HaiKhuu Weekly Recap & Analysis
August 26 - August 30, 2024
MAJOR EVENTS OF LAST WEEK
Highlights:
The Dow Jones closed at a record high
NFL owners just voted to allow select private equity firms to invest at up to 10% of a team stake
OpenAI just said ChatGPT now has more than 200 million weekly active users and usage has doubled since last year
Major Indices’ Weekly Movement:
S&P 500: +0.10%
Nasdaq: -0.71%
Dow Jones: +0.88%
Monday, August 26
Stock Related News:
Fed Barkin:
The current low-hiring, low-firing approach companies now take to employment is unlikely to persist
There is a risk that firms will resort to layoffs if the economy weakens
Fed Daly:
Hard to imagine anything could derail September rate cut
Apple announced Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri will be leaving his role as CFO effective January 1st
Facebook announced today a partnership to buy geothermal power from Sage Geosystems to supply its US data centers
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was improper for the Biden administration to have pressured Facebook to censor content in 2021 related to the coronavirus pandemic, vowing that the social-media giant would reject any such future efforts
The Dow Jones closed at a record high
Royal Caribbean said that it has signed an agreement with Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku to order a 4th Icon Class ship for delivery in 2027
Economic News:
Durable Goods:
(Actual 9.9%, Previous -6.9%)
Major Indices:
S&P 500: -0.24%
Nasdaq: -0.97%
Dow Jones: +0.22%
Tuesday, August 27
Stock Related News:
Walmart is expanding the assortment of products on its third-party marketplace including pre-owned watches and collectable trading cards
Intel board member Lip-Bu Tan reportedly quit the board after differences with CEO Pat Gelsinger and other directors over what he considered to be Intel’s bloated workforce, risk-averse culture and lagging AI strategy
USB now thinks there’s a 25% chance of a US recession up from its previous 20% probability
Research firm IDC raised its forecast for full-year global smartphone sales, citing strong growth in the first half of the year and AI features attract buyers
NFL owners just voted to allow select private equity firms to invest at up to 10% of a team stake
Economic News:
Home Price Index
(Actual 6.5%, Previous 6.9%)
Consumer Confidence
(Actual 103.3, Previous 100.3)
Major Indices:
S&P 500: +0.14%
Nasdaq: +0.30%
Dow Jones: +0.04%
Wednesday, August 28
Stock Related News:
Apple took the rare step of cutting about 100 jobs in its digital service group, part of a shift in priorities for the critical division
OpenSea just received a Wells Notice from the SEC threatening to sue OpenSea because they believe NFTs on its platform are securities
Google just said it would resume allowing some users to use its AI models to generate images of people, after a scandal earlier this year prompted the company to suspend the feature
Billionaire Super Micro CEO sees 66% wealth collapse since March
Disney owned ESPN network is exploring the use of AI to help personalize its news and recap show “SportsCenter”
Facebook is planning a new mixed reality device that resembles bulky glasses, offering an alternative to heavy headsets that haven’t sold well
Economic News:
No Economic News
Major Indices:
S&P 500: -0.58%
Nasdaq: -1.13%
Dow Jones: -0.38%
Thursday, August 29
Stock Related News:
Mark Zuckerburg Facebook’s Llama models are approaching 350 million downloads to date
OpenAI just said ChatGPT now has more than 200 million weekly active users and usage has doubled since last year
Apple is in talks to invest in OpenAI
The investment would be part of a new OpenAI fundraising round that would value the ChatGPT maker above $100 Billion. It couldn’t be learned how much Apple or Microsoft will invest into OpenAI this round
Dell reported better-than-expected revenue due to an increase in the sales of its servers to handle artificial intelligence workloads
Orders of AI-optimized servers were $3.2B in Q2, up from $2.6B in the previous period
Raytheon was awarded a $1B contract with the US Air Force
Intel is working with investment bankers to help navigate the most difficult period in its 56-year history
Intel is reportedly discussing various scenarios, including a split of its product-design and manufacturing businesses, as well as which factory projects might be scrapped
Economic News:
Initial Jobless Claims:
(Actual 231k, Previous 233k)
Retail Inventories:
(Actual 0.8%, Previous 0.9%)
Wholesale Inventories:
(Actual 0.3%, Previous 0.1%)
GDP (2nd Revision):
(Actual 3.0%, Previous 2.8%)
Pending Home Sales:
(Actual -5.5%, Previous 4.8%)
Major Indices:
S&P 500: +0.01%
Nasdaq: -0.15%
Dow Jones: +0.22%
Friday, August 30
Stock Related News:
Amazon turns to anthropic’s AI for Alexa revamp
Amazon’s revamped Alexa due for release in October will be powered primarily by Anthropic’s Claude AI models, rather than its own AI
CrowdStrike VP set to testify to congress on its outage
A senior member of CrowdStrike’s operations team is scheduled to appear before Congress to answer questions on the company’s global IT outage in July that disrupted industries around the world
Economic News:
Personal Income:
(Actual 0.3%, Previous 0.2%)
Personal Spending:
(Actual 0.5%, Previous 0.3%)
PCE Index:
(Actual 0.2%, Previous 0.1%)
Core PCE Index:
(Actual 0.2%, Previous 0.2%)
Consumer Sentiment:
(Actual 67.9%, Previous 67.8%)
Major Indices:
S&P 500: +1.01%
Nasdaq: +1.19%
Dow Jones: +0.55%
