Tech Leads Broad Rally to Start the Week; Nasdaq-100 Jumps 2.25% as AI Trade Reignites

Wall Street opened the week with a powerful tech-led advance, as investors pivoted back into the artificial intelligence trade after a soft showing the prior week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 climbed 2.25%, the broad S&P 500 rose 1.05% to 7,431.25, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.69% to notch a record close above 52,000. The rebound was concentrated in the so-called Magnificent Seven and the hyperscaler complex, which roared back after lagging in recent sessions. Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Intel (INTC) each gained roughly 2% as money rotated into both the chip-producer and cloud-infrastructure sides of the AI theme. Tesla (TSLA) also participated in the relief rally in large-cap growth. Alphabet (GOOGL) was the standout, surging nearly 5% as it celebrated its newly confirmed addition to the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average — a milestone that helped power the blue-chip index to its record. The move underscores how deeply AI-linked names now influence even the price-weighted Dow. Monday's leadership marks a continuation of a dominant 2026 theme: the S&P 500's information technology sector has rallied roughly 50% off its late-March low, outpacing every other group. The advance has been underwritten by enormous capital expenditures from hyperscalers Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, which are collectively expected to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure this year. That spending has rippled outward to equipment and component suppliers, with names like Applied Materials and Lumentum among the year's biggest winners. Interestingly, Nvidia itself has lagged the broader semiconductor complex in 2026 despite consistently strong earnings, leaving some strategists arguing the megacap chip leader has further room to run as the AI buildout accelerates. CEO Jensen Huang's recent Computex keynote and the debut of Nvidia's RTX processor for Windows — a direct challenge to Intel and AMD — have kept the company at the center of the narrative. Beyond Big Tech, space and aerospace stocks posted strong gains, led by Rocket Lab after it announced an $8 billion deal to acquire satellite operator Iridium. With both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recovering last week's losses in a single session, sentiment appears firmly tilted toward risk. Investors now turn their attention to upcoming jobs data, which could shape Federal Reserve rate expectations and test whether the AI-fueled momentum can sustain fresh records into the second half of the year. Sources: TheStreet, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Advisor Perspectives.