Wall Street continues to roll higher in wake of Trump victory

NEW YORK —  U.S. stocks rose Monday, led by those seen as benefiting the most from Donald Trump’s election as president, but drops for some high-profile Big Tech stocks kept indexes in check.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 edged up by 0.1%, coming off its best week of the year after Trump’s victory and a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve to bolster the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.7% while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.1%.
Tesla was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 after rising 9.1%. Its leader, Elon Musk, has become a close ally of Trump’s, and its stock jumped nearly 15% the day after the election and has kept rising.
Several pieces of what’s known as the “Trump trade” also helped drive the market, as investors try to identify which companies will be winners under a second Trump term. JPMorgan Chase rose 1%, and financial stocks again helped lead the market on expectations for stronger economic growth, less regulation from Washington and an increase in mergers and acquisitions.
A White House more friendly to big tie-ups has helped Wall Street speculate about a merger between insurers Cigna Group and Humana, for example. It’s been so feverish that Cigna said Monday that it isn’t pursuing a deal with Humana. Cigna’s stock rose 7.3%, and Humana’s sank 2%.
Stocks of companies more focused on the U.S. economy also rose more than the rest of the market, including a 1.5% rally for the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index, because they’re seen as benefiting more from Trump’s “America first” policies than big multinational companies.
They helped offset a drop of 1.6% for Nvidia, which was the heaviest weight on the market.
Such Big Tech stocks have rocketed higher on excitement about artificial intelligence technology, and they had been gaining almost regardless of what the economy was doing. Now, though, critics say their prices look too expensive, and investors are finding more interesting buys among companies that could benefit more from Trump’s second term.
A drop for Nvidia packs a particularly heavy punch because its massive value of nearly $3.6 trillion makes it one of the most influential stocks on the S&P 500 and other indexes.
AbbVie, meanwhile, tumbled 12.6% after saying trials investigating its treatment for some adults with schizophrenia failed to show statistically significant improvement compared with a placebo group at week six.
Some of the sharpest swings were in the crypto market, where bitcoin rose above $87,000 for the first time. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies generally and pledged to make his country the crypto capital of the world. Bitcoin hit a record of $87,491, according to CoinDesk.
Another Trump trade has been a rise in Treasury yields, as traders anticipate potentially higher economic growth, U.S. government debt and inflation because of Trump’s policies. But trading in the bond market was closed Monday in observance of Veterans Day.
Treasury yields have been generally climbing since September, in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates to keep the job market humming, now that it has helped get inflation nearly down to its 2% target.
But Trump’s win has scrambled expectations for coming cuts to rates. Traders have begun paring forecasts for how many the Fed will deliver next year. Although lower rates can boost the economy, they also can give inflation more fuel.
Still, many professional investors warn not to get carried away by all the big swings after Trump’s victory. It takes time to see what campaign promises turn into actual policy, and that can lead to snapbacks for the market’s initial knee-jerk reactions.
The U.S. stock market also is broadly looking more expensive, as prices continue to run up faster than corporate profits.
“Valuations are increasingly elevated, and the pace of growth isn’t sustainable,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “While near-term seasonality will be a strong tailwind for markets, valuations may prove to be a tipping point as we move into 2025.”
All told, the S&P 500 rose 5.81 points Monday to 6,001.35. The Dow gained 304.14 points to 44,293.13, and the Nasdaq composite added 11.99 points to 19,298.76.
Stock markets abroad have swung after Trump’s election amid worries about increased tariffs and disruptions to global trade. They were mixed Monday, with European indexes rising while South Korea’s and Hong Kong’s sank.
Choe writes for the Associated Press. AP Writer Zimo Zhong in Hong Kong contributed to this report.