Dow slips, Nasdaq pops as Tesla and bitcoin shine

US stock futures traded mixed on Monday amid fading optimism for interest-rate cuts, as investors looked ahead to Nvidia (NVDA) earnings to check the health of the AI trade.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) slipped roughly 0.2%, while S&P 500 futures (ES=F) were broadly flat. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) rose 0.3%, buoyed by a jump in Tesla (TSLA) stock.

Stocks are starting the week on the back foot because the prospect of higher-for-longer rates holds post-election bullishness in check. The S&P 500 has reversed half of its Trump-fueled rally after sharp weekly losses for the main gauges, led by tech.

Signs of a robust economy, combined with comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, have prompted investors to downsize expectations for rate cuts. After the large macro and political events of recent days, the week brings few economic releases seen as more likely to reset those calculations.

Provided that, eyes are actually on Nvidia’s results on Wednesday for insight into the strength of the AI trade, which has helped drive the S&P 500’s gains over the past yr. Production of its flagship Blackwell chip is in focus, especially after The Information reported the next-generation AI chip has run into problems with overheating. Nvidia shares were down over 2% in premarket trading.

Elsewhere in tech, EV maker Tesla’s shares rose almost 7% within the wake of a Bloomberg report that President-elect Donald Trump’s team is trying to ease US rules for self-driving vehicles.

Wall Street continues to watch Trump’s picks for his cabinet, after his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr for top health official rattled vaccine stocks. The incoming president has named Brendan Carr, a critic of Big Techs resembling Meta and Apple, as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The wait is now on to learn who will win the frenzied race to develop into Trump’s Treasury Secretary.

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) — a key Trump trade — has rebounded from its biggest retreat because the election on the weekend. The cryptocurrency was trading above $90,000 early on Monday.

LIVE 3 updates

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.
Goldman weighs in on potential Trump tariff impact

Wall Street’s 2025 outlook reports are trickling in, and one keyword search I’m doing, after all, is tariffs. Any tariffs imposed on China or Europe by Trump could impact the economy and the outlook for Fed policy.

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius is out this morning downplaying the potential economic impact of tariffs. Hatzius reasons that tariffs can be more of a one-time hit to growth and inflation, and won’t derail further rate cuts from the Fed in 2025.

Hatzius says:
Let Nvidia mania begin

To say expectations on Nvidia (NVDA) are sky high into its Wednesday earnings print is an understatement.

They’re super, extra sky high!

Nvidia has outperformed the S&P 500 (^GSPC) by 172% yr so far and 5% within the last month, points out EvercoreISI analyst Mark Lipacis. The stock trades on a forward P/E multiple of 37 times, a 54% premium to the S&P 500.

The expectations have Wall Street hedging their bets a bit on Nvidia into the discharge. Here’s Lipacis in a client note this morning:

I touched on Nvidia’s valuation in a recent chat on my Opening Bid podcast with Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya (video below). Arya makes some good points on how Nvidia’s stock tends to trade around certain valuation levels.