By Noel Randewich and Shashwat Chauhan. Media: Reuters
Feb 10 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher on Monday, lifted by Nvidia and other AI-related stocks, while steelmakers surged after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Trump’s latest potential trade barrier escalation came on Sunday when he said he would introduce 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, on top of existing duties on the metals.
U.S. metals producers that would benefit from steel and aluminum tariffs rallied. Nucor (NUE.N), opens new tab, U.S. Steel (X.N), opens new tab and Steel Dynamics (STLD.O), opens new tab rose more than 4% each. Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF.N), opens new tab jumped 18%, Century Aluminum (CENX.O), opens new tab rallied 10% and Alcoa (AA.N), opens new tab rose about 2%.
AI chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab climbed 2.9% and 4.5%, respectively. Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab gained 1.7%.
“Investors are basically saying, ‘Hey, let’s go back into the areas that worked.’ And one reason that investors are optimistic, in my opinion, is because of earnings,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab ended down 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that a consortium of investors led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls artificial-intelligence startup OpenAI.
With fourth-quarter reporting season over halfway through, S&P 500 companies are expected to have posted year-over-year earnings growth of 14.8%, up from expectations of less than 10% at the start of 2025, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.
Heavyweight technology stocks fell sharply on Friday after Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, matching the tariffs levied by them.
The S&P 500 rose 0.67% to end at 6,066.44 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.98% to 19,714.27 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.38% at 44,470.41 points.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 16.1 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 14.9 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.
U.S. Steel’s shares also got a boost after Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said Nippon Steel (5401.T), opens new tab was considering proposing a bold change in its plan to buy the company.
McDonald’s (MCD.N), opens new tab jumped 4.8% after the hamburger chain posted a surprise rise in its global comparable sales in the fourth quarter.
Rockwell Automation (ROK.N), opens new tab surged 12.6% after the automation products maker posted higher-than-expected profit for the fiscal first quarter.
Coca-Cola (KO.N), opens new tab and DoorDash (DASH.O), opens new tab are set to report quarterly results on Tuesday, with CVS Health (CVS.N), opens new tab and computer-networking equipment maker Cisco (CSCO.O), opens new tab reporting on Wednesday.
Investors are also looking to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s biannual monetary policy report to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
Expectations for the Fed’s rate cuts to stay on hold in March solidified after Friday’s mixed U.S. employment report.
Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX), opens new tab by a 1.3-to-one ratio.
Across the U.S. stock market (.AD.US), opens new tab, advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by a 1.9-to-one ratio.
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