Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Markets
Stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors awaited another batch of inflation data on Friday. S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%, Nasdaq-100 futures declined 0.05%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 0.14%. Wall Street also digested September’s consumer price index, which rose 0.2% on a month-over-month basis, increasing the annual inflation rate to 2.4% from the previous year. That came in ahead of the 0.1% monthly gain and 2.3% year-over-year rate expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones. Jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike as well. Follow live market updates.
2. TD Guilty
A pedestrian passes by a TD Bank branch in Washington, DC on October 10, 2024.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
TD Bank pleaded guilty Thursday in a criminal money laundering case and agreed to pay $3 billion in fines to the Department of Justice and federal financial regulators. The multiple charges against TD Bank included laundering money and failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program. TD Bank is currently the 10th-largest American bank by assets and, as part of the deal, will have limits to its growth imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that over a six-year period, TD Bank admittedly failed to monitor $18.3 trillion in customer activity, which allowed three money laundering networks to transfer more than $670 million through accounts at the bank.
3. Bank vault opens
The JP Morgan Chase & Co. company logo is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on February 23, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase kicked off bank earnings season and exceeded Wall Street analyst expectations. The bank reported $4.37 a share compared with the $4.01 a share expected by an LSEG survey of analysts. Revenue also came out higher than what was predicted, as the bank reported $43.32 billion compared with the expected $41.63 billion. JPMorgan said profit fell 2% from a year earlier to $12.9 billion, while revenue climbed 6% to $43.32 billion. The largest American bank has seen solid growth in a rising rate environment, posting record net income figures since the Fed started hiking rates in 2022.
4. Robotaxi bust
Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X looks on during the Milken Conference 2024 Global Conference Sessions at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2024.
David Swanson | Reuters
Investor reactions are in. After years of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s unfulfilled promises about fully autonomous vehicles, the tech billionaire unveiled its first new products since 2019’s Cybertruck. The electric vehicle maker revealed the Cybercab concept car, a low, silver two-seater with no steering wheels or pedals, which the company hopes to be producing before 2027. Tesla shares fell more than 5% in premarket trading Friday after investors were underwhelmed by the event. Analysts at Barclays said the unveiling failed to highlight any near-term opportunities for Tesla, instead prioritizing Musk’s fully autonomous driving future.
5. New GPU giant?
AMD CEO Lisa Su makes the opening speech at COMPUTEX forum in Taipei, Taiwan June 3, 2024.
Ann Wang | Reuters
AMD launched a new artificial intelligence chip Thursday that is aimed at competing with Nvidia’s data center graphics processors, known as GPUs. The chip, called the Instinct MI325X, will start production before the end of 2024. As of late, Nvidia has dominated the data center GPU market and has enjoyed roughly 75% gross margins. If AMD’s AI chips are seen as a close substitution, it could put pricing pressure on Nvidia. Most industry estimates say Nvidia has more than 90% of the market for data center AI chips, which AMD expects will be worth $500 billion by 2028. If all goes to plan, AMD’s Instinct MI325X will be matched up against Nvidia’s upcoming Blackwell chips, which Nvidia has said will start shipping in significant quantities early next year.
— Tech Zone Daily’s Dan Mangan, Hugh Son, Lora Kolodny, Ryan Browne and Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
