Santa rally steam train | Apple, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia come alive. Salesforce +11% on 200 deals in the Qtr mainly for AI & US$10 billion pipeline

Tech enthusiasm was not only ignited after the Fed’s comments but also after software giant Salesforce (CRM) shares leapfrogged 11%. Salesforce $Salesforce (CRM.US)$ delivered far stronger earnings results than expected while mapping a $10 billion strong sales pipeline filled with AI deals. Its revenue rose 8% YoY to US$9.4 billion in the quarter, and it sees $10 billion in sales ahead. Its AI agent, called Agentforce, closed 200 deals in the quarter, with thousands in the pipeline. Investment Bank Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating on the stock. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs raised its Salesforce price target from $360 to $400, saying it’s one of the most strategic software application companies in the $1 trillion+ total addressable market cloud industry and is on a path to $50 billion in revenue.

...and issued strong quarterly guidance, sending its shares 23% higher. All these large moves and bullish tones powered up the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF $The Technology Select Sector SPDR® Fund (XLK.US)$ to its first all-time high since July. It ended the day 1.8% higher and is now up 25% this year. The key takeaway here is that it seems the tech-AI trade is in its infancy, and more momentum is ahead, not just for chips but for software companies benefiting from the AI revolution.

The ASX 200 $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ is in record all-time territory and nudged up 0.1% today. Aukland International Airports up shares were up 2.9% earlier breaking higher after a broker is collecting bids to sell off Auckland Council’s 9.7% shareholding in the company. While gold stocks such as WAF and WGX, and RRL are up over 3%, while consumer spending santa rally benefactor Zip $Zip Co Ltd (ZIP.AU)$ is leading tech  stocks higher. While buys are increasing in China-facing commodity stocks such as South32 and the like. We are seeing buying in stocks with exposure to copper, nickel, silver, and aluminum head higher as they’re prices are up with the PBOC expected to cut interest rates by year-end.