NASDAQ ends at fresh record as Nvidia, Microsoft stocks climb; SpaceX surges 8%

The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite closed at a fresh record high on Monday due to a rally in stocks like Nvidia and Microsoft despite rising Treasury yields.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.18% higher at 51,267.90, while the S&P 500 gained 0.66% to 7,773.95. The NASDAQ index surged 1.05% to 27,477.31 and rose up to 27,544.07 intraday.

Nvidia shares rose 2.12% to $238.90 per share, while Microsoft advanced 1.48% to $525.15 apiece. Meta Platforms Inc and Tesla surged 1.90% and 2.20%, respectively.

Shares of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) settled 7.63% higher at $171.09 apiece to their highest since mid-June, taking Elon Musk's net worth above $1 trillion. This comes after analysts at Morgan Stanley see SpaceX undervalued and noted "future AI product releases, Starship progress, and additional neocloud contracts".

Last week, SpaceX conducted several successful flights, including a NASA crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and Google's artificial intelligence (AI) chips into orbit.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) closed with gains of 2.75% at $485.80 per unit after Elon Musk confirmed talks with the firm about a potential collaboration on his Terafab semiconductor initiative.

In a newsletter, tech journalist Tim Culpan said, "TSMC is exploring ways to work with Elon Musk's Terafab to help the startup chipmaker run its new semiconductor factories in Texas, my sources tell me."

Responding to a screenshot of the letter on X, Musk said, "Just discussions, but something may come of it."

Other stocks that ended in green include Western Digital Corp, Shopify, Autodesk, Seagate Technology Holdings, Astera Labs, PayPal Holdings, Moderna, PTC, Visa, Alphabet Class A, Walmart, The Walt Disney Company and McDonald’s Corp, among others.

The companies will start post-third-quarter earnings next week. Goldman Sachs expects S&P 500 companies to post earnings-per-share growth of 27% in the third quarter.

Citi strategist Beata Manthey noted that despite various headwinds, global equities have climbed about 12% year-to-date.