Dow Holds Its Gain as the AI Rebound Fizzles Into the Close

The Dow Jones Industrial Average held a 0.4% gain on Monday as a morning rally built on plunging oil prices faded into a technology-led reversal by the close.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to close at 51,983.98. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, down 38.20 points to 7,541.87. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1%, down 272.68 points to 25,164.32.

The split finish hid a rough afternoon. Indexes had opened higher as oil tumbled on hopes for diplomacy over Iran. By the close, selling in artificial-intelligence shares had overwhelmed that support. For the Dow, the day was a hold. For the Nasdaq, it was another warning.

The tape

The morning reading told a different story from the close. At 10:02 a.m. ET, the Dow was up 1.04%, the S&P 500 was up 0.58% and the Nasdaq was up 0.72%. Those were morning readings, not closes, and none of them survived the afternoon. Advancers had outnumbered decliners by about three to one in New York at mid-morning.

Monday followed a hard Friday. A technology rout on Friday pushed the Nasdaq to its biggest monthly decline since March 2025. That backdrop is why the morning bounce mattered, and why its failure did too.

Rates and other assets took the calmer side of the day. The 10-year Treasury yield, the benchmark return on longer U.S. government debt, eased to about 4.90%. The 2-year yield was little changed at 4.581%. Gold rose about 1.7%, while bitcoin fell about 1.8%.

The rebound that did not hold

The reversal was the day's defining move. The Nasdaq's slide marked its largest intraday reversal since Jan. 2. The S&P 500's fade was its largest blown gain in nearly a year.

The information technology sector officially entered correction territory. A correction is a fall of more than 10% from a recent high. Technology is down more than that from a high set less than a month ago. Most other S&P 500 sectors rose on the day, in a rotation out of technology.

"We have a very crowded calendar this week and it's keeping buyers pretty cautious," Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera, said of the reversal. He pointed to earnings, the midterms and the October jobs report as the week's three sources of nerves.

Lower oil and lower yields should have helped buyers stabilize stocks. On Monday, they did not, because AI selling continued to dominate the tape.

Oil fell hard as talks, not a deal, drove the move

Oil fell because diplomacy looked possible, not because a deal exists. Talks between Iran and Qatar entered a third day. Iran's conditional proposal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days of an agreement. No deal or breakthrough had been reached, and Washington had not accepted the proposal.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the supreme leader had granted the government certain authorities on peace talks. U.S. officials said President Donald Trump prefers a diplomatic solution. Front-month Brent crude settled down $8.66, or 7.63%, at $104.77 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude fell roughly 8% to about $96 a barrel.

Energy shares lagged as crude fell, and Chevron and ExxonMobil both ended lower. Airlines took the other side of cheaper fuel. United Airlines rose about 5%. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines rose nearly 4%.

Chips took the damage

Chip and AI-infrastructure shares absorbed the session's worst losses. Marvell Technology fell 12.81% and Astera Labs fell 11.39%. Intel fell 8.70%, extending Friday's record fall. Advanced Micro Devices fell 7.03% and CoreWeave fell 9.01%. Western Digital fell 7.85%, Datadog fell 7.81%, and Micron Technology fell roughly 6%.

Oracle fell 9.06% after its $20 billion equity and debt raise, a financing the desk covered separately on Monday. Marvell and Lumentum both fell hard after Marvell agreed to buy Lumentum in a $115 billion all-stock deal, also covered separately. Nvidia and Broadcom also lost ground.

The money leaving technology went somewhere. Sherwin-Williams rose nearly 6% to pace the Dow's advancers. Amazon rose about 3% and Walmart rose about 3%. American Express and Visa each rose about 3%. IDEXX Laboratories surged after its earnings beat and raised outlook, in the desk's separate coverage. FedEx Freight rose another 5% after soaring on Friday on a strong earnings report.

A crowded week ahead

Monday's factory data gave buyers little cover. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index, a monthly survey of factory activity, rose to 55.5 in October from 54.5. Production reached 59.0, its strongest reading since 2021. Prices paid eased to 75.2 from 77.9, but stayed broad, and the desk covered the report separately. New orders edged up to 55.5, and employment held above the expansion line at 52.4.

A second factory reading was softer. The final S&P Global manufacturing index was revised down to 54.9 from a 56.0 flash reading, an early estimate published before the final survey. September construction spending fell 1.9%, the day's clear weak spot. Private residential spending dropped 5.5%, outweighing a 1.1% increase in private nonresidential building.

The week's hardest tests are still ahead. Apple and Palantir Technologies report after Monday's close. U.S. midterm elections follow on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Advanced Micro Devices reports the same day. The October jobs report lands Friday, Nov. 6. The same question hangs over Microsoft, Alphabet and Tesla as the reporting season continues. Whether technology reclaims leadership will be decided there, not in Monday's reversal.