On Monday, US stock markets collectively closed higher in the Eastern time zone, with the S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones hitting new historical highs again, as investors bought technology stocks ahead of a batch of important corporate earnings releases.

Last week, the third-quarter results announced by JPMorgan and Wells Fargo exceeded Wall Street's expectations, indicating that with the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates, the US economy is steadily advancing, providing momentum for the continued rise of US stocks.

This week, 41 companies in the S&P 500 Index will release earnings reports, and a large amount of new data from these companies will help investors evaluate the health of the US economy and determine whether the current extremely high market cap is reasonable.

The forward P/E ratio of the S&P 500 Index is currently at 21.8 times, far higher than the long-term average of 15.7 times. If the earnings reports fall short of expectations, a market correction for US stocks is inevitable.

Among the companies announcing earnings on Tuesday, many well-known financial companies will be included, such as Bank of America and Citigroup, as well as medical giants Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group. Investors will also focus on key economic data this week, particularly the September retail sales data, to find clues about the financial situation of American consumers.

Two Federal Reserve officials on Monday both took a cautious tone on future interest rate policies. Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari stated that it might be appropriate to continue moderately lowering rates over the coming quarters.

Federal Reserve Governor Waller called for 'more cautious' rate cuts in the future, stating that if inflation unexpectedly rises, the Fed may pause rate cuts.

Morgan Stanley strategist Mike Wilson stated that the improving trend in U.S. macroeconomic data should continue to support stocks related to economic momentum. 'Even if yields rise, further stabilization of the economic surprise index should also support quality cyclical stocks.'

Craig Johnson from Piper Sandler claimed, 'Last week, the S&P 500 index exceeded our year-end price target of 5800 points. We currently maintain this expectation, but we realize the need for some 'fine-tuning' as we expect the stock market to continue to rise after the U.S. presidential election.'

Market Dynamics

As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 201.36 points, up 0.47% to 43065.22 points; the Nasdaq rose 159.75 points, up 0.87% to 18502.69 points; the S&P 500 index rose 44.82 points, up 0.77% to 5859.85 points.

Most of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 index rose, with the information technology/technology sector closing up 1.36%, the utilities sector up 1.29%, the financial sector up about 0.6%, the telecommunications sector up over 0.5%, the consumer discretionary sector up over 0.2% with the smallest increase, while the energy sector closed down 0.1%, delivering the worst performance.

U.S. industry ETFs mostly closed higher, with the semiconductor ETF up nearly 2%, the technology industry ETF, utilities ETF, global tech stocks ETF, and bank ETF all up at least 1%, the global aviation industry ETF and regional bank ETF also rising by close to 1%, and the financial sector ETF and medical sector ETF both up at least 0.5%.

Popular stocks performance

Most large technology stocks rose, with Nvidia rising over 2% to a new record high close; Apple and Google up over 1%; Microsoft, Tesla, and Meta slightly up; Netflix down over 1%; Amazon down slightly.

Shares of DJT, the Trump Media Technology Group, surged by 18.47%, with a nearly 100% increase this month, reflecting the frenzy of its share price and the chance for Trump to reclaim the White House.

Popular Chinese concept stocks fell across the board, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index down 2.09%. Xpeng fell over 9%, Nio fell over 7%, Pinduoduo fell over 6%, iQiyi, Weibo, and Baidu fell over 4%, NetEase and Bilibili fell over 3%, Alibaba fell over 2%.

Company news

Media reports: Tesla's Optimus controlled remotely at the press conference.

According to media reports on Monday citing informed sources, during last week's highly anticipated Tesla 'Robotaxi Day' event, the company remotely controlled some functions of the Optimus humanoid robot, hoping to better showcase its products. In addition, some attendees also posted on social media that Optimus received some off-site assistance, with even an Optimus bartender admitting it received 'human help.' However, Tesla CEO Musk did not mention this in the live broadcast, and the claim of remote control has raised doubts about the robot's capabilities and whether it is ready to enter the market.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen4 chip highly favored! Guo Mingqi: Shipment increase of 50% in 24H2.

In the latest market analysis released on Monday, Guo Mingqi stated that the highest-priced Snapdragon 8 Gen4 chip in Qualcomm's mobile SoC this year will see a large shipment in the fourth quarter. He pointed out that compared to the previous 8 Gen3, the new chip's shipments in the second half of 24 will increase by 50% to about 9 million units, with the chip's price using the TSMC 3nm 'N3E process' also increasing by 15% to $180. It is expected that Snapdragon 8 Gen4 will make a significant contribution to Qualcomm's performance in the fourth quarter of this year.

Adobe launches the Wensi video AI model to challenge OpenAI and Meta.

During Adobe MAX annual conference on Monday local time, the American computer software company announced that it has begun public testing on a novel video artificial intelligence (AI) model, joining the ranks of more and more companies attempting to disrupt the film and television production industry using generative artificial intelligence. This technology is known as the Firefly Video Model, which Adobe claims has achieved a new breakthrough. The Firefly Video Model expands Adobe's existing family of generative AI models, currently only available in limited amounts to gather initial feedback from a small group of creative professionals, which will then be used to further improve and enhance the model.