Here is a rundown of Cheddar News' top trending market stories of the day.
TECH EARNINGS AHEAD
It's going to be a busy week for Wall Street. The Federal Reserve is announcing its next rate hike on Wednesday, and Big Tech is dropping a slew of quarterly results. Meta is releasing earnings on Wednesday, and Amazon, Apple, and Google parent Alphabet are all releasing on Thursday. Traders are betting that the Fed delivers a modest 25 basis point hike, marking a deceleration of this tightening cycle. As for the earnings, investors will be tuned in for signs of how the tech sector might fare in the coming year after several high-profile rounds of layoffs.
MICROSOFT COPYRIGHT SUIT
Microsoft and OpenAI requested that a San Francisco court toss out a class-action lawsuit accusing the firms of improperly monetizing open-source code in their artificial-intelligence systems. The companies said the anonymous copyright owners who filed the complaint were not specific enough in their allegations. The plaintiffs maintain that they used the open source code in a program called Copilot without complying with licensing terms.
AMAZON ADD GROCERY FEES
Amazon is adding a fee to Fresh grocery orders that cost less than $150. It said the extra charge is designed to keep prices down across its services. The delivery fee is $9.95 for orders under $50, $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100, and $3.95 for orders between $100 and $150. “This service fee will help keep prices low in our online and physical grocery stores as we better cover grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience,” the company said.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.