Investing.com-- The S&P 500 jumped Monday, as investors awaited the start of the Federal Reserve’s meeting and the Nvidia’s annual conference for further insight into AI demand.
At 4:00 p.m. ET (20:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 353 points, or 0.9%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.2%, and NASDAQ Composite rose 0.3%.
Concerns over the country’s economic health rose over the weekend after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview with NBC on Sunday, said there were "no guarantees" that the U.S. economy will avoid recession this year.
This came just a week after U.S. President Donald Trump declined to rule one out.
Retail sales rebound
U.S. retail sales rebounded in February, suggesting that the economy continued to grow in the first quarter, though at a moderate pace as tariffs on imports and mass firings of federal government workers weigh on sentiment.
"We do not see much evidence at all that consumers pulled forward demand for goods that could potentially be affected by tariffs," Jefferies said in a recent note.
Retail sales rose 0.2% last month after a revised 1.2% decline in January, weaker than the 0.6% growth predicted.
Fed meeting in focus
Investors were also on guard for more economic cues from a Federal Reserve meeting this week, with the central bank widely expected to keep rates unchanged.
Trump’s flip-flopping on trade tariffs against major trading partners, coupled with his continued threats of more tariffs, were a key point of uncertainty for markets in recent months.
"As for the Fed this week, we should worry about whether it fails to live up to the market’s hope for two or three rate cuts this year," Macquarie said. "That worry is borne by the suspicion the Fed is not ’in charge’ anymore, having relinquished control of macroeconomic policy to the Trump administration."
Recent data showed inflation remained resilient, while retail sentiment and the labor market cooled. The latter could give the Fed some impetus to soften its hawkish stance on rates.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) developer conference eyed; Tesla continues slide
Nvidia, down nearly 2%, started the week on the back foot just a day ahead of the chipmaker’s annual GTC conference due Mar. 18.
At the conference, Nvidia is expected to provide datapoints that support expectations that its next-gen AI chip Blackwell’s issues have been sorted and continued to tout strong AI-led demand amid rising competition.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell more than 4% after Mizuho cut its price on the stock to $415 from $430 a share, citing a softer EV sales outlook.
Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD) said it was rolling out prediction markets for users on its app allowing them to bet on events including sports tournaments to Fed rate decision, sending its stock more than 7% higher.
(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)