📈 Rally divided

Microsoft sinks, chipmakers climb as AI rally faces divide, Kamala Harris vows to combat price gouging, Tesla recalls 1.85 million US vehicles, Starbucks sales fall as diners retreat, and Fed likely to hold rates steady today- one last time …

Author

Smart Owl
July 31, 2024

Good morning.

The Fast Five → Microsoft sinks, chipmakers climb as AI rally faces divide, Kamala Harris vows to combat price gouging, Tesla recalls 1.85 million US vehicles, Starbucks sales fall as diners retreat, and Fed likely to hold rates steady today- one last time …

Calendar: (all times ET)

  • Today: FOMC interest-rate decision, 2:00 PM

    • Fed Chair Powell press conference 2:30 PM

  • THU, 8/1: Initial jobless claims, 8:30 AM

  • FRI, 8/2: Employment report, 8:30 AM

Your 5-minute briefing for Wednesday, July 31:

BEFORE THE OPEN

As of market close 7/30/2024.

PRE-MARKET

MARKETS

  • US stocks slipped yesterday as investors digested a mixed bag of Big Tech earnings

EARNINGS

  • Microsoft beat Q4 EPS and revenue estimates but disappointed on cloud revenue and forecast, causing shares to fall 3% AH (link)

  • AMD shares rose 7% after beating Q2 EPS estimates and raising FY sales forecasts thanks to continued growth in AI chip sales (link)

  • Starbucks missed Q3 revenue estimates but met on EPS as its cost efficiency strategy helped offset a consumer spending decline (link)

  • PayPal jumped 9% after reporting a Q2 beat-and-raise thanks to strength in its checkout business and easing competition concerns (link)

  • P&G fell 5% despite beating Q4 EPS estimates due to disappointing revenue from low demand in China (link)

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Today: Meta, Qualcomm, Boeing 

    • Thursday: Apple, Amazon, Intel, Coinbase

    • Friday: ExxonMobil, Chevron

  • Full calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

Disappointing quarterly results from Microsoft melted $340 billion of stock market value on Tuesday from it and rival heavyweights racing to dominate artificial intelligence technology

VP Kamala Harris pledged to battle price gouging, bring down costs and ban hidden bank fees if she wins a Nov. 5 general election in which she is the Democrats' likely presidential nominee.

  • S&P, Nasdaq stumble on caution ahead of tech earnings (link)

  • US job openings fall marginally, consumers less upbeat on the labor market (link)

  • Fed likely to hold rates steady one last time as inflation fight finale unfolds (link)

  • US regulators seek to limit asset managers’ sway over big banks (link)

  • Starbucks sales fall as diner retreat extends in US, China (link)

  • Tesla recalls 1.85M US vehicles over unlatched hood issue (link)

  • SEC charges BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji with fraud; says proceeds paid for L.A. mansion (link)

  • Wells Fargo sued over employee prescription drug costs (link)

  • HealthEquity data breach affects 4.3M people (link)

  • Blackstone in bid to acquire shopping center owner Retail Opportunity (link)

  • OpenAI starts roll-out of advanced voice mode to some ChatGPT Plus users (link)

  • Spotify expands lyrics access for free users (link)

CRYPTO

  • Bitcoin plunged to $66,000 after the US government moved $2 billion worth of seized BTC to unidentified wallets (link)

  • SEC charged BitClout founder with wire fraud and unregistered securities sale, alleging he misused $7 million (link)

  • Router Protocol launched its mainnet, joining the trend of "chain abstraction" to simplify cross-chain transactions for users (link)

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