Market check: Stocks open mixed, AI stocks surge

Yahoo Finance Live anchor Brad Smith checks out the market and sector action this morning, as AI stocks surge on recent tech trends.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We've got the opening bell that just rang on Wall Street. Let's do a quick check of the market sponsored by FlexShares. And we see a mixed picture here, interestingly, to start us off here.

We've got the NASDAQ in the lead once again, up 1%. The S&P only up about half of that. And the Dow is very little changed today. This is even as it looks like we were getting closer to a debt ceiling deal. That's something that everybody has been waiting for. Brad's over at the Wi-Fi interactive, looking at some of the early action here, Brad.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. And kind of taking a broader look here, as we are nearly rounding out the month of May. We've got today and tomorrow, of course, left.

But taking a look at the Dow Jones Industrial average here today, it's flat, just barely to the downside. Keep a close eye on these past couple of months that we've been watching here. And for the Dow Jones Industrial average, for the Dow, as you would call it in your hood, we're going to look to see exactly where May ends out here. Because that looking like it's going to be a down month, following what we had seen during the month of April, and some gains there. And then, additionally, during the month of March, with some gains there that we saw. So, ultimately, might be looking to snap that streak.

The NASDAQ composite, though, as you're taking a look at that month-to-month, looking to add on to those gains. And year-to-date, we're up by about 25% on the NASDAQ composite. Here, today, up 9/10 of a percent. S&P 500, you're seeing that up half a percent, out of the gate this morning. Year-to-date, seeing gains of about 10% there.

Also want to take a look at a few heat maps here. First, we'll take a look at the major sectors here for the S&P 500. 11 sectors, got them loaded up on the screen for you. And as of right now, out of the gate, real estate-- that is leading the chart right now. That's up by about 1.4%.

However, bringing up the caboose, you've got energy. That's down by about 1.3%. More gainers than laggards here.

Also do want to take a brief look at some of those AI stocks, as they are ripping here this morning, considering what has been announced over the course of last week, with NVIDIA. And then even more of that momentum in the space, really pushing many of those AI players into even more of those gains, and the positive territory being held onto here, except for a handful of names, just about four of them. Notably, Google or Alphabet, Baidu, and then two others also joining in on those laggards. But taking a look at C3 AI, you're seeing them, out of the gate, higher by about 10%, 11% this morning.

JULIE HYMAN: Can you pull up NVIDIA real quick on there.

BRAD SMITH: I can, indeed. Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: Why don't we look at a year-to-date chart? Because NVIDIA is now at a trillion-- drum-roll-- a trillion dollars in market cap. It got there today, with that 4% bump on the gains that it saw late last week, bringing that year-to-date gain-- what was that, 178%?

BRAD SMITH: Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: For those shares, which is just incredible here. So, again, a trillion dollars is the market cap now for NVIDIA. It's only the ninth stock ever, Brad, to reach that level. There are the other-- some of the other more recent entrants there too, have reached that size of market cap, which is pretty extraordinary.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah. Really interesting to also see some of the other players that have been having quite the year, within this broader landscape, the AI landscape here. Perhaps I'll just toggle back over to the NASDAQ composite, where we can get a good look at those trillion market cap companies. Amazon-- actually, you're seeing two of them in the bottom left-hand corner here, with Alphabet and Amazon also being in those throws.

And then, additionally here-- yeah, I had to kind of adjust my screen there for a hot second. But NVIDIA is-- [CHUCKLES] is definitely within that $1 trillion market cap landscape. And yeah, 177% year-to-date gains for NVIDIA.

Now, of course, this context, after the decline that we had seen during 2022, with some of the larger tech players out there. But NVIDIA, last year, took a nail. This year, maybe, the bounce back continues. We'll continue to watch that.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. Why don't you pull it out to a five-year? Because I think it's there, and then some, compared to where it was pre-pandemic, given those losses.

Yep, there it is. That makes sense. Obviously, it wasn't at a trillion before.

- [LAUGHS]

JULIE HYMAN: And it's at trillion now. So we're looking at a record stock price, and a record market cap there for those NVIDIA shares, after it said-- you know, Jensen Huang, the CEO, saying that, basically, we're going to see a whole replacement cycle for the types of chips that are in data centers now. And then rolling out the additional products at Computex in Taiwan. So, really interesting stuff.

BRAD SMITH: Absolutely. And I mean, as we were talking about it with Michael a moment ago, the amount of mentions of AI over the course of this earnings season. For S&P 500 companies, far exceeding what the records were before.

And even as investors start to think about where those plays within AI are-- you probably had the best example over the course of the Meta earnings call, where Mark Zuckerberg laid out that you're going to have applications that sit on top of language-learning models. And then at the base and the core of that is the chips. And so those chip players really having an out-sized move here, with the AI mentions, and where they're seeing some of that revenue opportunity move forward.

JULIE HYMAN: Definitely. Well, we're going to keep an eye on NVIDIA, of course, and the broader move in AI.