By Joe Woelfel and George Glover
Stocks rose Monday after negotiators from the U.S. and China hammered out the framework for a trade deal between the world's two largest economies.
These stocks were making moves Monday:
Qualcomm surged 19% after the semiconductor company introduced its AI200 and AI250 rack server lineup, offering new artificial-intelligence competition in an area dominated by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. "With Qualcomm AI200 and AI250, we're redefining what's possible for rack-scale AI inference," said Qualcomm Senior Vice President Durga Malladi.
Nvidia rose 2.2%, while Advanced Micro Devices gained 0.2%. AMD set a record closing high on Friday of $252.92 after jumping 7.6%. The stock closed Friday with a market capitalization of $410.45 billion.
Avidity Biosciences surged 43% to $70.09 after Swiss drugmaker Novartis agreed to buy the biotech company in a deal valued at around $12 billion. Novartis will pay $72 a share in cash for the San Diego-based Avidity, roughly a 46% premium to Avidity's closing price on Friday of $49.15. Avidity's drugs include late-stage therapies for the treatment of neuromuscular diseases. U.S.-listed shares of Novartis fell 1.7%.
Gold miner Newmont dropped 6.3% after tumbling 6.2% on Friday. Bullion prices tumbled last week, with many investors opting to take profits after a stellar recent run for the precious metal. The most actively traded gold futures contract fell 2.6% to $4,031.80 an ounce.
MP Materials fell 9.8%, USA Rare Earth declined 14%, and other rare-earths stocks traded lower after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expected China to defer its tightened export controls on rare-earth materials as a result of negotiations with his Beijing counterparts.
GameStop gained 1.4% after trading much higher in the premarket session. The videogame retailer posted a humorous message on its verified X social media account last week, calling for an end to the so-called console wars, as a reference to game players' preferences for various platforms and designers' and publishers' decision to prioritize one over the other. A similarly playful image of President Donald Trump released by the White House, depicting him as a character in Microsoft's upcoming release of Halo: Campaign Evolved, was also taken as support for GameStop's broader marketing effort.
Microsoft was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim with a price target of $586. Analyst John DiFucci wrote in a research report: "In a time when investors struggle to separate AI beneficiaries from AI casualties, it's clear to us that Microsoft, along with the other hyperscalers, is a beneficiary." DiFucci added that Microsoft "has a near monopoly in the Productivity Suite market with its Office offering and therefore has been, and will be able to continue to directly monetize AI offerings (namely Copilot) tied to that product suite." Microsoft rose 1.7% to $532.66. The software giant is scheduled to report quarterly earnings after the closing bell Wednesday.
Keurig Dr Pepper gained 5.7% after third-quarter profit and sales rose from a year earlier and the beverage company boosted its fiscal-year sales outlook.
Harley-Davidson fell 2% to $27.65. The motorcycle maker was cut to Underweight from Equalweight at Morgan Stanley and the price target was reduced to $25 from $27.
American Water Works and Essential Utilities reached an agreement to merge in an all-stock deal that will result in a combined water-and-wastewater public utility valued at roughly $40 billion. American Water Works fell 3.3%, while Essential Utilities slipped 0.5%.
Earnings reports are expected Monday after the closing bell from Welltower, Cadence Design Systems, Waste Management, NXP Semiconductors, and Nucor.
Reports are expected later in the week from Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon.com, UnitedHealth Group, Eli Lilly, Boeing, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Caterpillar, United Parcel Service, Verizon, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, CVS Health, AbbVie, Visa, Mastercard, NextEra Energy, PayPal, Booking Holdings, Coinbase Global, Royal Caribbean, Sherwin-Williams, D.R. Horton, Starbucks, Carvana, Gilead Sciences, Comcast, and Charter Communications.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2025 10:42 ET (14:42 GMT)
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