Stocks rally on AI buzz
U.S. markets jumped Monday — S&P +1%, Nasdaq +1.2%, Dow +0.7% (about a 550‑point move) — led by tech and AI names after heavy buying in NVIDIA ahead of CEO Jensen Huang’s 2:00 PM ET GTC speech and as oil retreated, easing inflation fears midday update Reuters roundup. The Motley Fool is calling Nvidia a once‑in‑a‑decade opportunity after recent earnings while analysts spotlight AI software stocks showing real 2026 revenue growth Motley Fool Fool AI list.
Call option volume hit 578,527 on March 13), pushing NVDA’s total options trades above 1,027,000 that day and signaling heavy speculative positioning into GTC.(optioncharts.io) At GTC, Nvidia unveiled the Vera Rubin platform and said seven new chips are now in full production), and CEO Jensen Huang projected at least $1 trillion in orders for Blackwell and Rubin systems through 2027). NVDA closed at $183.19 on March 16 after trading as high as $188.88 intraday), with coverage noting the stock briefly spiked following Huang’s keynote before settling back during the session.(aihola.com) Nvidia’s fiscal 2026 revenue was reported at $216 billion, up about 65% year-over-year), a figure Motley Fool used to argue the stock’s post‑earnings valuation case.(fool.com) WTI crude fell sharply Monday, trading down to about $93.50 a barrel on March 16), a pullback from earlier $102-plus swings that analysts said helped ease near‑term inflation concerns and lift risk appetite.(investopedia.com) Analyst metrics show NVDA’s consensus target hovering near $267.54) while the company’s market capitalization sat around [$4.45 trillion after the session], underscoring the scale investors are pricing into the GTC announcements.(cnbc.com)
