Key Takeaways:
- Market Rebound: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all posted gains on Monday, kicking off the holiday-shortened week on a positive note.
- AI Sector Leads: A rally in artificial intelligence stocks, spearheaded by a more than 5% jump in Alphabet shares, fueled the market’s upward momentum.
- Rate Cut Hopes: Investor optimism was also boosted by comments from a Federal Reserve official that left the door open for a potential interest rate cut in December.
- Holiday Week: The market is heading into a quiet period, with trading closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving and an early 1 p.m. ET close on Friday.
Wall Street started the Thanksgiving week with a rebound as stocks rose on Monday, driven by a resurgent AI trade and renewed hopes for a more lenient Federal Reserve policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 131 points, or 0.3%, while the broader S&P 500 climbed 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the charge with a 1.8% advance.
Alphabet Fuels AI Stock Rally
The primary catalyst for Monday’s optimism was a significant boost in the artificial intelligence sector, led by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Shares of Alphabet surged more than 5% after the company’s recent announcement of its upgraded AI model, Gemini 3, received an enthusiastic reception.
The new model is seen by some investors as a powerful competitor to offerings from rivals like OpenAI. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff praised the technology in a post on X, stating, “I’ve used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back… It feels like the world just changed, again.”
I've used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I'm not going back. The leap is insane — reasoning, speed, images, video … everything is sharper and faster. It feels like the world just changed, again.
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) November 22, 2025
Rebound Follows November Slump
The gains mark an attempt by the market to recover lost ground. Major averages have stumbled throughout November, pressured by concerns over high valuations in the AI-linked stocks that have powered much of the year’s gains. Last week alone, the S&P 500 and the Dow both slipped by roughly 2%.
Monday’s rally builds on a rebound that began Friday after New York Federal Reserve President John Williams signaled a potential “further adjustment” to interest rates, increasing speculation that the central bank could cut rates at its December meeting.
With a light economic calendar and thinning trading volumes expected for the rest of the holiday week, markets could experience heightened volatility. “Investors hate noise. They crave certainty, and the market simply cannot deliver that right now,” noted Mark Malek, CIO at Siebert Financial.