LIVE MARKETS-Hello, Mr. Chips: Nasdaq, S&P 500 gain as semis bounce back

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HELLO, MR. CHIPS: NASDAQ, S&P 500 GAIN AS SEMIS BOUNCE BACK

U.S. stocks started the day green as investors embarked on a week in which a smattering of high-profile earnings and escalating turmoil in the Middle East could be market movers.

Chip stocks .SOX took an early lead, clawing back some ground lost after posting their largest weekly loss in over a year on Friday. The index closed more than 20% below its June 22 record closing high, confirming it entered a bear market on that date, but it was last up 2.5%.

Results from megacap momentum stocks including Alphabet GOOGL.O, Tesla TSLA.O, Intel INTC.O, IBM IBM.N and Texas Instruments TXN.O will provide some insight into the status and return on investment for the massive buildout of data centers and the chips needed to run them, which have driven the fervor over AI and boosted stocks to all-time highs earlier this year.

Concerns over when or whether the enormous capex invested by hyperscalers will begin to translate into earnings growth have dampened enthusiasm in the sector over recent weeks.

The second week of second-quarter earnings season will also feature a broad range of industrials including GM GM.N, 3M MMM.N, Northrop Grumman NOC.N, Union Pacific UNP.N, Honeywell HON.N and Lockheed Martin LMT.N, to name just a few.

Geopolitical strife in the Middle East is showing few signs of abating, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis declaring a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a new front in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and threatening to strain world energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.

Housing stocks .HGX, software & services .SPLRCIS, and consumer staples .SPCLRS were among the underperformers early in the session.

The week has little in store with respect to economics, with Flash PMI and new home sales on the docket for late in the week.

Here's where things stood as of 9:57 a.m. ET:

(Stephen Culp)

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