Meta, tech stocks push indexes higher as oil prices slide

Strength in the tech sector spurred U.S. stock benchmarks to extend gains midday Monday as oil prices slide and officials signalled optimism about a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping this week.

The S&P 500 Index traded up 1.3 per cent at 12:45 p.m. in New York for its biggest intraday gain in over a month, with 10 of the 11 industry groups advancing. Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc. was the biggest contributor to the S&P 500’s advance on Monday thanks to optimism surrounding its AI offering called Muse. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index climbed 2.5 per cent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 per cent.

“AI stocks are exploding higher and the main catalyst seems to be Meta Muse optimism amid indications of strong demand for the app,” said Vital Knowledge founder Adam Crisafulli, adding that Muse is more “CPU-intensive” than other AI technologies, which helped spur a rally in Intel Corp. on Monday.

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Declining oil prices and the potential of easing geopolitical tensions also helped to lift stocks. Traders had turned negative on tech when The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Anthropic would push back its IPO to November. Citigroup Inc. CEO Jane Fraser said Sunday that companies are racing to build up defenses as advanced artificial-intelligence models raise the risk of cyber attacks.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described weekend meetings with China’s top trade negotiator Li Chenggang as “very successful.” Those meetings come ahead of a summit between the countries’ leaders this week.

Trump also said he would be willing to meet with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian at the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York. Oil prices slipped below US$100 a barrel as U.S. Central Command said flows through the Strait of Hormuz are at a six-month high.

Strategists at JPMorgan led by Mislav Matejka said the market may continue to see some volatility “in the very short term” as the Iran war and a seasonally challenging month of September drag on. In a Monday note, they said that investors can expect “October will see markets realigning with the fundamental backdrop more closely, and here we see the supportive setup persisting.”