U.S. stock markets closed higher on Monday, with all three major indexes in positive territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%, and the S&P 500 increased by 0.6%. The fear gauge, CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), was down 5.6% to 14.08.

The AI trade continues to thrive, supported by cloud computing and data centers. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America project AI infrastructure capex spending to exceed $1 trillion in 2028. McKinsey & Co. estimates global AI-powered data center infrastructure capex to reach $7 trillion by 2030.

The Trump administration has allowed NVIDIA Corp. to sell its H200 AI chips to approved customers in China. NVIDIA plans to ship around 40,000 to 80,000 H200 chips to China. Alphabet Inc. has acquired data center company Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash to increase data center and generation capacity.

NVIDIA and Alphabet stock prices rose after the news. NVIDIA currently holds a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Zacks’ Research Chief has named a top stock most likely to double, a satellite-based communications firm poised for growth in the trillion dollar space industry.

Read more at Nasdaq: Stock Market News for Dec 23, 2025