AWS recovers, Apple rallies, General Motors beats and more in Morning Squawk

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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

What began as an early morning outage report for Amazon Web Services snowballed into a daylong saga that limited access to popular websites used for work, school, entertainment and travel. Monday evening, the company said all its services returned to normal operations.

Here’s a recap:

• Downdetector showed users had problems accessing a variety of sites, ranging from Snapchat to Lyft to The New York Times to Venmo. Travelers reported problems with finding airline reservations and checking in online, while the British government said it was in communication with AWS over impacted services.
• AWS is the leading vendor of cloud infrastructure technology, with millions of companies and groups using its services tied to servers and storage.
• Cybersecurity executive Rob Jardin told CNBC that the outage didn’t seem to be caused by a cyber attack and was likely due to a technical issue with one of Amazon’s key data centers.
• It’s not the only outage in recent memory: AWS faced a disruption in 2023, and Microsoft Windows systems went dark last year following a problematic CrowdStrike software update.
• AWS said it will share a “post-event summary” following Monday’s outage.

On the other hand, yesterday was a great day for Apple investors. Shares rallied to all-time highs after a report from technology research firm Counterpoint showed iPhone 17 sales were off to a good start in the U.S. and China.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Apple’s surge shows why you’re better off holding the stock than dumping it. Meanwhile, Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown said on CNBC that Apple’s artificial intelligence efforts can create a “whole different story” for the investing outlook.

Apple’s jump helped juice the broader market, with the three major indexes all gaining more than 1%. Follow live market updates here.

The latest big-name corporate earnings reports out this morning came in stronger than Wall Street anticipated.

General Motors blew past analysts’ consensus expectations for both earnings per share and revenue in the third quarter. The automaker also lifted its full-year guidance and said the impact from tariffs would be lower than previously forecast. Shares surged 8.5% in premarket trading.

Coca-Cola also beat the Street’s forecasts on both lines for the third quarter, sending shares up nearly 2% before the bell. However, the soda maker said demand remained soft.

There could be light at the end of the tunnel for the federal government shutdown. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC the closure — which is now on its 21st day — “is likely to end sometime this week.”

The White House adviser warned, however, that the Trump administration could impose “stronger measures” if a resolution isn’t reached. Hassett said he heard that Senate Democrats felt it would be “bad optics” to reopen the government before the “No Kings” protests against Trump that took place nationwide Saturday.

As the focus on rare earth materials intensifies, the U.S. and Australia inked an agreement that includes project plans totaling as much as $8.5 billion. As CNBC’s Spencer Kimball notes, this deal comes as Trump pushes to build a rare earth supply chain that’s independent of China.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said each country would contribute $1 billion over the next six months. Later, the White House said in a fact sheet that the countries would each invest more than $3 billion in that time frame.

Shares of U.S.-listed rare earth stocks jumped in Monday’s session. Notably, Cleveland-Cliffs soared more than 20% after the steel producer said it was considering creating a rare earth mining business.

Famed entrepreneur Mark Cuban sat down with CNBC’s Bertha Coombs in Las Vegas for an exclusive, 30-minute interview about the health-care industry. Watch it here.

— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball, Tasmin Lockwood, Kevin Breuninger, Jaures Yip, Luke Fountain, Sean Conlon, Annie Palmer, Katrina Bishop and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report. Terri Cullen edited this edition.