shares by $5 to $45. His new target implies shares now have a more limited upside of about 5.1% ahead.

"The length of a strike and its impact on content production is the key risk from both an upside / downside perspective on the multiple," he said in a note to clients Monday,

EPR has gained 11.8% this year, meaning the stock has underperformed the broader market since 2023 began.

— Alex Harring

The S&P Merval index, Argentina's main stock market benchmark, fell more than 1% after Javier Milei, a far-right presidential candidate, netted a surprise win in the country's primary election.

Milei is a Donald Trump admirer and has said he wants to dispose of the country's central bank and dollarize its economy.

Shares of e-commerce giant MercadoLibre fell more than 2% on the news. MercadoLibre gets nearly 24% of its total revenue from Argentina, according to FactSet.

The Global X MSCI Argentina ETF (ARGT), meanwhile, dropped 4.3%.

— Fred Imbert

Goldman Sachs thinks the worst could be over for Okta.

Analyst Gabriela Borges upgraded the stock to buy from sell in a Monday note.

"We note the potential for volatility in the stock around earnings given our view that Street numbers may still see one more quarter of downward revisions," Borges said. "Even on lower revenue, we are 12%/16% above the Street for FY25/FY26 free cash flow as we see the potential for meaningful margin expansion over the next 3 years."

The identity management software provider's stock rose 3.3% Monday.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here to find out the growth catalysts for Okta going forward.

— Pia Singh

Bonds are preferable to equities after the stock market's rally this year, according to Ashish Shah, chief investment officer of public investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

"The answer is that we have seen a lot of volatility when it comes to inflation. But that also creates the opportunity to buy bonds at a real rate that we haven't seen in well over a decade," Shah said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday.

"Earning around 2% real rate, out the curve, locking it in, as we're talking about, that hasn't been around. And given the underlying growth rates to the U.S. economy, it's not clear to me that like you need to earn more than that," he added.

— Sarah Min

Bank of America Securities is now bullish on consumer discretionary, upgrading the sector to overweight from underweight on Monday. It also downgraded consumer staples to underweight from marketweight.

Equity strategist Savita Subramanian listed 10 reasons for the call, including a revised outlook of a soft landing by the firm's economists.

"Their revised forecast is based on further evidence of continued resilience in the US economy, including positive GDP revisions, strength in business spending, and a rebound in labor supply," she wrote in a note to clients.

She also cited real wage growth that is back to positive, the recovery of spending on goods and the "reports of US consumers' death greatly exaggerated."

— Michelle Fox

The Japanese Yen traded up 0.3% at 145.39 against the U.S. Dollar on Monday. This marked the first time the Yen reached the 145 mark compared to the dollar since November 2022.

The Japanese currency has been weakening since the Bank of Japan pledged 'greater flexibility' over its yield curve control.

When the Yen last crossed the 145 mark, the country's central bank intervened to buy the yen and maintain its levels at 145.

— Hakyung Kim

AMC Entertainment shares sank more than 38%, putting the movie-theater stock on pace for its worst day since Feb. 2, 2021. On that day, shares plunged more than 41%.

The drop in shares come after a judge late Friday approved AMC's plan to covert its preferred equity unites, or APEs, to common shares.

Preferred shares rose more than 7% and were last on track for their best day in nearly two months.

— Samantha Subin, Gina Francolla

Former Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan expects interest rate cuts next year, though he cautioned Monday about "crosscurrents" that could keep inflation high.

"I don't think the Fed will take any action in the September meeting, but I think an estimate that by middle of next year, they'll feel that it's appropriate to cut rates isn't unreasonable," Kaplan said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "I don't know if it'll turn out that way. But that's as good as expectation is any I think at this point."

He hedged a bit, though, saying that high levels of government spending will put pressure on bond yields and could force the Fed to stay tight.

"That's the 'x' factor that's hard for me to gauge," Kaplan added.

—Jeff Cox

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened little-changed Monday morning. The index declined just 10 points, or 0.03%.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim

PayPal shares gained about 2% before the bell after its board named a new CEO.

The payments company on Monday that Alex Chriss, a current executive at Intuit, will replace long-time CEO Dan Schulman in September.

Schulman previously said he planned to step down from the role by the end of the year, and will remain a director through May 2024.

— Samantha Subin, Ashley Capoot

Wheat futures dropped to a price not seen since June in Monday trading.

The grass type fell as low as 620 and 3/4ths cents per bushel. That's the cheapest since June 9, when it reached 618 and 1/2 cents.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

These are some of the stocks making the biggest moves before the bell:

• U.S. Steel — Shares of the steel producer surged more than 26% premarket after it rejected a $7.3 billion buyout proposal on Sunday from rival Cleveland-Cliffs and said it's reviewing "strategic alternatives." 
• Tesla — The electric vehicle stock fell 2.2% in premarket trading. The move comes after Tesla lowered the price in China on its Model Y long-range and performance models by 14,000 yuan, according to a company post on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
• Okta — The identity management stock popped 5% before the bell after Goldman Sachs upgraded shares to buy,

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Base metals saw prices tumble Monday morning due to ongoing concerns over China's property sector, a key consumer of metals. A stronger dollar also weighed on the prices for the industrial metals.

LME Aluminum hit a low of $2,147 per metric tonne, the lowest level since July 10, when aluminum traded as low as $2,140.50.

LME Tin led losses, dropping 3.3% and hitting a low of $25,515 per metric tonne. This marked tin's lowest level since June 26, when it traded as low as $25,399.

LME Zinc also fell to $2,329.5 per metric tonne, the lowest price since June 29^, when zinc traded as low as $2,326.

Copper declined to $3.689, its lowest level since Jun 29, when copper traded as low as $3.683.

— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla

Traders at JPMorgan see a 40% chance of the market pulling back before resuming its upward trend from this year. That's up from a 35% probability.

"This remains the US Market Intel view. The question is whether last week constituted the pullback. I would think not but this was also what I thought when I wrote Preparing for a Pullback on June 20," the traders said. "The reasons cited were (i) less rosy macro data; (ii) the continuation of the tightening cycle; (iii) earnings outlook; and (iv)lack of incremental buyers."

"With bottom's-up earnings estimated higher in the medium term and buyback poised to turn back on, bullets (i) and (ii) would be the key similarities with the addition of positioning," they said.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

The Russian ruble fell to its lowest level in about 17 months against the U.S. dollar, with President Vladimir Putin's economic advisor blaming easy monetary policy for the country's currency depreciation.

"A weak ruble complicates the restructuring of the economy and negatively affects the real incomes of the population. In the interests of the Russian economy — a strong ruble," Maxim Oreshkin, Putin's economic advisor, said, according to a Google translation.

The ruble last traded at 100.67, down 1.7% against the U.S. dollar.

— Fred Imbert, Elliot Smith

European markets opened lower Monday morning after a downbeat string of sessions last week.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.2% in the first minutes of trading, with sectors spread across negative and positive territory. Mining stocks led losses with a 1.1% drop, followed by oil and gas, which was down 0.9%. Food and beverage led moderate gains with a 0.3% uptick.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

The Japanese yen breached the 145 mark against the dollar on Monday, the first time since November 2022.

On Friday, the Japanese currency briefly touched the same key psychological level.

The yen has been steadily weakening since the Bank of Japan adjusted its stance on its yield curve control policy in late July, sending 10-year Japanese government bonds to its highest levels in nine years.

Read the full story here.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Chinese real estate company Country Garden Holdings continued to tumble after it announced that it will suspend the trading of 11 onshore bonds. The stock reached a new all time low after it slid 10% on its open.

In a filing over the weekend, Country Garden said the suspension will take effect today, and the resumption of trading "will be determined separately."

"During the suspension, the company will perform information disclosure obligations in strict accordance with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, and will apply for resumption of corporate bonds in a timely manner after relevant matters are determined," it said.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba talked up business opportunities in artificial intelligence in a conference call with analysts Thursday.

Cloud rival Tencent is also expected to discuss AI business plans when it reports results Wednesday. Baidu, which has its AI-powered Ernie chatbot, is set to release earnings on Aug. 22.

All that AI interest is driving demand for Nvidia's chips — and some components made by Chinese companies.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Evelyn Cheng

Futures for the major market indexes opened modestly higher on Sunday evening.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose about 0.2% each. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added roughly 0.1%.

— Jesse Pound

U.S. Steel announced on Sunday that it is reviewing strategic options after the company received unsolicited proposals for deals, including potentially buying the entire company.

"U. S. Steel's Board and management team are committed to maximizing value for our stockholders, and to that end, we have commenced a comprehensive and thorough review of strategic alternatives," David B. Burritt, U. S. Steel's President and CEO, said in a press release.

The company said there is no deadline for the review. U.S. Steel's stock is down 9.3% year to date.

— Jesse Pound