Megacap tech and the AI trade power US stocks to fresh records

The Magnificent 7 and most stocks in the AI ecosystem (with the exception of Nvidia) did the lion’s work in propelling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 to another day of record closing highs.

The benchmark US stock index rose 0.5%, the tech-heavy gauge was up 0.8%, and the Russell 2000 advanced 0.3% on Monday.

Communications services, tech, and consumer discretionary (the sectors home to the Magnificent 7) were the top-performing S&P 500 sector ETFs, while defensive sectors like consumer staples and healthcare were at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Gains on the day were led by Seagate Technology, which jumped 7.8% after Bank of America boosted its price target on the stock to $215 from $170. Western Digital shares were also up 4.8%. Corteva and J.M. Smucker were among the biggest decliners, falling 5.7% and 5.1%, respectively. Elsewhere…

Alphabet popped 4.5% to become the fourth company to surpass a $3 trillion market cap, joining Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple.

Tesla jumped 3.6% after CEO Elon Musk disclosed a purchase of 2.57 million shares, worth over $1 billion, according to a new SEC filing.

CoreWeave climbed 7.6% after striking an agreement with Nvidia, which will purchase all of CoreWeave’s unused cloud computing capacity through April 2032.

Snap and Meta shook off early declines to close higher after President Trump hinted on Truth Social that a TikTok deal had been reached, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later confirming the framework of an agreement had been achieved.

Alaska Air fell 6.7% after warning that Q3 profits will likely come in at the low end of its prior outlook.

Hims & Hers slipped 2.8% after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary called its February Super Bowl ad the “most overt” example of “brazen” online pharmacy marketing tactics.