US STOCKS-Wall St roars back as oil slide eases inflation jitters; Nvidia drops

By Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi

Nov 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rebounded on Monday as a drop in oil prices soothed investor nerves after last week's selloff, even as AI heavyweight Nvidia hit a seven-month low following the controversy surrounding CEO Jensen Huang.

The strong gains allayed concerns about the AI trade, which shook markets following the Democrats' midterm triumph last week. Ten of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were in positive territory, with industrials .SPLRCI and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD leading gains.

US President Donald Trump downplayed the likelihood of renewed strikes on Iran, sending crude prices lower and easing inflation concerns.

Inflation will be front and center this week after the Labor Department releases its Consumer Price Index report for October on Tuesday.

Markets also drew comfort from some Wall Street brokerages calling for calm. Morgan Stanley and UBS said last week's rout in AI stocks was overdone, and the risks of extreme regulation of data center developments under a Democratic-controlled Congress were unlikely to play out.

But there are other challenges. Fears of a December rate hike persisted following October's stronger-than-expected jobs data.

Nvidia NVDA.O, the second most valuable company in the world, fell 6.2% to its lowest since April after an internal investigation into whether CEO Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort raised questions about his future at the AI chipmaker.

At 11:45 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 953.53 points, or 1.86%, to 52,239.26, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 151.53 points, or 2.05%, to 7,528.39 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC jumped 574.76 points, or 2.34%, to 25,155.62.

"There's still going to be a bit of reckoning as far as the AI trade is concerned," said Ted Parkhill, founder and CEO of Incline Investment Management.

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CHIPS INCH HIGHER, MARKETS ASSESS EARNINGS

Chipmakers were up, with Marvell Technology MRVL.O and Broadcom AVGO.O rising 9% and 8%, respectively, while Intel INTC.O and Qualcomm QCOM.O gained over 4% each.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index .SOX added 6%, after suffering its worst week since March 2025.

Among the hyperscalers, Microsoft MSFT.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O, Meta META.O and Amazon AMZN.O were up between 2% and 5%.

Elon Musk-led Tesla TSLA.O and SpaceX SPCX.O also advanced 5.5% each.

Shares of investment giant KKR rose 2.3% after its quarterly profit hit a record high. Constellation Energy CEG.O, an energy firm with exposure to the AI boom, rose 8% after its adjusted third-quarter profit surpassed expectations.

Of the 335 companies in the S&P 500 that had reported earnings as of Thursday, 82.4% beat estimates, according to Tajinder Dhillon, head of earnings and equity research at LSEG Data and Analytics.

Berkshire Hathaway's class A shares were 0.5% lower after the conglomerate reported lower third-quarter profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.93-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 3.41-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 120 new lows.