Wall Street struggled for traction on Monday, ending mixed after slumping last week, while German election results buoyed German shares and Europe's single currency as investors waited for midweek results from artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia.

European shares steadied on Monday as Germany's election produced no nasty surprise, while Wall Street futures firmed on hopes results from AI diva Nvidia this week would justify the tech sector's sky-high valuations.

Germany’s stock index futures and the euro both rallied in Asian trading after the country’s opposition leader Friedrich Merz won Sunday’s federal election, matching opinion polls and paving the way for a pivot to increased spending.

US stocks looked set to claw back ground Monday with Nvidia Corp. rising in early trading, days before its earnings release. German stocks gained after conservatives led by Friedrich Merz emerged as the winners in a weekend vote.

European shares steadied on Monday as Germany's election produced no nasty surprise, while Wall Street futures firmed on hopes results from AI diva Nvidia this week would justify the tech sector's sky-high valuations.

Wall Street struggled for traction on Monday, ending mixed after slumping last week, while German election results buoyed German shares and Europe's single currency as investors waited for midweek results from artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia.

Plains All American Pipeline, BJ's Wholesale, Pilgrim's Pride and Nvidia have been highlighted in this Investment Ideas article.

In its latest quarterly report released last week, Alibaba reported a 7.6% year-over-year increase in revenue for the December quarter, totaling 280.15 billion yuan, slightly surpassing analysts' expectations. During the earnings call, CEO Eddie Wu called AI a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.

Nvidia (NVDA) suffered a record one-day loss in market value last month over how low-cost DeepSeek might shake up the "AI" ecosystem, although shares have since mostly bounced back.

Friedrich Merz was set to become Germany’s next chancellor after his opposition conservatives won the national election on Sunday. Merz should be able to form a so-called grand coalition with the ruling centre-left Social Democrats, even though it slumped to third behind the far-right Alternative for Germany.

On top of all that, Trump reminded everyone that tariffs on Mexico and Canada are still on the table ahead of next Monday’s deadline. This is a continuation of the 25% tariffs threatened at the start of February which were then delayed by a month in exchange for cooperation on US border policies.