Google CEO Sundar Pichai gives a thumbs up as he arrives to attend the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, February 11, 2025. <\/p>\n
Benoit Tessier | Reuters<\/p>\n
Congratulations are due to Alphabet<\/a> for joining the $3 trillion club, to which only Apple<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a> and Nvidia<\/a> have memberships. The Google parent has artificial intelligence \u2014what else? \u2014 to thank for its inclusion in that rarefied space.<\/p>\n Ironically, it isn’t because Google’s AI offerings have been blowing investors away. (I heard Gemini can teach me how to take better photos on Google’s Pixel smartphone.) It’s the fact that Google has been falling behind AI companies such as OpenAI and Perplexity \u2014 which allowed it to escape divesting its Chrome browser in a recent antitrust ruling<\/a> \u2014 that gave its shares a nice bump this month<\/p>\n If AI isn’t having the desired effect on stocks, there’s nothing that good old cash won’t solve. Tesla<\/a> shares jumped Monday after its CEO Elon Musk disclosed a $1 billion purchase of the stock, erasing the company’s losses for the year. Elsewhere, shares of CoreWeave<\/a> popped 7.6% after the cloud infrastructure provider announced an order of at least $6.3 billion<\/a> from Nvidia.<\/p>\n Buoyed by those gains, the S&P 500<\/a> and Nasdaq Composite<\/a> secured new closing highs, with the former exceeding the 6,600 level for the first time. Hey Alexa, create an image of traders popping champagne in the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n What you need to know today<\/p>\n U.S. has reached TikTok ‘framework’ with China.\u00a0The deal involves “two private parties<\/a>,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday. The presidents of both nations will\u00a0meet Friday to discuss the terms.<\/p>\n Elon Musk reveals $1 billion stock purchase of Tesla.\u00a0It’s the\u00a0first time since February 2020<\/a>\u00a0that Musk, CEO of Tesla, has bought shares of the company in the open market. Tesla shares\u00a0jumped 3.6%\u00a0<\/a>after what looks to be a vote of confidence from Musk<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alphabet’s valuation hits $3 trillion.\u00a0After its shares\u00a0rose 4.5%,\u00a0the search giant joined the ranks of Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple. Alphabet stock\u00a0experienced a significant bump<\/a>\u00a0in early September after a ruling from a judge in an antitrust case.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 closes above 6,600 for the first time. On Monday, the Nasdaq Composite also closed at a fresh record<\/a>, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a> ticked up 0.1%. Europe’s Stoxx 600<\/a> index added 0.42%.<\/a><\/p>\n [PRO] A rate cut might not be unambiguously good for stocks. According to Evercore ISI, historical data from 1970 showed that the nature of the cut \u2014 “because they can” or “because they have to” \u2014 affects how stocks perform the year ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n