The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned positive by mid-session on Monday as Nvidia (NVDA) stock pared its early morning losses.

Shares of the AI chip giant fell less than 1% after dropping as much as 3% on the heels of a report from the Information highlighting overheating issues with its latest Blackwell AI servers.

The big gainers on the Dow on Monday included Apple (AAPL), up more than 1.5%, and Home Depot (HD), up 1%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) climbed above $92,000 per token on Monday morning after rebounding from its biggest retreat since the election over the weekend.

The cryptocurrency has been a closely watched 'Trump trade', surging since Donald Trump's presidential election win. Trump has promised pro-crypto incentives, including the creation of a bitcoin national stockpile.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell more than 2.5% in early trading ahead of the AI chip giants quarterly results this week.

Investors also assessed a report over the weekend from the Information claiming the company may have hit a snag with its next-generation Blackwell technology involving an overheating issue. The report claims Nvidia asked its suppliers to change the design of its racks to overcome the problem.

Nvidia is slated to report its quarterly results this Wednesday after the market close. Investors will closely monitor commentary from the company to assess their outlook on the AI trade.

BofA analysts noted on Monday Nvidia "remains the most dominant stock in the market, driving 20% of S&P 500 return over the past year, and is expected drive nearly 25% of the S&P 500's EPS growth in 3Q."

The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed more than 0.8% to a session high on Monday morning, led by shares of Tesla (TSLA).

The EV maker's stock rose as much as 8% following a Bloomberg report stating President-elect Donald Trump's team is looking to ease US rules for self-driving vehicles.

According to the report, Trump's transition team intends to make a federal framework for fully autonomous cars a top priority of the Department of Transportation.

Apple (AAPL) shares, up 1.5% on Monday, also helped lift the Nasdaq, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) also gained.

Yahoo Finance's Laura Bratton reports:

Nvidia (NVDA) stock sank as much as 3% in early trading Monday following a new report from the Information highlighting overheating issues with its latest Blackwell AI servers.

The news also comes ahead of the AI chipmaker's earnings report, which is slated for release after the market close on Wednesday.

The news is not the first time issues have been reported with the company's Blackwell products. In August, he Information reported that the leading AI chipmaker was dealing with design flaws related to the individual Blackwell chips themselves.

Read more here.

Homebuilders rose following Donald Trump’s election victory, though expectations for the housing market still remained muted in November.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rose 3 points to 46 in November, up from 43 from the previous month and marking the third consecutive monthly gain. November’s reading was higher than economists’ estimates of 43, according to Bloomberg data.

Still, any reading under 50 indicates more builders view conditions as poor rather than good.

“With the elections now in the rearview mirror, builders are expressing increasing confidence that Republicans gaining all the levers of power in Washington will result in significant regulatory relief for the industry that will lead to the construction of more homes and apartments,” NAHB chairman Carl Harris, a custom homebuilder from Wichita, Kan., wrote in a press statement.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates continued their recent rise, with the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan holding at 6.78% last week from 6.79% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac.

Rates on a home loan tend to follow US Treasury yields, which have been rising since mid-September due in part to investors anticipating a Trump victory and his proposed policies around taxes and tariffs. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell as low as 6.08% in early September.

"While the stock market cheered the election result, the bond market has concerns, as indicated by a rise for long-term interest rates," said NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz. "There is also policy uncertainty in front of the business sector and housing market as the executive branch changes hands."

The NAHB survey showed builders continue to offer concessions in November.

The survey found that 60% of builders used some sort of sales incentive to close the deal, slightly lower than the 62% that used incentives in October. Meanwhile, 31% of builders cut home prices to bolster sales in November, unchanged since July. The average price reduction was 5%, slightly lower than 6% last month.

The gauge measuring the sales outlook over the next six months rose 7 points to 64. The prospective-buyer traffic gauge gained 3 points, while the NAHB index of current sales conditions rose 2 points in November.

The major averages opened mixed on Monday as investors focus on earnings from chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) later this week to test the strength of the AI trade, and determine the near-term direction of the market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dipped 0.2% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) was flat. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.1% as Tesla (TSLA) jumped over the possibility of more relaxed autonomous driving rules under a Trump administration.

Meanwhile, Nvidia will report earnings this Wednesday. On Monday, BofA analysts noted Nvidia "remains the most dominant stock in the market, driving 20% of S&P 500 return over the past year, and is expected drive nearly 25% of the S&P 500's EPS growth in 3Q."

"With the market taking a breather last week following the election rally, we believe NVDA earnings can dictate the near-term direction of the market," wrote the analysts.

Wall Street's 2025 outlook reports are trickling in, and one keyword search I am doing, of course, 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 would 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:

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

They are super, extra sky high!

Nvidia has outperformed the S&P 500 (^GSPC) by 172% year to date and 5% in 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 release. Here's Lipacis in a client note this morning:

I touched on Nvidia's valuation in a recent chat on the 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.