US STOCKS-Wall Street set for higher open; Kenvue soars after Kimberly-Clark deal

By Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal

Nov 3 2025 - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were poised to kick off November on firmer ground on Monday, driven by optimism around AI demand and a U.S.-China trade truce, while Kenvue shares soared after Kimberly-Clark's buyout deal.

Kenvue KVUE.N jumped 18% in premarket trading after Kimberly-Clark KMB.N said it will acquire the Tylenol maker in a deal valued at more than $40 billion. Kimberly-Clark slid 14.8%.

The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX posted its sixth consecutive monthly gain in October, its longest such streak in four years, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC logged its longest in over seven years, after several so-called "Magnificent Seven" companies pointed to a surge in AI spending.

Investors await more clues as semiconductor firms including Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O and Qualcomm QCOM.O report results later this week.

Michael Sansoterra, CIO at Silvant Capital Management, said the market was seeing earnings growth for most companies outside the big tech names.

"That tells us that the market's on track beyond the AI theme. The fundamentals of the economy have been surprisingly resilient given some of the fears around inflation and jobs," he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Nvidia's most advanced chips will be reserved for U.S. companies, while a report said Microsoft was allowed to ship the AI giant's chips to the UAE for the first time.

Nvidia NVDA.O shares gained 2.2%, also helped by a $100 rise in Loop Capital's price target on the stock.

Sentiment was also buoyed by a U.S.-China deal last week.

At 08:45 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were down 35 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 21 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 172.25 points, or 0.66%.

PRIVATE ECONOMIC DATA AWAITED

The spotlight will be on private sector economic data this week to gauge the health of the economy, with the second-longest U.S. government shutdown contributing to data fog and monetary policy uncertainty.

Wednesday's ADP's private payrolls data will be closely watched, particularly after Fed Chair Jerome Powell tempered optimism for a December rate cut and a clutch of Fed officials aired discomfort with the central bank's decision to cut interest rates last week.

The Institute for Supply Management's gauge of U.S. manufacturing for October is also due at 10 a.m. ET on Monday.

Traders are now pricing in a 69.3% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut in December, lower than the 90% a week earlier, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a case around the legality of Trump's tariffs on Wednesday.

Before the bell, Berkshire Hathaway's BRKb.N Class B shares rose about 0.9% after Warren Buffett's conglomerate reported a higher profit for the third quarter.

Data storage companies gained after a report said Samsung 005930.KS delayed its DDR5 contract pricing to mid-November.

Seagate Technology STX.O and Western Digital WDC.O were up 1.3% and 1.5%, respectively. Sandisk SNDK.O rose 5.2%.

IREN IREN.O jumped 21% after the data center operator signed a near $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft MSFT.O to provide it with access to Nvidia GB300 processors over a five-year period.