Stocks gain as CoreWeave eases worries; dollar strengthens

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Danilo Masoni

NEW YORK/MILAN, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Major stock indexes rose on Wednesday, led by gains in technology shares after an upbeat report from CoreWeave lifted optimism about the AI trade, and the dollar strengthened amid expectations for further Federal Reserve tightening.

The US Treasury market was closed on Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday, a day after 2-year yields had their biggest one-day jump since April 2025. Euro zone yields steadied on Wednesday.

CoreWeave shares were up 23% after it said it expected to become profitable in 2028, easing concerns that demand may not be strong enough to support the company's debt-fuelled expansion. 

The Nasdaq led gains on Wall Street, while the S&P 500 technology sector was up 2.9%. Tech shares sold off recently following worries about increased AI regulation and the sustainability of the AI rally. 

"It's a relief rally. Can it continue? I would say most likely. But a lot depends on the situation with Nvidia," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

"Until there is less focus on that, the market could be subject to whatever happens with Nvidia."

Shares of Nvidia gained about 4%, recovering some of their recent sharp losses. Its CEO, Jensen Huang, is facing mounting scrutiny in Washington over his lobbying for looser restrictions on sales of AI chips to China, following reports alleging he was targeted by a Chinese spying operation.

Beijing called the accusations "groundless," while Nvidia has said its board has no reason to believe US national security or company secrets were compromised and that Huang has committed to cooperating ​with the internal review.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15.42 points, or 0.03%, to 52,248.80, the S&P 500 rose 84.40 points, or 1.12%, to 7,605.33 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 418.91 points, or 1.66%, to 25,483.04.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 10.85 points, or 0.98%, to 1,119.59.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.63%, with investors piling back into AI-linked stocks, echoing a technology-driven rally in Asia after last week's sector rout.

OIL, DOLLAR CLIMB

Oil prices jumped, with Iran's security chief saying Tehran would not allow any enriched nuclear material to leave the country. In addition, Russian, Ukrainian and US officials began a second day of peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

US crude rose 2.39% to $88.08 a barrel and Brent rose to $93.94 per barrel, up 2.68% on the day.

The dollar gained again on Wednesday. Hotter-than-expected US inflation data on Tuesday cemented expectations for an interest rate hike from the Fed next month. Recent hawkish rhetoric from Fed officials added to the view.

Traders see a rate hike next month as a certainty, with an 11.5% chance of a half-percentage-point increase, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.64% to 102.86, with the euro down 0.6% at $1.1096.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.67% to 159.8.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Danilo Masoni in Milan; additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Sydney, Additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London, Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Alex Richardson and Aurora Ellis)