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Futures: Dow down 0.07%, S&P 500 up 0.31%, Nasdaq up 0.66%

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Kimberly-Clark to acquire Kenvue ( KVUE ) for about $48.7 bln

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Iren ( IREN ) jumps after $9.7 bln contract with Microsoft ( MSFT )

(Updates with analyst comment, prices before the bell)

By Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal

Nov 3 2025 - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were poised to kick

off November on firmer ground on Monday, driven by optimism

around AI demand and a U.S.-China trade truce, while Kenvue ( KVUE )

shares soared after Kimberly-Clark's buyout deal.

Kenvue ( KVUE ) jumped 18% in premarket trading after

Kimberly-Clark said it will acquire the Tylenol maker in

a deal valued at more than $40 billion. Kimberly-Clark slid

14.8%.

The benchmark S&P 500 posted its sixth consecutive

monthly gain in October, its longest such streak in four years,

while the tech-heavy Nasdaq logged its longest in over

seven years, after several so-called "Magnificent Seven"

companies pointed to a surge in AI spending.

Investors await more clues as semiconductor firms including

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) report

results later this week.

Michael Sansoterra, CIO at Silvant Capital Management, said

the market was seeing earnings growth for most companies outside

the big tech names.

"That tells us that the market's on track beyond the AI

theme. The fundamentals of the economy have been surprisingly

resilient given some of the fears around inflation and jobs," he

added.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Nvidia's ( NVDA ) most advanced chips

will be reserved for U.S. companies, while a report said

Microsoft ( MSFT ) was allowed to ship the AI giant's chips to the UAE

for the first time.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares gained 2.2%, also helped by a $100

rise in Loop Capital's price target on the stock.

Sentiment was also buoyed by a U.S.-China deal last week.

At 08:45 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 35 points,

or 0.07%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 21 points, or 0.31%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 172.25 points, or 0.66%.

PRIVATE ECONOMIC DATA AWAITED

The spotlight will be on private sector economic data this

week to gauge the health of the economy, with the second-longest

U.S. government shutdown contributing to data fog and monetary

policy uncertainty.

Wednesday's ADP's private payrolls data will be closely

watched, particularly after Fed Chair Jerome Powell

tempered optimism for a December rate cut and a clutch of Fed

officials aired discomfort with the central bank's decision to

cut interest rates last week.

The Institute for Supply Management's gauge of U.S.

manufacturing for October is also due at 10 a.m. ET on Monday.

Traders are now pricing in a 69.3% chance of a

25-basis-point rate cut in December, lower than the 90% a week

earlier, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a case

around the legality of Trump's tariffs on Wednesday.

Before the bell, Berkshire Hathaway's Class B

shares rose about 0.9% after Warren Buffett's conglomerate

reported a higher profit for the third quarter.

Data storage companies gained after a report said Samsung

delayed its DDR5 contract pricing to mid-November.

Seagate Technology ( STX ) and Western Digital ( WDC ) were

up 1.3% and 1.5%, respectively. Sandisk ( SNDK ) rose 5.2%.

IREN ( IREN ) jumped 21% after the data center operator

signed a near $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft ( MSFT ) to

provide it with access to Nvidia GB300 processors over a

five-year period.