Stock market today: Nasdaq leads Dow, S&P 500 higher as chip stocks and bitcoin rally, oil prices fall
Stock market today: Nasdaq leads Dow, S&P 500 higher as chip stocks and bitcoin rally, oil prices fall
Grace O'DonnellMon, September 21, 2026 at 8:02 AM UTC
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Tech stocks led the stock market higher on Monday as oil prices fell, bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices surged above $85,000, and chip stocks rallied ahead of AI leaders’ dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) saw the strongest gains, climbing 1.5% as semiconductor stocks . The S&P 500 (^GSPC), meanwhile, gained 0.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.3% after the blue-chip index posted itsthird straight weekly loss.
Sentiment went risk-on during Monday’s trading session as oil prices retreated below $100 per barrel amid hopes that the US and Iran would resume diplomatic talks. Bitcoin also jumped to an eight-month high, lifting crypto-related stocks like Strategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN).
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Stocks have powered through a wall of worry during this historically weak month, remaining resilient despite rising bond yields, geopolitical risk in the Middle East, growing bets on Fed rate hikes, and AI jitters.
With a sparser economic and earnings calendar this week, one thing markets will be closely watching is the summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
The high-stakes talks are expected to focus on extending the tariff truce and cooperation on artificial intelligence. Several AI leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, former Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm Inc. CEO Cristiano Amon, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, will also attend a dinner with the Chinese president. Wall Street executives Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and JPMorgan Chase CEO will also join, Yahoo Finance has learned.
The summit comes at a critical point for those companies, after an essay by Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) CEO Dario Amodei broke open a long-simmering debate over whether or not frontier AI labs should pace model development.
Source: “AOL Money”
