Morning Reads
- What the End of Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Means
- China’s Growth Bump May Dent Urgency for More Stimulus
- Powell’s Silence Frustrates Markets as Post-Covid Economy Shifts
- Market-Fed Alignment Is Welcome, But Not Enough
- Fed Hikes Slash Household Net Interest Income in Break From Past
- What Meltdown? Crypto Comes Roaring Back in the Philippines
- FTX Bankruptcy Trade Mints 200% Windfall and Sparks Legal Battle
- Family Office Head Sees More Peruvian Clients Settling in Miami
- Once America’s Hottest Housing Market, Austin Is Running in Reverse
- Storing Renewable Energy, One Balloon at a Time
- The Department of Homeland Security Is Embracing A.I.
- Nvidia’s Conference Will Be ‘Woodstock’ for AI Developers
- Apple Is in Talks to Let Google Gemini Power iPhone AI Features
- Dan Loeb Enters the Chip Wars
- In Latest A.I. War Escalation, Elon Musk Releases Chatbot Code
- Tech Job Seekers Without AI Skills Face a New Reality: Lower Salaries and Fewer Roles
- XPeng’s Shares Rise on Cheaper Brand Launch
- As Electric-Vehicle Shoppers Hesitate, Hybrid Sales Surge
- American Manufacturers Seek Perfection as Quality Issues Mount
- Boeing’s Pain Spreads to Travelers as Airlines Cut Back on Plans
- FedEx and Amazon Discussed Partnership as Competition for Returning Packages Intensifies
- Women Are Closing the B-School Dean Gap
- Australia Extends Government-Funded Parental Leave to Six Months
- What Must Nelson Peltz Do to Get Some Respect?
- Craft Retailer Joann Files For Bankruptcy After Consumer Pullback
- Russia Strengthens Its Internet Controls in Critical Year for Putin
- Sri Lanka’s Economy Expands For a Second Straight Quarter
- Angola Seeks Chinese, Private Funds for Refinery, Air Force Base
- China Urges EV Makers to Buy Local Chips as US Clash Deepens
- Mexican Peso Is So Strong Investors Fear Betting Against It
- Fed Seen Sticking With Three 2024 Cuts Despite Higher Inflation
- Peak Rates Boost U.S. Demand for Riskier Form of Corporate Debt
- Blame Crypto Bros for the Rising Cost of Your Rolex
- ‘No Time to Waste’: Japan Inc Set to Step Up Outbound M&A
- US Steel Rival Is Ready to Pick Up the Pieces If Nippon Deal Collapses
- Honda and Nissan Look to Tie Up in EVs
- Self-Driving Cars Enter the Next Frontier: Freeways
- OpenAI and the Fierce AI Industry Debate Over Open Source
- Why Corporate America Has a Diversity Problem
- Young Entrepreneurs Find a Way to Indulge Their C.E.O. Dreams
- More Middle Managers Are Being Laid Off
- Big Profits and High Prices: There Is a Connection
- American Debt Stings Like Never Before in New Era for Households
- Dollar Stores Get Devalued as Low-Income Consumers Struggle
- Cities Face Cutbacks as Commercial Real Estate Prices Tumble
- Texas Cities Grow Fastest in US as NYC Keeps Losing People
- When It Comes to Texas, Is Musk All Hat and No Cattle?
- Why Having a Baby Isn’t Really Bad for the Planet
- McDonald’s Technology Outage Forces Restaurant Closures
- Boeing’s Problems Could Soon Become Your Problem
OPTIONS
PREMIUM
Prepper
Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang will take the stage later today, drumming up enthusiasm for the latest breakthroughs in the AI revolution. The company's annual developer gathering, called GTC, or the GPU Technology Conference, is kicking off at the San Jose Convention Center, with a keynote from Huang slated for 4 PM ET. More than 300,000 people are expected to be in attendance, either virtually or in person, showing just how important the event has become in recent years.
What's on the menu? Nvidia is expected to unveil successors to its key revenue drivers, like Hopper graphics architecture and the H100 GPU, which is currently the go-to processor for training and deploying AI models. The new architecture is believed to be codenamed Blackwell, while the energy-intensive B100 GPU will command far better performance (and likely ship later this year). Another exciting development will be updates to the company's CUDA software, which ties developers to the Nvidia network, as well as the introduction of a dedicated chip for the Chinese market, which has fallen under technology curbs from the U.S. government.
"GTC has become the world's most important AI conference because the entire ecosystem is there to share knowledge and advance the state of the art," Huang said in a press release ahead of the event.
Market movement: While retracing some territory in recent weeks, Nvidia (NVDA) shares are still up 77% YTD after topping the $2T market cap milestone in late February. Analysts now see EPS growth topping 90% Y/Y in 2024, while revenue is forecast to surge 81% to over $110B. "Nvidia has posted a 5% on average over the course of the four-day event, followed by an immediate, yet brief, pullback, which could mark an opportunity for upside potential leading up to its next earnings release," writes SA Investing Group Leader Livy Investment Research. Take the WSB survey.
Dive into anything
Reddit's (RDDT) initial public offering is said to be 4-5 times oversubscribed, with strong demand likely helping the social media platform reach its valuation goal of $6.5B. However, oversubscription isn’t necessarily an indicator of the stock’s performance and the marketing of the IPO is still ongoing. SA analyst Mountainside Research is bearish on Reddit, given its lack of profitability and reliance on advertising. "Based on how other recent IPOs have been received by the market, Reddit may have a rocky start," he noted, though others think it may have the potential to become a meme stock given its ties to r/WallStreetBets. (30 comments)
Out of commission
The National Association of Realtors has agreed to pay $418M over about four years to resolve claims of collusion aimed at maintaining artificially high agent commissions. NAR will also revise multiple regulations that will likely result in a substantial drop in the cost of selling a home. If approved by a federal court, the deal would mean that home listings across much of the U.S. would no longer feature upfront offers to buyers' agents, allowing buyers the opportunity to directly negotiate compensation beforehand. While the news broke on Friday, many are still discussing what it might mean for real estate platforms such as Compass (COMP), Zillow (Z) and Redfin (RDFN). (57 comments)
Spy network
SpaceX (SPACE) is reportedly building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, a U.S. government agency involved with space-based intelligence. The network, which involves a $1.8B contract signed in 2021 and SpaceX's Starshield unit, demonstrates the Pentagon's willingness to invest in low-Earth orbiting satellite systems. There has also been a lot of talk about SpaceX going public, but that could bring a whole lot more scrutiny to a firm that might be closely working with U.S. military and spy agencies. (41 comments)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan +2.7%. Hong Kong +0.1%. China +1%. India +0.1%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.1%. Paris flat. Frankfurt +0.3%.
Futures at 7:00, Dow -0.1%. S&P +0.4%. Nasdaq +0.8%. Crude +0.9% to $81.29. Gold flat at $2,161.40. Bitcoin +1.5% to $68,040.
Ten-year Treasury Yield unchanged at 4.31%.
Today's Economic Calendar
10:00 Housing Market Index
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Meta (META) under federal probe over role in illegal drug sales.
Largest U.S. grid could see 58 GW of power generation shut by 2030.
ByteDance's TikTok faces slowing U.S. growth as users leave app.
Putin hails election victory after harshly suppressing opposition voices.
U.S. warns Europe that reviving metals dispute may hurt WTO reform.
Survey finds GLP-1 users more inclined to get aesthetic procedures.
FAA to probe missing panel in United's (UAL) Boeing (BA) 737 flight.
'Kung Fu Panda 4' keeps top spot at box-office for second weekend.
Microsoft's (MSFT) LinkedIn to launch an online gaming platform.
Citi analysts screen for 25 stocks with growth capex opportunity.