The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge showed prices rising 0.6 percent in January from the month before and 4.7 percent from a year ago, up from 0.4 percent and 4.6 percent in December. This comes after months of slowing inflation, which have raised expectations on Wall Street that the Fed will ease up on interest rate hikes. The FOMC minutes released this week showed Fed officials acknowledging that inflation is slowing, but not enough yet to change its course on rate hikes. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial sank after the inflation report.
RETAIL ROUNDUP
Both Walmart and Home Depot reported earnings this week, painting an uncertain picture of the retail sector. Shares of Walmart initially fell after the company issued a cautious profit guidance for the year ahead — but then shot back up on the back of strong sales numbers. Shares of Home Depot, meanwhile, fell after the company issued a report showing strong earnings but a disappointing guidance for the coming year. In other words, strong fourth quarters didn't make up for the uncertainty about economic headwinds in 2023.
NVIDIA'S AI BET
Shares of Nvidia shot up 15 percent on Thursday after the chipmaker revealed that it is investing more heavily in artificial intelligence. The company also beat earning expectations, with adjusted earnings coming in at 88 cents per share compared to Wall Street estimates of 81 cents per share. The big takeaway was that Nvidia is partnering with cloud-service providers to offer artificial intelligence-as-a-service to other companies looking for those capabilities.
GOOGLE VS GONZALES
The Supreme Court met earlier this week to hear a case with potentially huge implications for the internet. The case, Gonzalez v. Google, concerns whether websites can be sued for their automatic recommendations of user content. The family of 23-year-old Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed by Islamic State gunmen in Paris in 2015, argued that YouTube is partly responsible for the killing, as its platform was used for Islamic State recruiting.
The Tony Awards on Sunday lured 4.85 million viewers to CBS, its largest broadcast audience in six years. CBS says Monday that Nielsen data shows the telecast — hosted by “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo — scored a 38% increase over last year’s 3.53 million viewers. That’s the largest audience for the Tonys since 2019, when the telecast that year nabbed 5.4 million viewers and “Hadestown” was crowned best new musical. The latest version also had to compete with the second game of the NBA Finals, between the Thunder and Pacers,
After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during a developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology.
Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel last December, Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and expressed that killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming."
Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson once clashed on the court in the 2001 NBA Finals, but now the basketball legends are joining forces to revive the Reebok brand they helped make iconic.
Midea is voluntarily recalling about 1.7 million of its popular U and U+ Smart air conditioners because pooled water in the units may not drain fast enough, leading to mold growth.
