Stocks opened higher on Monday to kick off a week packed with a Federal Open Market Committee meeting and some highly-anticipated updates from Nvidia.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 131 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 was up 0.9%. The Nasdaq Composite was up 1.3%.
"After a slow week for stocks last week, bulls are running this morning," wrote Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group. "It's going to be a busy week in terms of global monetary policy, including the Fed on Wednesday. The big event for today, though, is Nvidia's Developer conference which kicks off today with a keynote speech from CEO Jensen Huang today right after the market closes."
Nvidia shares were up 3.7% shortly after the market opened. Shares of Apple and Alphabet were also rising following a Bloomberg report that said the two firms have held discussions over a deal to include Google's Gemini artificial intelligence engine in iPhones.
While artificial intelligence news will likely drive tech stocks, the Federal Reserve's meeting in the coming days will be closely watched.
"The big news this week will be the Fed meeting and presser," writes Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at NatAlliance Securities. "Here we think the Fed will maintain the 3 rate cuts from December, although it is a close call."
Brenner notes market expectations are for a more hawkish Fed due to recent hot inflation figures, though he points out growth numbers such as retail sales earlier this month have been weaker. He still thinks the first interest-rate cut will come in June, though fed-funds futures now put 41.5% odds that rates are held steady through the June meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.