Tech Stocks' Week
- Stocks closed Friday in the green after a week of choppy trading, with tech stocks taking the lead.
- The Nasdaq saw its third straight week of increases, while $NFLX and $GOOG both saw rises. The yield on bonds increased from their four-month lows as well.
- However, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Average also fell, snapping a two-week gaining trend.
- Investors will eagerly monitor as the US tech sector's earnings season approaches to see how declining profitability will impact the Nasdaq 100 Stock Index firms. In response to slu, sluggish sales, $MSFT, $AMZN, and $GOOG have already started layoffs.
- It is unclear how the tech-heavy Index will perform in the upcoming week.
Source: Photo by Pixabay:
Microsoft Invests Billions in ChatGPT
- The founder of ChatGPT bots, OpenAI, has received confirmation of a "multibillion-dollar investment" from $MSFT, marking the tech giant's greatest wager yet that artificial intelligence systems have the potential to alter its business model and range of goods completely.
- Although the business said on Monday that it was investing billions of dollars in a "multi-year" partnership, specific financial information has not been made public. According to those familiar with the negotiations, OpenAI was asking Microsoft for $10 billion at a $29 billion valuation.
- Microsoft recently announced that it would soon introduce ChatGPT functionalities to its cloud computing service, Azure, due to its current exclusive agreement with OpenAI. As a result, businesses might use the capabilities directly within their apps and services if ChatGPT is available on that platform.
Source: Yahoo Finance
US markets advance amidst modest FED rate increase
- The market is only anticipating a 25 basis point increase, down from the last 50 bps increase and the four 75 bps increases.
- The midpoint of the Fed Funds rate would change by 25 basis points to 4.63%. With only two additional increases of 25 basis points needed to reach their anticipated terminal rate of approximately 5.10%.
- Investors' growing confidence that the Federal Reserve would increase rates by a quarter percentage point when it meets next week helped push US stocks up on Monday.
Other News
- Elliott Management has amassed a multibillion-dollar stake in $CRM, becoming the latest major activist investor to join the list of shareholders of a software company under pressure to reduce expenses and boost its stock price.
- As Google abruptly announces layoffs, many are blocked from access, shocking staff members. They rush to identify those who were impacted and press leadership for information. On the move, vocal employees challenge the leadership.
- Disney's "Avatar: The Way of Water" is the sixth-highest-grossing film, with over $2 billion worldwide box office receipts. "Titanic," his other film, is also in the top two.
- The sector's regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England, put 16 life insurers through a stress test that included credit downgrades and longer life expectancies. It judged them to be resilient but warned that their assumptions carried the risk of being overconfident in conclusions released on Monday.