Stocks rose higher on Monday, driven primarily by gains in technology shares, as investors geared up for another busy week of earnings reports and economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) climbed to fresh intraday and closing highs on Monday, settling at 50,135.87. The broader market S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) rose 0.5% higher to end the session at 6,964.82, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: QQQ) advanced 0.9% to close at 23,238.67.
Software giant Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) was a stand out amongst technology gains, rising nearly double-digits after D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral due to renewed artificial intelligence optimism surrounding OpenAI.
"We believe that a revamped OpenAI will return to its position as Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) top challenger and with a fresh stack of capital be able to live up to its obligations this year, including to Oracle," Luria wrote in a note to clients.
"This includes going down the path of turning on ads, which will be critical for increased monetization and reduced cash burn. Management also appears to have realized that they need to align with [Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)], instead of trying to compete with them," Luria added.
Elsewhere, shares of information technology infrastructure services provider Kyndryl Holdings (NYSE: KD), who spun off from IBM (NYSE: IBM) in late 2021, plunged a record 54% lower on Monday, as more than 38 million shares traded compared to its usual daily volume of about 2.3 million over the past month.
The historic activity followed Kyndryl disclosing in a regulatory filing that its audit committee is reviewing the company's cash management practices, and said chief financial officer David Wyshner and general counsel Edward Sebold had vacated their positions, effective immediately.
Looking ahead, market participants will turn their attention toward earnings reports from companies including Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) and Ford Motor (NYSE: F) on Tuesday. Economic readings due out Tuesday include December's U.S. retail sales.