Stock market today: Nvidia and other tech stocks pull Wall Street higher

NEW YORK (AP) — Rising technology stocks on Monday helped U.S. indexes recover some more of their holiday-season slide that bridged the new year.

The S&P 500 added 0.6% for a second straight gain following five straight losses, its longest losing streak since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost an early gain to slip 25 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.2%.

Slightly more stocks fell in the S&P 500 than rose amid the mixed trading. Tech companies were the clear leaders, including those swept up in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Nvidia climbed 3.4% to top its record set in November ahead of a speech by CEO Jensen Huang at the annual CES convention in Las Vegas after trading ended for the day.

Nvidia and other AI stocks keep climbing even as criticism rises that their stock prices have already shot too high, too fast. Despite worries about a potential bubble, the industry continues to talk up its potential.

Microsoft Vice Chair Brad Smith said on late Friday the company is on track to invest about $80 billion to build out AI-enabled datacenters to train AI models this fiscal year. Smith said AI is the biggest opportunity “to harness new technology to invigorate the nation’s economy” since the invention of electricity. Microsoft rose 1.1%.

Uber Technologies drove 2.7% higher after the ride-hailing app said it would accelerate $1.5 billion in purchases of its own stock, part of a previously announced $7 billion buyback program. Uber’s chief financial officer, Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, said it’s making the move because its stock price looks cheap compared with the strength of its business.

In the old economy, U.S. Steel climbed 8.1% after it and Japan’s Nippon Steel filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s decision to block a proposed nearly $15 billion deal for Nippon to buy its Pittsburgh-based rival.

The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, alleges that it was a political decision and violated the companies’ due process. Japanese leaders have also said there is scant evidence that the merger would create a security concern for the U.S.

Those winners helped offset more drops for owners of real estate, which have struggled recently amid rising longer-term interest rates. Real-estate stocks in the S&P 500 fell 1.4% for the biggest loss among the 11 sectors that make up the index.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 32.91 points to 5,975.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 25.57 to 42,706.56, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 243.30 to 19,864.98.

This upcoming week will have one fewer day of trading than usual. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will close their stock and options markets on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

But the calendar is nevertheless packed with potentially market-moving events. Tuesday will deliver the latest updates on monthly job openings advertised by U.S. employers and on the health of businesses in the services industries. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its last policy meeting, where it cut its main interest rate for a third straight time but hinted fewer reductions may arrive in 2025.

Friday will bring the week’s headliner: the monthly jobs report, along with an update on how U.S. consumers are feeling.

So far, the economy has remained remarkably resilient despite high interest rates the Fed instituted in recent years to stifle inflation. A report on Monday said a measure of activity for services businesses hit its highest level in nearly three years.

“Business activity in the vast services economy surged higher in the closing month of 2024 on fuller order books and rising optimism about prospects for the year ahead,” according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The Fed has been trying to give the economy an easier time, and it began cutting interest rates in September after inflation pulled nearly all the way down to its 2% target. But getting the last percentage point of improvement from inflation may prove more difficult. Worries are also rising that tariffs and other policies coming from President-elect Donald Trump could put upward pressure on inflation.

That's caused worries about rates staying higher than expected, and longer-term Treasury yields have climbed in the bond market as a result. That can hurt stock prices because higher-paying bonds can peel away investors who otherwise might buy stocks.

At Morgan Stanley, strategist Michael Wilson says the sweet spot for U.S. stocks is likely when the yield on the 10-year Treasury is between 4.00% and 4.50%. It drove above that level in mid-December and has remained there. It’s up to 4.61%, up from 4.60% late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 jumped 2.2%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 slumped 1.5%.

AP Writers Matt Ott, Zimo Zhong and Mari Yamaguchi contributed.

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Staff of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and guests make a ceremonial hand-clapping during a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A staff of the Tokyo Stock Exchange prepares to start a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Hiromi Yamaji, left, CEO of Japan Exchange Group (JPX) delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A guest prepares to pose with a wooden hummer to toll the bell prior to a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Staff of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and guests make a ceremonial hand-clapping during a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A staff of the Tokyo Stock Exchange prepares to start a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Stock price board is seen after a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Hiromi Yamaji, left, CEO of Japan Exchange Group (JPX) delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Kimono-clad employees of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and guests leave the venue after a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Japan's Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato tolls a bell during a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Ski patrollers miffed by wages they say are too low for high living costs have put a wrench in operations at the biggest U.S. ski resort with a rare strike that began over the busy holidays and carried on into the new year's fresh powder.

The resulting thin staffing at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Range, has left many runs closed and caused long lines for ski lifts.

Yet some skiers who paid good money for passes are sympathetic. “Pay your employees!” they chant from lift lines in videos posted on social media.

Unionization is rare but increasing at U.S. ski resorts, including the one in Park City that is owned by Vail Resorts, which with 42 properties on three continents calls itself the world’s largest mountain resort operator.

As talks stalled, 200 patrollers went on strike on Dec. 27, alleging unfair bargaining by the company.

Here's the latest on the strike:

They maintain safety at ski resorts by monitoring terrain, responding to accidents, hauling hurt skiers downhill and reducing avalanche risk, sometimes by releasing avalanches with explosives when nobody's in range.

It's a seasonal job. After the snow melts away, so do they.

Many in the Rocky Mountain region work as fly-fishing, mountain biking and whitewater rafting guides in the warmer months. Often they're young people starting in the workforce.

Others spend decades honing skills in a physically demanding job.

The specialized work requires training and dedication — and ought to be compensated without too much stress over living costs in pricey mountain towns such as Park City, the ski patroller union argues.

The strike comes as actions by labor unions soared over the past couple of years. Unions secured meaningful employer concessions in recent months following strikes by Boeing factory workers, dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports, video game performers, and hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 45,000 dockworkers' ongoing threats to resume their strike over automation would shut down ports and could damage the economy as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Pointing to steep inflation since 2022, the Park City Professional Ski Patrollers Association has been negotiating since March, seeking an increase from $21 to $23 an hour. The union says $27 is considered a livable wage in pricey Park City, which is also home to Deer Valley Resort.

They also seek higher pay for the longest-serving ski patrollers. The current scale tops out after five years on the job.

“We just want to make sure these tenured patrollers are compensated for their skills and encouraged to stick around,” Park City ski patroller and association spokesperson Alana McClements said.

The ski patrollers got a big raise a couple years ago.

Vail Resorts argues it was generous with its 50% base-pay increase from $13 to $21 an hour in 2022. It's now offering a 4% pay increase for most patrollers and $1,600 each year for their equipment.

"We deeply regret that this is having any level of impact on the guest experience and are grateful to our thousands of employees who are working hard every day to enable the experience at Park City Mountain and open the terrain,” Bill Rock, president of Vail Resorts mountain division, said in a statement.

Snow has been falling thick and fast in Park City, with more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) in the past week. But much of Park City Mountain Resort is closed because of the strike.

As of Monday, only 25 of 41 lifts and 103 of 350 trails were open, according to the resort's website.

Vail Resorts apparently has brought in nonunion workers from other resorts to help keep the one in Park City running, McClements said.

Union ski patrollers at other U.S. Vail Resorts properties, including Breckenridge, Crested Butte and Keystone in Colorado, have expressed solidarity with the Park City Mountain Resort workers and complained about pressure put on workers from elsewhere to go there.

Sympathizers include other workers at the resort, including ski instructors and snow groomers, who hope their own wages will increase if the patrollers are successful, ski instructor Grace Mauzy said.

“Ski patrol requires even more skilled learning than to be instructor, but to be instructor you also have to have skills training,” Mauzy said. "They’re both highly underpaid.”

There's a wider sense, McClements said, that if Vail Resorts gives in to the union's demands, ski workers elsewhere will demand increases.

“There is a history of mountain workers being paid unlivable wages because people view parts of the job as fun," McClements said. "We definitely see this as a broader fight.”

Mediation between the association and company happened Monday and was scheduled again Tuesday, McClements said.

And this weekend, the forecast calls for more snow.

Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed reporting from New York City.

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah Jan 7. 2025, (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025, (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol on strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol on strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol on strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

Park City Ski Patrol employee Erika Roetman holds a sign while on strike requesting livable wages in Park City, Utah, Tuesday, Jan 7. 2025. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)