Post-Bell｜S&P 500, Nasdaq End Higher; Kenvue And Iren Jumped 12%; Hims Jumped 6%; Amazon Rose 4%

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed higher on Monday, with artificial intelligence-related deals driving much of the gains even as the Federal Reserve's near-term monetary policy grew increasingly foggy due to scarcity of official U.S. economic data.

Market Snapshot

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 226.19 points, or 0.48%, to 47,336.68, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 11.77 points, or 0.17%, to 6,851.97 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 109.77 points, or 0.46%, to 23,834.72.

Market Movers

Palantir Technologies — Shares of Palantir rose 1% in extended trading after the software company reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s estimates, with government sales growing 52% from a year ago. Palantir earned 21 cents per share, after adjustments, on revenue of $1.18 billion for the period, while analysts polled by LSEG expected it to earn 17 cents per share on $1.09 billion in revenue. Palantir also gave better-than-expected fourth-quarter guidance as its commercial business, driven by its AI platform, continues to ramp up.

Grab Holdings beat analysts' expectations for third-quarter revenue on Monday, helped by robust consumer spending on ride-hailing and food-delivery services as its platform expansion draws in more users. Shares of the Singapore-based tech firm were up around 2% in extended trading.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals — The biotech stock lost 4% after it reported mixed third-quarter results. Vertex earned $4.80 per share, excluding items, on revenue of $3.08 billion. Although the company’s profit came out lower than the $4.58 per share estimate from analysts surveyed by FactSet, revenue beat the $3.06 billion forecast.

Diamondback Energy — Diamondback Energy stock lost 2% in after-hours trading. The oil and gas company said it would sell its subsidiary Viper Energy’s non-Permian assets for $670 million in a transaction set to close in the first quarter of 2026. Diamondback also topped analysts’ consensus expectations, posting an adjusted third-quarter profit of $3.08 per share while analysts forecasted $2.93 per share, per LSEG. The company’s revenue of $3.92 billion for the period also exceeded analysts’ forecast of $3.52 billion.

Clorox — Shares of the cleaning products manufacturer rose more than 4% following the company’s first-quarter results. Clorox posted adjusted earnings of 85 cents per share on revenue of $1.43 billion, while analysts surveyed by LSEG had estimated 79 cents per share and revenue of $1.40 billion. The company also reaffirmed its full-year guidance.

Hims & Hers Health — Shares of the telehealth company jumped more than 6% after Hims & Hers beat third-quarter revenue expectations fueled by subscriber growth and “personalized” treatments. However, earnings fell short of estimates. The company reported $599 million in revenue, beating analysts’ consensus expectation of $580 million. Hims & Hers earned 6 cents per share, falling short of the 10 cents per share analyst estimate.

The Williams Companies — The energy company’s stock moved lower by 3% on the back of disappointing third-quarter results. The company, which runs one of the largest natural gas pipeline networks in the U.S., posted adjusted earnings per share of 49 cents, falling short of the 51 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue for the period beat estimates, however.

Upwork — Shares of the online marketplace, which connects freelancers to job opportunities, jumped nearly 14% after it raised its 2025 revenue forecast in the wake of strong third-quarter results. The company said it earned 36 cents per share, on a non-GAAP basis, on revenue of $201.7 million in the latest quarter.  For the fourth quarter, Upwork now expects fourth-quarter revenue of between $193 million and $198 million, while profit should be between 31 cents and 33 cents per share after adjustments.

IAC — The publisher’s stock fell more than 7% as artificial intelligence search summaries siphoned off website traffic and third-quarter revenue fell short of estimates. IAC, which owns People and other websites, said revenue fell 8% to $589.8 million, shy of the $601.6 million estimate from LSEG. The company also lowered its 2025 adjusted EBITDA estimate.

Lattice Semiconductor — The semiconductor company’s stock fell nearly 6% despite reporting third-quarter earnings that topped esimates. Lattice earned 28 cents per share on an adjusted basis on revenue of $133.3 million. However, its forecast was disappointing. The company expects fourth-quarter revenue growth of 22%, while adjusted earnings per share should be in the range of 30 cents to 34 cents per share, after adjustments. Both estimates were below the analyst consensus, according to FactSet.

Kenvue jumped 12% to $16.14 after Kimberly-Clark agreed to buy the Tylenol maker in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $48.7 billion, including debt. Kimberly-Clark will pay $21.01 a share, based on Kenvue's closing price from Friday. Kimberly-Clark declined 15%.

Berkshire Hathaway reported a 33% jump in third-quarter operating profit to $13.5 billion, lifted by insurance underwriting profits that rose to $2.4 billion from $750 million a year earlier, as well as gains at the company's railroad and manufacturing businesses. Warren Buffett's conglomerate didn't buy back any of its own stock in the period, continuing a trend that began in May 2024. Berkshire stock has declined more than 10% since Buffett announced in May that he would be stepping down as chief executive at the end of 2025 but remain chairman. Berkshire Hathaway's class B shares fell 0.4% on Monday.

Shares of Amazon.com rose 4% after the company reached a $38 billion agreement to provide infrastructure for OpenAI's artificial-intelligence workloads through its subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. The partnership will begin immediately and covers the next seven years.

Advanced Micro Devices rose 1.4%. The chip maker, which is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the closing bell Tuesday, finished October as the best-performing stock in the S&P 500, rising 26% during the month. It was AMD's best month since 2001, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Propelling the stock in October was an announcement that it had secured an agreement to become a major supplier for ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Iren jumped 12% after the data-center company signed a multi-year GPU cloud services contract with Microsoft. Iren will provide Microsoft with access to Nvidia GB300 GPUs over five years. The contract is valued at about $9.7 billion, including a 20% prepayment. Iren said it has a separate agreement with Dell Technologies to purchase the GPUs and equipment for roughly $5.8 billion. Shares of Dell and Microsoft fell 1.2% and 0.2%, respectively.

U.S.-listed shares of NIO gained 2.3% after the Chinese electric-vehicle maker delivered a record 40,397 cars in October, up 93% from a year earlier. XPeng's American Depositary Receipts were up 0.5% after deliveries jumped 76%, while Li Auto ticked down 1.8% after deliveries tumbled 38% from October 2024. Chinese EV leader BYD delivered 222,559 all-electric cars in October, up 17%.

Tesla stock rose 2.6%. The EV maker doesn't report monthly sales or sales by region, leaving investors to rely on industry sources. Through September, Tesla sold about 438,000 vehicles in China, down 5% from a year earlier, putting the U.S. EV giant on pace for its first-ever annual sales decline in China. Later this week, Tesla shareholders will vote on a new performance award for CEO Elon Musk, potentially granting him 425 million shares.

Cipher Mining surged 22% after the company, which develops data centers to perform Bitcoin mining, reported a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss and said it would provide space and power for AI workloads to Amazon Web Services in a $5.5 billion, 15-year lease agreement.

Idexx Laboratories gained 15% after the veterinary medicine company reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and boosted its full-year outlook.

UniQure tumbled 49% after the biotech company reported a likely regulatory setback for one of its gene therapies. The Food and Drug Administration no longer agrees that the data from Phase I/II studies of uniQure's therapy AMT-130 is adequate to support a Biologics License Application, the company said it believes. AMT-130 is an investigational gene therapy for Huntington's disease that the FDA granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation earlier this year.

ON Semiconductor rose by 0.8%. The chip maker reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue.

Market News

Starbucks to sell control of China business to Boyu Capital in $4 billion deal

Starbucks said on Monday it has agreed to sell control of its China operations to investment firm Boyu Capital in a deal valued at $4 billion.

Under the agreement, Boyu and Starbucks will operate a joint venture with Boyu holding a up to 60% interest in Starbucks retail operations in China. Starbucks will retain a 40% interest in the joint venture and will continue to own and license the Starbucks brand and intellectual property to the new entity, the companies said.

Fed's Cook: December live for a rate cut but will depend on incoming information

U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said on Monday she considers December's Fed meeting "live" for a potential rate cut but that she will make her decision based on information from a broad variety of sources between now and then, potentially in the absence of government data delayed by the federal shutdown.

"We are at a moment when risks to both sides of the dual mandate are elevated. Keeping rates too high increases the likelihood that the labor market will deteriorate sharply. Lowering rates too much would increase the likelihood that inflation expectations will become unanchored," Cook said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Brookings Institution. "As always, I determine my monetary policy stance each meeting based on the incoming data."