Stocks rallied higher on Monday to kick-off the holiday-shortened week as tech stock gains led by Microsoft (MSFT  ) boosted the broader market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared over 200 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite rose roughly 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively.

Here's how the market settled on Monday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.74% or +33.36 points to 4,547.38

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.58% or +203.76 points to 35,151.04

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +1.13% or +159.05 points to 14,284.53

Making headlines, Microsoft shares reached a new 52-week high after CEO Satya Nadella said former OpenAI chief Sam Altman will be leading the tech giant's new Artificial Intelligence research team. This decision follows the technology start-up's board of director's decision to remove Altman, citing that he "we not consistently candid in his communications with the board," in a statement on Friday.

"We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners," Nadella said in a statement on Monday.

Tech and communications sectors saw the biggest gains on the S&P 500 on Monday, with Nvidia (NVDA  ), Intel (INTC  ) and Netflix (NFLX  ) being amongst the highest movers.

This week is expected to see low trading volumes as Wall Street's will be closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving and close early on Friday. However, trading has been choppy during the Thanksgiving week in recent years. Major data set for release this week includes minutes from the Federal Reserve's recent policy meeting on Tuesday, November's final consumer sentiment reading on Wednesday, and S&P's flash U.S. services and manufacturing PMI readings on Friday.

In single-stocks news, PENN Entertainment (PENN  ) shares rose higher after Bank of America analyst Shaun Kelly upgraded the gambling and entertainment stock to Buy from Neutral with a price target that implies a 22% upside from Friday's close. Kelly highlighted that PENN shares could benefit from its new sportsbook, ESPN Bet.

"We think ESPN Bet creates an asymmetric risk-reward, with 1) initial download and app activity much stronger than anticipated, 2) initial offers showing promotional discipline, and 3) stable Q3 earnings being better than expected for PENN's core gaming business," Kelly wrote in a note.

For Tuesday, market participants will react to earnings reports from companies including Zoom Video Communications (ZM  ), Lowe's (LOW  ), Baidu (BIDU  ) and Analog Devices (ADI  ), and will assess the central bank's next possible moves based on its November meeting minutes.