U.S. Stocks May See Initial Strength On AMD, OpenAI Deal

(RTTNews) - Following the mixed performance seen during last Friday's session, stocks are likely to move to the upside in early trading on Monday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.3 percent.

Technology stocks may help lead an early advance, as reflected by the 0.9 percent jump being shown by the Nasdaq 100 futures.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are soaring by 35.7 percent in pre-market trading after the chipmaker announced a 6 gigawatt agreement to power OpenAI's next-generation AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs.

As part of the agreement, AMD has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, structured to vest as specific milestones are achieved.

Optimism about a wave of merger and acquisition activity may also generate early buying interest after Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) agreed to acquire fellow regional bank Comerica (CMA) in an all-stock transaction valued at $10.9 billion.

Shares of Comerica are surging by 14.1 percent in pre-market trading following news of the deal, with stockholders set to receive 1.8663 Fifth Third shares for each Comerica share, representing $82.88 per share as of Fifth Third's closing price on Friday.

Meanwhile, traders continue to shrug off concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing government shutdown, which enters its sixth day amid little signs of progress toward a deal on a temporary spending bill.

After moving mostly higher over the past few sessions, stocks saw further upside in early trading on Friday but gave back ground over the course of the day. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session before eventually closing mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 63.54 points or 0.3 percent to 22,780.51, the S&P 500 crept up 0.44 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,715.79 and the Dow climbed 238.56 points or 0.5 percent to 46,758.28.

Despite the mixed performance on the day, the major averages posted strong gains for the week. The Nasdaq shot up by 1.3 percent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 both jumped by 1.1 percent.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Monday, with several markets closed for holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 4.8 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 0.7 percent.

The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is down by 1.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both up by 0.2 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are climbing $0.71 to $61.59 a barrel after falling $0.40 to $60.88 a barrel last Friday. Meanwhile, after jumping $40.80 to $3,908.90 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are surging $45.90 to $3,954.80 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 149.90 yen versus the 147.44 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Friday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.1683 compared to last Friday's $1.1613.