Equities Jump Ahead of Nvidia’s AI Event, Fed Meeting

• Technology led the stock market higher on Monday as investors await Nvidia’s big AI event.
• Nvidia is set to unveil its new GPU products like the B100 at its annual conference.
• The Fed will kick off its two-day policy meeting Tuesday, with markets expecting rates to be unchanged.

US stocks jumped on Monday,  led by the technology sector, as investors await Nvidia’s big AI conference.

Nvidia’s GTC, the annual conference centered on artificial intelligence, will kick off on Monday with a keynote presentation from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Huang is expected to give an update on the future of AI technologies, as well as unveil some of the company’s new GPU products like the B100, its successor to the wildly popular H100. 

Shares of Nvidia jumped about 3% in early Monday trades.

Following the AI-fueled excitement, investors will be turning their attention to the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting set to begin on Tuesday. While central bankers are expected to leave the benchmark rate unchanged, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech will be closely listened to by investors to gauge when the Fed may begin to cut interest rates.

Recent economic data, including two hotter-than-expected inflation reports last week, have brought the odds of a June rate cutdown to about 55%.

Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Monday: 

Here’s what else is going on today: 

In commodities, bonds, and crypto: 

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped 1.05% to $81.43 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed by 0.91% to $86.12 a barrel. 
• Gold declined by 0.02% to $2,161.10 per ounce. 
• The 10-year Treasury yield was flat at 4.32%.
• Bitcoin dropped by 0.65% to $67,918.