Stocks Climb as Wall Street Braces for Fed Decision and Big Tech Earnings
U.S. stocks rose Monday as oil prices eased, with investors bracing for a Federal Reserve decision and earnings reports from Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon later in the week.
The S&P 500 was up 0.9% as of 11 a.m. Eastern, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 242 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.3%, the Associated Press reported.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.4% to $110.17 a barrel. Oil prices have been elevated for months because of the war between the United States and Iran.
The gains followed a losing week. Stocks finished lower Friday as concerns about AI spending, rising oil prices and Middle East tensions weighed on markets, TheStreet reported.
President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview Sunday that he was weighing whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish it off.” “It’s getting to be decision time,” he said, according to CNBC.
Mediators from Qatar visited Tehran on Sunday. The last confirmed U.S. strikes on Iran were on Sept. 1, and Trump has said attacks would not resume until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
A Crowded Week
About a third of S&P 500 companies report results this week, Reuters reported. Investors will look to Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon for signs of whether heavy spending on AI is paying off.
The Fed’s policy committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday, and markets are mostly betting it will hold rates steady, according to The Wall Street Journal. Investors will listen for hints about the central bank’s next steps.
“The markets are only implying a 10% chance of a hike at this meeting, but market participants will be searching for clues the central bank is warming up the market for a hike in December,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Rodda said several factors that “could determine how the markets fare for the rest of 2026” collide this week, with investors watching Big Tech’s spending plans and growth.
He added that the midterm elections “will cast a shadow over the market,” especially since next week’s vote is being treated as an informal deadline for peace talks with Iran.
Anthropic’s public IPO filing also gave stock futures a brief lift before the open, according to Reuters. The AI company disclosed $16.29 billion in first-half revenue and plans to list on the Nasdaq.
Not every corner of the market was rising. Brazil-linked stocks plunged after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won reelection, with Nu Holdings down 21.7% and Itau Unibanco down 21.3% early in the session, 24/7 Wall St. reported.
Several companies report after the closing bell Monday, including Cadence Design Systems, Whirlpool, Welltower and Nucor. Investors will also get the Chicago Fed National Activity Index and a Texas manufacturing survey.
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