5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday, May 19
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Monday, May 19, 2025.
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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
Stock futures fell Monday after Moody's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, while Treasury yields jumped. This comes as the major indexes posted their third winning week in four. The S&P 500 jumped 5.3%, and the Dow advanced 3.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 7.2% last week. Technology stocks turned in a strong week. Nvidia's stock gained about 16%, while Meta Platforms advanced 8%. Shares of Apple climbed 6% and Microsoft popped 3%. The major averages rose even after the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index came in at its second-lowest level on record. Consumers also see prices rising 7.3% over the next year, up from 6.5% last month.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made numerous announcements and unveiled new products on Monday that are intended to keep the company at the center of artificial intelligence development and computing. A noteworthy one was its new "NVLink Fusion" program, which lets customers and partners use non-Nvidia central processing units and graphics processing units along with Nvidia's products and its NVLink. "NV link fusion is so that you can build semi-custom AI infrastructure, not just semi-custom chips," Huang said in Taiwan at Asia's largest electronics conference, Computex 2025.
The House Budget Committee on Sunday night advanced President Donald Trump's domestic policy legislation. The move comes after a group of conservatives on Friday voted against it. The party-line vote Sunday was 17-16, as four Republicans voted "present." The bill will need to be altered to get the votes needed to be approved by the entire House. When it moves to the Senate, it will encounter hurdles as Republicans in that chamber say it won't be passed without significant changes.
President Donald Trump sharply criticized Walmart on Saturday after the country's largest retailer said last week it will have to increase prices due to tariffs. "Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain," Trump said on Truth Social. "Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, "EAT THE TARIFFS," and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. "I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!" John David Rainey, Walmart's CFO, said told CNBC on Thursday that, "We have not seen price increases at this magnitude, in the speed in which they're coming at us before, and so it makes for a challenging environment." Rainey said the company will "try to work with suppliers to keep prices as low as we can."
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that Trump should not accept the gift of a $400 million jet from Qatar's royal family, citing national security concerns. "Qatar has a long history of playing both sides," Pence said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press." "The very idea that we would accept an Air Force One from Qatar I think is inconsistent with our security, with our intelligence needs ... I think it's just a bad idea, and my hope is the president will think better of it." Trump's intention to accept the Boeing 747-8 and transform the plane so it can be used as Air Force One has caused a storm of controversy. Concerns are centered on the legality, ethics and national security of such a move. It would be the largest foreign gift ever accepted by the U.S. government.
— CNBC's Lisa Kailai Han, Alex Haring, Brian Evans, Pia Singh, Tanaya Macheel, Dylan Butts, Leslie Josephs, Melissa Repko, Yun Li and NBC News contributed to this report.
