Yahoo Finance Nasdaq leads Wall St. gains as Microsoft hits record
STORY: Wall Street's main indexes closed up on Monday… with shares of Microsoft hitting a record high after the tech giant hired ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other top artificial intelligence executives.
The Dow gained more than half a percent, the S&P 500 added three-quarters of a percent and the Nasdaq gained more than 1.1%.
Altman - who also cofounded OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT - was set to join Microsoft after being fired Friday by the OpenAI board.
He will be joined by fellow OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman, as well as other researchers.
“Microsoft’s stock is up because they are investing heavily and are committed to AI….”
George Cipolloni, Portfolio Manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management, says that when the dust of the corporate drama settles, Altman and Microsoft could be a match made in AI heaven.
“I think obviously if Sam had any intention of commercializing this technology, he's at the right place at Microsoft. This is definitely where he needs to be and he's going to be supported by one of the best CEO's in the business and and they've maintained that commitment. So I do think there is potential to be you know maybe a better outcome for Sam here at Microsoft, even though obviously there's a lot of drama still that needs to be settled out.”
Microsoft wasn’t the only major tech gainer… shares of Apple rose 1% and Nvidia’s stock gained two-and-a-quarter percent a day ahead of the chipmaker’s earnings in which it is likely to deliver another blockbuster revenue forecast.
Also on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to issue minutes of its November meeting, which may provide clues on the direction of U.S. interest rates.
Among other movers, shares of Bristol Myers Squibb fell nearly 4% a day after Germany's Bayer stopped a late-stage trial testing a new anti-clotting drug, hurting investor confidence in all firms developing a similar class of drugs.
And Boeing shares rose more than 4.5% after Deutsche Bank upgraded the aerospace company to "buy" from "hold" and raised its price target to $270 from $204.
