A broader stock market rally on Monday, fueled by eight Senate Democrats siding with Republicans to back a deal that would end the government shutdown, added tens of billions of dollars to the fortunes of the world’s richest people.
Key Takeaways
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 237 points (0.5%), while the S&P 500 added 1.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 2.01% as of Monday afternoon.
- Nasdaq’s rise was largely fueled by Nvidia, whose shares rose 4.4% to around $196, with additional gains from Alphabet’s Class C shares (up 3.2%), Tesla (4.3%), Meta (2%) and Palantir (8.4%).
- The Dow, also boosted by Nvidia, rose with gains posted by Amazon (1.6%), Cisco (0.9%), Apple (0.5%), Goldman Sachs (1.2%) and JPMorgan Chase (1%).
- A broader rally follows a Senate vote late Sunday, in which eight Democrats sided with Republicans to approve a procedural vote on a legislative deal that would fund most federal agencies through January, allowing a vote on the deal later Monday.
Forbes Valuation
Tesla’s stock rise added $10.1 billion to CEO Elon Musk’s estimated net worth on Monday, increasing the world’s largest individual fortune to $492.3 billion, ranking Musk ahead of No. 2 Larry Ellison, whose net worth jumped $2.8 billion to $296.4 billion. An uptick in Amazon shares bumped No. 3 Jeff Bezos up $1.9 billion to $256.4 billion, while No. 4 Larry Page ($236 billion) and No. 5 Sergey Brin ($218.9 billion) added $5.7 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively, as Alphabet’s shares increased. No. 6 Mark Zuckerberg ($217.1 billion) added $3.8 billion to his net worth as Meta shares rose, and No. 7 Bernard Arnault, whose LVMH is not traded in the U.S., had his fortune rise to $184.2 billion after gaining $4.1 billion. No. 8 Jensen Huang’s net worth increased $6.1 billion to $169.5 billion with Nvidia leading the broader market rally, and an uptick for Microsoft’s stock added $0.8 billion to No. 9 Steve Ballmer’s fortune ($151.5 billion). No. 10 Warren Buffett ($149.4 billion) benefited from the broader gains, earning $0.3 billion.
Airline Stocks React Positively To Government Shutdown Nearing End
American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Airlines each traded up about 2% on Monday, following weeks of staffing disruptions at airports across the U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned last week that flight cancellations could rise to as high as 20% if the government shutdown continued to impact traffic control staffing, after Federal Aviation Administration administrator Bryan Bedford said up to 40% of controllers were not showing up for work on any given day. More than 5,000 flights were delayed and more than 1,000 were canceled across the U.S. on Saturday, with roughly one-third of flights at New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports taking off late, while more than 7,700 flights were delayed and nearly 2,300 were canceled on Sunday.
Surprising Fact
Tesla shares rose Monday after Siddhant Awasthi, who oversaw the automaker’s Cybertruck unit, announced he would depart the company after three years in the role. Tesla’s Cybertruck has been recalled nearly a dozen times since deliveries began in November 2023, which came after years of delays amid production issues and battery supply restrictions. The latest recall notice for the Cybertrucks disclosed that more than 63,619 trucks had been sold since their launch, well below the 250,000 annual sales Musk previously predicted.
Key Background
Pessimism about the U.S. economy has spread among Americans in recent months, with consumers increasingly expressing concerns about the ongoing government shutdown. Joanne Hsu, director of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey, wrote last week that as the shutdown—the longest in U.S. history—continues “dragging on,” Americans have expressed “worries about potential negative consequences for the economy.” The Conference Board think tank, in a similar report earlier this month, said respondents conveyed the government shutdown “multiple times as a key concern,” as consumers appeared to be “a bit more pessimistic.”
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This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
