Cautious optimism from the Fed, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, company news
European bourses are poised to extend their rally ahead of the ever-important US CPI data following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who reassured investors that the US central bank's next move was unlikely to be a hike.
Traders are now pinning their hopes on the Fed starting its easing cycle in September, although that will depend on the inflation report, which is expected to show the consumer price index rose 0.3% month-on-month in April, up from a rise down 0.4% in the previous month, according to a Reuters poll.
While Powell's comments largely mirrored those made at his news conference after the Fed's last meeting, it was enough to send stocks higher, with Asian shares hitting their highest level in 15 months and the Nasdaq closing at a record high.
Stocks and bonds rose slightly, and the dollar fell on moderately optimistic expectations for today's inflation.
In the morning the markets are calm.
Today
Cisco Systems Report.
The BLS will publish the US Consumer Price Index for April.
A slowdown is expected from 3.5% to 3.4% y/y.
The benchmark index will slow from 3.8% to 3.6%.
The National Association of Home Builders will release the housing market index for May. The index is expected to fall from 51 to 50.
The Census Bureau will release retail sales data for April. Economists forecast retail and food service sales to grow 0.4% mom to $712 billion, a slight slowdown from the March jump.
Amazon cloud chief Adam Selipsky is resigning. Matt Garman, head of sales and marketing, will take his place in his place. AMZN stock is neutral.
The Coinbase (COIN) exchange website and all its services including Wallet were unavailable for about two hours. The exchange team wrote that they are investigating the incident and that user funds are safe. COIN shares rose 2% yesterday.
OpenAI is killing off the language tutoring industry. Duolingo (DUOL) shares continued to fall after weak reaction to the report, following the presentation of a language model with a translator.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is leaving the company. Research director Jakub Pachocki will replace Sutzkever as OpenAI's chief scientist.
Google: Our Gemini chatbot is now integrated into Google products used by 2 billion people. Gemini 1.5 Pro now has a context window of 2 million tokens, which is 16 times more than GPT-4o.
The AI war is heating up. Consumers are happy. But shareholders were not very impressed with the innovations shown at the Google I/O meeting.
The EU is considering including cryptocurrencies in the €12 trillion investment market. Inclusion could be a game changer for cryptocurrencies, experts say - DL News. The IMF said that artificial intelligence is hitting the labor market like a “tsunami.”
Tencent holdings (TCEHY) reported that adjusted net profit for the 1st quarter (in yuan) amounted to 50.3 billion against 43.0 billion
Sales revenue 159.5 billion (+6% y/y) against 158.8 billion . In 2024, it plans to repurchase shares worth more than HK$100 billion.
Alibaba shares fell 6% after the report. The company's profit fell by 86% YoY.
Shares of FSLR, a leading U.S. solar energy manufacturer, fell 3% on Tuesday. Which is a sign that investors don't expect Biden's new tariffs to significantly help American manufacturers.
China bypasses US tariffs through other Asian factories: in 2023, only 0.1% of imported products came from China, while 88% came from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Otavio Costa on the situation with meme shares. A stock soaring 90% in one day due to the return of an investor who staged a pump in the past means that current market sentiment is the most speculative in history.
Goldman Sachs: We are bullish on US equities in the long term.
Upside risks exceed downside risks, however, the S&P 500 has already reached our target for 2024 at 5'200..
Uber will acquire Delivery Hero's Foodpanda business in Taiwan. Uber will also separately acquire $300 million worth of newly issued common shares of Delivery Hero.
OPEC left its estimates of global oil demand growth unchanged for this year and next - WSJ, while reporting a fall in oil production as the market awaits the cartel's next change in production policy at its June meeting.
The financial performance of Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech is deteriorating. Therefore, they decided to find out in the courts who really is the developer of the “anti-Covid cure.” Not for recognition, but to receive billions of dollars in royalties from a competitor to cover their own losses.
Charles Schwab's (SCHW) total client assets fell 3% during tax season. Total client assets fell 3% to $8.85 trillion but rose 16% YoY. SCHW shares rose 3% yesterday.
The housing market has hit rock bottom. Only about four million people plan to move this year, the lowest number in years, according to Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. The reason for this is long-term high interest rates.
Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia wants to avoid excessive economic growth. Because it directs investments to rid the country of oil dependence.
Shares of SunPower Corp., which had been heavily sold off on Tuesday, more than doubled at one point. Which allowed them to record record profits as the solar energy company's shares got caught up in the latest meme-driven frenzy.
Beneficiaries of the London Stock Exchange sold a stake worth £1.5 billion.
Meme stocks soared again on Tuesday. While U.S. stocks remained generally subdued amid mixed inflation readings as investors await Wednesday's consumer price release.
PLUG shares rose 19% yesterday. The hydrogen technology company said it has received a contingent loan guarantee commitment of up to $1.66 billion from the Department of Energy. The company's main problem was large capital investments and it was on the verge of survival. Sony shares rise 9% after the report
Delinquencies on office loans jumped to a nearly six-year high of 6.4% - Moody's. Only 24% of borrowers with office loans maturing in April repaid their mortgages, down from 45-50% last year. Instead of payments, property owners are increasingly seeking loan modifications, extensions and other forms of debt relief.
“Office loan defaults are expected to likely continue through 2026 as office refinancing standards have tightened due to rising office vacancies and uncertainty about the impact of future hybrid work arrangements on rental demand.”