Wall Street ended sharply higher on Monday, fueled by gains in AI-related stocks, with Meta Platforms climbing after a report that it is preparing for sweeping layoffs, while oil prices retreated amid ongoing uncertainty about the Middle East conflict.
The Dow Jones rose 387.94 points, or 0.83%, to 46,946.41, the S&P 500 gained 69.92 points, or 1.05%, to 6,702.18, and the Nasdaq advanced 268.82 points, or 1.22%, to 22,374.18.
Meta jumped after Reuters reported that the social media platform plans to shrink its workforce by at least 20% to offset costly artificial-intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.
Nvidia climbed after CEO Jensen Huang announced new components at the chipmaker’s annual developer conference.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, which makes AI servers using Nvidia chips, issued a strong quarterly revenue forecast on Monday.
Tesla rose after CEO Elon Musk said the company’s Terafab project to make AI chips will launch in seven days.
Micron Technology jumped after the memory chipmaker announced plans for a second manufacturing facility in Taiwan. A modest drop in crude prices after the U.S. said it would be “fine” with some Iranian, Indian and Chinese ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz also offered some relief to the market.
“You’ve got news that Iranian oil tankers are moving through, or are soon going to be moving through, the Strait of Hormuz, which is a positive for global economic stability,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
“But on balance, the path forward is filled with twists and turns. … There’s lack of visibility when the conflict is likely to end.”
Higher energy prices are likely to feature prominently in central bank meetings globally this week.
The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday. Traders have pushed back their expectations for an interest rate cut of at least 25 basis points beyond October, according to LSEG-compiled data, compared with their previous expectation of a cut in July.
“There are a couple of reasons to take any signals from this meeting with a pinch of salt. First, a swing in oil prices in either direction could quickly change the Fed’s thinking, and second, markets might slightly discount messages from Chair (Jerome) Powell, given this will be one of the last of his term,” said James McCann, senior economist at Edward Jones in a note.
Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE volatility index, dropped, while the rate-sensitive Russell 2000 index gained.
Despite logging declines over the past three weeks, U.S. equities have fared better than global peers, buoyed by a rebound in beaten-down technology stocks and as the country is a net oil exporter. However, the S&P 500 remains down about 2% so far in 2026.
February industrial production increased 0.2%, slightly better than expectations of a 0.1% rise.
Travel stocks Delta Air Lines and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings both gained, lifted by lower oil prices.
Crypto stock Strategy Inc climbed as bitcoin rallied around 3%.
Discount retailer Dollar Tree rose after signaling it could benefit from favorable tariffs in the near term.