S&P 500 rises as AI name Nvidia rebounds, EA surges on takeover: Live updates

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack on Monday said the U.S. central bank faces challenges as it attempts to balance fighting stubborn inflation or protecting jobs.

“On the inflation side right now, I continue to be worried about where we are from an inflation perspective,” Hammack told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“We have been missing our mandate on the inflation side, our objective of 2%, for more than four-and-a-half years and I continue to see that we have pressure in inflation both in the headline, in the core, and particularly, where I am worried about it, is I’m seeing it in the services,” she added.

Asked whether it is mistake for the Federal Reserve to be cutting interest rates given the economic backdrop, Hammack described it as “a challenging time for monetary policy,” saying the U.S. central bank was facing pressure on both sides of its mandate.

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— Sam Meredith

There was more good news for the housing market Monday as pending home sales unexpectedly rose in August.

The National Association of Realtors reported that houses under contact increased 4% for the month, much better than the Dow Jones forecast for no change.

“Lower mortgage rates are enabling more homebuyers to go under contract. In the Midwest, low mortgage rates combined with high levels of affordability are attracting more buyers compared to other regions,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.

Borrowing costs declined during the month, with a typical 30-year mortgage rate falling from 6.75% to 6.58%, according to Bankrate.

— Jeff Cox

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he’s going to impose a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas.

“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’ California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”

Trump first announced such plans early May. He previously said foreign productions could be a national security threat.

Shares of media and entertainment companies came under pressure Monday on the heels of the announcement. Warner Bros Discovery and Comcast, for example, dipped 0.5%. Others like Disney and Netflix were last higher, however, after initially falling in premarket trading.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

— Yun Li

Stocks opened in the green on Monday morning.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% just after 9:30 a.m. ET, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also climbed 98 points, or 0.2%.

— Sean Conlon

There could be more room to run for stocks, according to Goldman Sachs.

The firm upgraded global equities to overweight from neutral for the next three months, saying that “good earnings growth, Fed easing without a recession and global fiscal policy easing will continue to support equities.”

“Markets have continued with their ‘risk on’ shift supported by a Goldilocks backdrop based on optimistic growth expectations (boosted by AI) with dovish Fed expectations,” said Christian Mueller-Glissmann, Goldman’s head of asset allocation research in London, in a Monday note. “While Goldilocks regimes with strong growth and low inflation can last for a long time as seen since the 1990s, the current backdrop is different as weak labor market conditions drive Fed dovishness rather than anchored inflation.

Mueller-Glissmann noted that investor sentiment and positioning has “not picked up materially” even with the risk-on performance in the market.

“Unlike previous Goldilocks periods, positioning hasn’t reached very bullish levels – flows into bonds, gold, and money markets stay strong while surveys remain somewhat bearish (only retail investors are more bullish),” he said. “We remain modestly pro-risk in our asset allocation,” he added.

To be sure, Mueller-Glissmann pointed out that the Goldilocks backdrop could meet a bearish scenario in one of three ways: firstly, a growth shock due to rising unemployment rate or AI disappointments; secondly, a rate shock from the Federal Reserve not delivering on more dovish expectations or from long-term yields signaling more risk of fiscal dominance; or thirdly, increasing pessimism about the prospects of the U.S. dollar.

— Sean Conlon

These companies are making the biggest moves before the opening bell Monday:

• Electronic Arts — Shares rose 5% shortly after a consortium of investors announced it had struck a $55 billion deal to acquire the videogame maker and take it private, confirming earlier reports.

• Cannabis stocks — The group surged after President Donald Trump posted a video on Truth Social touting the benefits of cannabinoids for seniors. The AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis ETF (MSOS) ripped 22% higher. Aurora Cannabis jumped 14%.

• Novo Nordisk — U.S.-listed shares of the Danish pharma stock fell 3.2% following Morgan Stanley’s downgrade to underweight from equal weight. Morgan Stanley cited rising competition in the GLP-1 space and other downside risks.

• Lam Research — The semiconductor equipment maker climbed 3% after a Deutsche Bank upgrade to buy from hold. The bank said Lam Research will benefit an improving outlook for wafer fabrication equipment and a valuation that’s somewhat in line with peers.

For the full list, click here.

— Liz Napolitano

Electronic Arts will be taken private by PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners in an all-cash deal valued at $55 billion, the video game company said Monday. The stock was halted during premarket trading.

— Sarah Min

— Sean Conlon

President Donald Trump warned Sunday of widespread layoffs if the federal government shuts down this week, telling NBC News that “we are going to cut a lot of the people that … we’re able to cut on a permanent basis.”

″[I’d] rather not do that,” he told NBC News in an exclusive interview.

The White House is doubling down on warnings that thousands of government jobs could be on the line if the government shuts down at midnight on Tuesday.

Read more here.

— Erin Doherty

— Fred Imbert

Stock futures rose to start the week as Wall Street tries to regain momentum.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% last week, its worst weekly performance since Aug. 1, and now sits 0.8% off its record high. The Nasdaq dropped 0.7%, also its weakest since early August. The Dow edged down 0.2%, its first loss in three weeks.

Oracle shares fell more than 8% last week to lead the AI trade lower.

— Fred Imbert, Yun Li