Market

The U.S. Secret Service said on Monday it was aware of a post by billionaire Elon Musk on the X social media platform musing about an absence of assassination attempts on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.Musk, who owns the platform, formerly known as Twitter, put up the post after a man suspected of planning to assassinate Republican former President Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach was arrested on Sunday.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/1_76f7a48b88.jpg" alt="1.jpg"></figure>A Trump supporter and the CEO of Tesla, Musk wrote on Sunday: "And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala," a post he ended with an emoji of a face with a raised eyebrow.He was quickly criticized by X users from the left and right, who said they were concerned his words to nearly 200 million followers could incite violence against Biden and Harris.Musk deleted the post but the Secret Service, tasked with protecting current and former presidents, vice presidents and other notable officials, took notice."The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence," a spokesperson told Reuters in an email. "We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees."The spokesperson declined to specify whether the agency had reached out to Musk, who seemed to suggest in follow-up posts that he had been making a joke."Well, one lesson I've learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn't mean it's going to be all that hilarious as a post on X," he wrote. "Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don't know the context and the delivery is plain text."Harris, a Democrat running against Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election, issued a statement on Sunday night as did Biden expressing relief and gratitude that Trump had not been harmed and condemning political violence.The White House criticized Musk for his post."Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said on Monday. &nbsp;

The U.S. Secret Service said on Monday it was aware of a post by billionaire Elon Musk on the X social media platform musing about an absence of assassination attempts on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

US Secret Service says it is aware of Musk post about Biden, Harris

The Federal Reserve's decision to opt for a bigger half-percentage-point cut opened a new area of disagreement between GOP nominee Donald Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell.What Trump said this week is that the cuts are a sign of one thing: a weak economy that he claims was brought on by the Biden/Harris administration."I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much assuming that they are not just playing politics," Trump said at a Manhattan bitcoin bar Wednesday."One or the other," the GOP nominee added "but it was a big cut."Powell — who was elevated to Fed chair by then-President Trump but has found himself often at odds with him in recent years — offered an opposite analysis Wednesday afternoon."Our economy is strong overall," Powell told reporters, arguing the move to cut the Fed's benchmark rate by 50 basis points was instead a way to try to ensure "strength in the labor market can be maintained" alongside economic growth.Read more: The Fed rate cut: What it means for bank accounts, CDs, loans, and credit cardsPowell also tried to dampen concern that the large cut was a sign policymakers were behind the curve or overly concerned that a deeper downturn in the economy could be around the corner.President Biden also weighed in Wednesday afternoon to say the news represented an important milestone."Inflation and interest rates are falling while the economy remains strong," the president wrote as he sided with Powell on the question of the state of the economy.Vice President Kamala Harris added in her own statement the move is "welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices [but] my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down."How this ends up impacting the 2024 campaign or economic growth remains to be seen.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/a1780eb0_75f2_11ef_b7ff_58ef49b6ff78_51e42f9b57.webp" alt="a1780eb0-75f2-11ef-b7ff-58ef49b6ff78.webp"></figure>It comes after a run-up to the crucial decision saw Powell in a stronger-than-expected position politically, seemingly poised to sidestep more severe political fallout for making a crucial Fed pivot just weeks before a presidential election.Powell was dinged from the left for waiting too long.“This cut in interest rates is yet another acknowledgement that Powell waited too long to reduce rates,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren after the news, but she added that she was happy that lower rates are now in place.Warren, who previously this week advocated a 75 basis point cut, added Wednesday that “more rates cuts are needed.”<h2 style="text-align:justify;">A culmination of a year of Trump commentary on the Fed</h2>The commentary from Trump on monetary policy is just the latest in a year where Trump, as he did as president, has chosen to regularly weigh in on the Fed with criticisms of Powell.Trump raised eyebrows last month when he offered that the president should "have a say" in Fed decisions and that Powell has "gotten it wrong a lot."On Wednesday, Powell responded to Trump's comment by defending the historic independence of the central bank and expressing optimism that it would continue in the years ahead.Earlier this year, Trump's critiques of Powell were more directly political. He told Bloomberg in June that cuts are something "they know they shouldn't be doing." That came after a February Fox Business interview, when Trump said of cuts, "I think [Powell's] going to do something to probably help the Democrats."More recently, Trump has tended to focus less on the central bank. Weeks can go by without the GOP nominee mentioning the central bank publicly and the topic didn't even come up at last week's debate with Harris.Trump instead tends to discuss his energy plans when asked about interest rates, saying more drilling would help drive interest rates lower.Trump's plan if he wins, RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly told Yahoo Finance early this week, is to "declare a national energy emergency to quickly bring down mortgage and interest rates."<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/c0a7e9e0_75f2_11ef_ae76_af4337672f5c_3e3896e9e1.webp" alt="c0a7e9e0-75f2-11ef-ae76-af4337672f5c.webp"></figure>Trump's critique is one he's been telegraphing this week. "They'll do the rate cut and all the political stuff," Trump told a Michigan crowd Tuesday night before the news came in but with a cut widely expected. The underlying reason, he added, "is because the economy is not good, otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it."For his part, Powell again sought to downplay the role of politics, noting Wednesday afternoon that the economic effects of this week's move would be felt "for the most part with a lag" — presumably after polls close in November.Either way, he added, "Our job is to support the economy on behalf of the American people and if we get it right, this will benefit the American people significantly so this really concentrates the mind," he said.

The Federal Reserve's decision to opt for a bigger half-percentage-point cut opened a new area of disagreement between GOP nominee Donald Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

A big Fed rate cut gives Donald Trump and Jerome Powell something else to disagree about

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates for the first time in four years Wednesday and outline the path for future rate cuts.Investors have been hoping for a larger half-percentage-point cut versus a quarter-point cut. Traders, in recent days, have increased their wager that the central bank will cut by a deeper 50 basis points. Wednesday morning, Fed funds futures were pricing in a better than 60% chance the Fed cuts by 50 basis points, up from just 15% odds a week ago.“The Fed cutting by 50 basis points is a real possibility,” said Wilmer Stith, bond trader for Wilmington Trust, who just last week thought it was more likely the central bank could cut by 25 basis points. He’s on the fence, though, as to whether it actually happens.Ahead of the blackout period, which started Sept. 7, comments from Fed officials indicated they are more likely to trim their benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point. That would mean a new range of 5.0-5.25% from its 23-year high of 5.25% to 5.5% when their policy meeting concludes this afternoon.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/1_94d857c1b7.webp" alt="1.webp"></figure>Either way, the Fed’s actions will officially mark the termination of the most aggressive inflation-fighting campaign since the 1980s. The rate cut will mark the first in a series of cuts, with intense focus on the Fed’s new interest rate projections, known as the so-called dot plot, for how many rate cuts officials see for the remainder of this year and next.<h2 style="margin-left:0;">Rate debate</h2>JPMorgan chief economist Michael Feroli is one who believes the Fed needs to cut by a bigger amount.“What the Fed should do is clear: Recalibrate the policy rate 50 basis points lower to adjust for the shifting balance of risks,” said Feroli.As inflation has continued a slow downward descent, officials are turning more attention to the job market, which has weakened, with Fed Chair Jay Powell pledging to do everything to maintain a strong job market.Feroli sees a 50 basis point cut Wednesday, with guidance for two 25 basis point cuts at the last two meetings of the year.But former Kansas City Fed president Esther George expects a quarter-point cut with the potential for Powell to lay the groundwork for deeper cuts in subsequent meetings.Who's right? We'll see, of course. But it could take a lot to form a consensus around the FOMC table to vote unanimously for a 50 basis point cut.Some of the committee members, including Fed governor Michelle Bowman, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic, and Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker, had indicated that starting with 25 basis points made sense and they weren’t alarmed by the cooling in the labor market.In contrast, in Jackson Hole in late August, Powell struck a dovish stance with comments that indicated he could be in favor of a 50 basis point cut, saying the Fed “will do everything we can to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability.” He noted that the Fed does not "seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions" and that the current level of the policy rate gives the Fed “ample room” to lower rates in response to any weakening in the job market.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/2_a377d98cbe.webp" alt="2.webp"></figure>In any case, Powell will have to explain the interest rate decision and projections in the press conference following the meeting. He'll either set expectations for deeper, more aggressive cuts or say the Fed is expected to take a measured, gradual approach and is prepared to take more aggressive action if warranted.Lots of changes to the language in the Fed’s policy statement are also expected to reflect the Fed’s decision to start a rate cutting cycle, including that officials have gained confidence inflation is falling sustainably to their 2% target, that officials are more focused on weakness in the labor market now, and that the timing and size of future cuts will depend on the data.In addition to their policy decision and interest rate projections, Fed officials will also release forecasts for unemployment, inflation, and the economic outlook. Fed Chair Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates for the first time in four years Wednesday and outline the path for future rate cuts.

Fed officials set to cut rates for the first time in 4 years

<h2 style="text-align:justify;">Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Company Description:</h2>Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm. The company provides a range of financial services to clients including corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals. The company operates through four segments: Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer &amp; Wealth Management.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/pic_1_1_493c512ecb.png" alt="pic 1"></figure><h2 style="text-align:justify;">Analyst’s ratings</h2>Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck maintained a Buy rating on Goldman Sachs Group (GS – Research Report) today and set a price target of $553.00. The company’s shares closed last Friday at $478.99.Graseck covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as Goldman Sachs Group, Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, and Citigroup. According to TipRanks, Graseck has an average return of 3.1% and a 46.77% success rate on recommended stocks.Goldman Sachs Group has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of $531.13, implying a 10.89% upside from current levels. In a report released on September 10, KBW also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $530.00 price target.The company has a one-year high of $517.26 and a one-year low of $289.36. Currently, Goldman Sachs Group has an average volume of 2.21M.<h2 style="text-align:justify;">Is GS a Buy Right Now?</h2>Analysts remain bullish about GS stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 13 Buys and four Holds. Over the past year, GS has surged by more than 40%, and the average GS price target of $531.69 implies an upside potential of 12.8% from current levels.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/pic_2_1_6aaff8e96b.png" alt="pic 2"></figure>tipranks

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Company Description:

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Gets a Buy from Morgan Stanley

Investors are playing defense ahead of the Federal Reserve’s looming interest-rate decision.They are piling into corners of the market that are considered safety plays, after a roaring first half powered by big technology stocks.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/1_5cc3d2e280.jpg" alt="1.jpg"></figure>Shares of real-estate, utilities and consumer-staples companies are among the best performers to start September. Gold prices are hitting fresh all-time highs, and government bond yields are near their lowest level of the year as prices have risen.“It’s really been something to see,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at the Bahnsen Group, of the rotation into defensives.Questions about the health of the U.S. economy, the magnitude of coming interest-rate cuts and the November presidential election have given some investors pause.Wednesday’s inflation report did little to ease the concerns. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, came in slightly higher than expected.Markets have struggled to find their footing since early August when some of Wall Street’s most popular trades unwound and data suggested the labor market might be cooling too quickly. Major indexes have been prone to sharp one-day swings, though the S&amp;P 500 is down just 1.3% from its July record and is up 17% for the year.Some of the shine has come off the Magnificent Seven group of big tech stocks. Nvidia, for one, has tumbled about 5% since Aug. 28 when it reported quarterly earnings and sales that more than doubled—a pace of growth that slowed from the turbocharged clip over the past year.The recent reordering of the market’s winners and losers has the utilities sector neck and neck with tech as 2024’s best performing group in the S&amp;P 500. Both are up more than 20%.The Fed is widely expected to begin easing interest rates at its meeting next week. Investors say the surprise in core inflation strengthens the case for a quarter-percentage point rate cut over a more aggressive half-point reduction.&nbsp;Interest-rate futures suggest the odds of a bigger rate cut are now about 31%, according to CME Group, down from 40% a week ago.With rates set to fall, that could make the chunky dividend yields on defensive stocks look more attractive. The real-estate sector of the S&amp;P 500 boasts a 3% yield, followed by utilities at 2.9% and consumer staples at 2.2%.“If you’re going to buy something that might have upside from an equity perspective, but it’s also going give you money to sit and wait, it’s not a bad place to do it,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “The yield doesn’t hurt.”Bank of America strategists suggested this week that the utilities and real-estate sectors will be beneficiaries in a lower-rate environment because of their dividends and encouraged clients to boost their exposure to utilities.Shares of real-estate, utilities and consumer-staples companies are seen as defensive plays because customers give priority to meeting rent, paying gas and electric bills and buying household goods, even when they trim other spending.Gold prices have hit repeated all-time highs since March. They have been boosted by demand for safe-haven assets. Plus, lower rates make gold, which pays no income, more attractive relative to assets such as stocks and bonds that pay dividends and interest. Gold prices are up 25% this year, outpacing the S&amp;P 500.The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield settled Thursday at 3.679%, the third-lowest level of 2024.&nbsp;Bond yields fall as prices rise, and investors tend to flock to the safety of U.S. Treasurys during periods of market unrest.Meanwhile, the S&amp;P Global Investment Manager Index’s risk appetite reading has fallen to its lowest level since May 2023. The monthly survey, based on data from about 300 institutional investors, found they are fretting about valuations, along with political uncertainty and recession risks.Stocks still look expensive historically. The S&amp;P 500 is trading at 21 times its expected earnings over the next 12 months, versus its 10-year average of 18.For now, the question for markets remains whether the surge in defensive assets is a blip or the start of a new market regime.“We’ve gone through a few of these headfakes, but we think this one is real because rates are going to start coming down,” said Emerson Ham III, senior partner at Sound View Wealth Advisors. “If you get a rally where you’ve got defensive names doing well but also technology performing on a fundamental basis, that’s kind of the best of both worlds.” &nbsp;

Investors are playing defense ahead of the Federal Reserve’s looming interest-rate decision.

Investors Adopt Defensive Crouch Ahead of Fed Rate Cut

Former President Donald Trump went into sales-pitch mode immediately after Tuesday night’s debate, walking into the spin room to extol his own performance, crowing on Fox News and going on a late-night posting spree to hype unscientific online polls that he said showed he had crushed Vice President Kamala Harris.<img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/0e5adebc198edbd34100931ac538ee41_28d896ebdb.webp" alt="0e5adebc198edbd34100931ac538ee41.webp">“That was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!” Trump posted on Truth Social, minutes after the debate ended, referring to the two ABC News moderators.Trump was insisting the same things privately to advisers and allies in the hours after the debate, according to three people with direct knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversations. Trump appeared jubilant, as if he truly believed what he was telling them, the three people said.But Trump’s actions after the debate told another story.In the lead-up to his debate with President Joe Biden in late June, Trump’s aides suggested that he might want to go into the spin room afterward. But he rejected the idea, and after his triumphant performance that night he felt no need to enter the spin room, understanding that his victory over the enfeebled president was so comprehensive that he could sit back and watch the press tear Biden apart.His aggressive spinning Tuesday night and Wednesday morning appeared to be an unspoken acknowledgment that his performance was suboptimal.The day after Trump’s debate with Harris, his aides and his allies were largely echoing his praise of his performance in public, but privately several conceded that the former president had a rough outing, in stark contrast to his more controlled appearance against Biden.An exception was the recent Trump endorser Robert F. Kennedy Jr.“Vice President Harris clearly won the debate in terms of her delivery, her polish, her organization and her preparation,” he said on Fox News on Wednesday, adding that while Trump “wins” on substance, “he didn’t tell that story.”Some of his allies chose to publicly blame his debate preppers instead of Trump himself. And yet at the same time, the supporters who are close to him were also of the hope that one bad night would ultimately not amount to much for an unpredictable, norm-busting presidential candidate who has had dozens upon dozens of bad nights over the past nine years.His advisers began to brace for a wave of negative news coverage immediately after the debate, and for this to perhaps result in a temporary, modest polling boost for Harris. Some are expecting days of bad news cycles instead of a period of momentum in which they had planned to hammer Harris for her liberal record and connection to Biden.The Harris campaign immediately embraced a second debate. Trump was more circumspect.“The reason you do a second debate is if you lose — and they lost,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night after the debate. By Wednesday, Trump was lashing out at ABC News. “They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” he said in another Fox News appearance. He mused instead about which moderators from Fox he would find acceptable to host a second debate.Few if any of Trump’s close allies and advisers share his purported view of his performance against Harris, though it is unclear how honest they have been with him so far. When Trump asks, “What do we think?” — as he did repeatedly to people he spoke to overnight and on Wednesday — the easiest response has been to tell him that he was great. And many took that path of least resistance.Trump will most likely receive some of his toughest feedback through the television, even on what would normally be friendly shows. While some Fox News opinion hosts, such as Jesse Watters, hunted for the positives in Trump’s performance, many of the commentators on the network Wednesday morning did not offer glowing reviews.“The moderators didn’t fact-check her, but there’s no reason he can’t do it,” former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said on Fox News.Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., praised Trump on social media after the debate for making the case that America was safer under his administration. But in the spin room afterward, according to Politico, Graham was clearly disappointed, outlining what he wished he had heard: “What I was hoping for was: ‘When I left we had the most secure border in 40 years, mortgage rates were below 3%, gas was $1.87, the Abraham Accords, energy independent, you screwed it all up.’”Several Trump allies and advisers who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity said they saw the night as a colossal missed opportunity. He had one overriding goal for the evening: to force Harris to own her liberal policy record and to attach her in voters’ minds to the most unpopular aspects of the Biden-Harris record. Instead, he found himself defending many of his decisions and past positions, while spreading unfounded claims about immigrants’ eating pets.Asked to comment, Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said the former president went to the spin room “because he’s fearless and unafraid to take questions from reporters, unlike Kamala Harris,” and knocked her for not giving one-on-one interviews or holding news conferences.She added that Trump “strongly drove home” his message that Harris was “responsible for the problems we are facing today,” a point Trump rarely made Tuesday night. And she insisted that Trump’s advisers “could not be more proud” of Trump “for delivering a masterful debate performance in a three-on-one fight,” accusing the ABC News moderators of ganging up on the former president.Trump’s advisers and allies had hoped he would turn every question Tuesday night back to Harris’ incumbency, asking her why she hadn’t accomplished her plans in the 3 1/2 years she has served alongside Biden. His aides felt good about how he had performed in his prep sessions. One person briefed on the sessions said before the debate that he expected Trump to ask the television audience a version of the devastating question that Ronald Reagan posed in his 1980 debate with President Jimmy Carter: Were voters better off now than they were four years ago?Yet Trump waited until the end of the debate to deliver a version of that argument, seeming to recall his key objective for the night only during his closing statement. He repeatedly took Harris’ bait, getting caught up on personal grievances like the size of his crowds, the dollar amount of his family inheritance and whether he won the 2020 election that he lost.In his debate prep sessions, Trump’s advisers suggested “pivots” for many of the lines of attack that came up Tuesday night. These were typically responses that would turn the focus back to Harris’ partnership with Biden and their joint stewardship of the economy and immigration. But instead of using those pivots, Trump snagged himself on every trap that Harris laid out for him.The question now for Trump and his aides is how to move ahead with eight weeks left in the race.He went to a memorial ceremony for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York on Wednesday, shaking hands again with Harris and appearing to greet her cordially. He later visited a fire station, bringing along Laura Loomer, the right-wing provocateur who also traveled on his plane to the debate and who last year shared a video on social media calling 9/11 an “inside job.” Loomer, who has advanced the pet-eating story line, posted conspiratorial questions Wednesday about Harris’ earrings.In the past, when he has faced similar moments of self-inflicted peril, Trump has tried to change the subject with an outlandish gambit or a campaign shake-up. He has publicly defended his campaign leadership but his recent empowerment of Corey Lewandowski to a senior role in the campaign has already caused friction within Trump’s team. Lewandowski, who was fired as his 2016 campaign manager, is known for having sharp elbows and encouraging a “let Trump be Trump” approach.It’s unclear whether there will be any changes to the campaign’s approach — or to his own approach — after Tuesday.After a disappointing performance, Trump typically casts around for others to blame. But at no point during his debate prep sessions was Trump advised to get hung up on responding to jabs about the size of his inheritance or over wild rumors about Haitian migrants’ eating pets, a person with knowledge of the sessions said.Readied for a tough stretch, his advisers now hope he can turn his focus back to the economy, with plans to hold events to highlight the high cost of living under the Biden-Harris administration and to compare it with the much lower prices before the coronavirus pandemic when Trump was in office.Trump is following the debate with a West Coast swing that includes one of his busier fundraising stretches. He will travel to Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday afternoon for a campaign speech billed as focused on the economy and housing, will hold a news conference at his golf course near Los Angeles on Friday morning and then a rally in Las Vegas that evening. In between the campaign events are a series of fundraisers, including in Los Angeles on Thursday night and in Silicon Valley on Friday afternoon.One remaining question is whether Trump will debate Harris again. In 2020, the former president pushed his disastrous first debate with Biden out of the news in part because he contracted COVID and wound up hospitalized. But he also stabilized his standing with a stronger second debate in October.

Former President Donald Trump went into sales-pitch mode immediately after Tuesday night’s debate, walking into the spin room to extol his own performance, crowing on Fox News and going on a late-night posting spree to hype unscientific online polls that he said showed he had crushed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump Says He Had a Great Debate. His Allies Privately Say Otherwise.

<ul style="list-style-type:disc;"><li style="text-align:justify;">August inflation was cooler than expected, setting up the Federal Reserve to cut rates next week.</li><li style="text-align:justify;">Nvidia should benefit from lower interest rates, as it will help its valuation and encourage economic growth and investment in AI infrastructure.</li><li style="text-align:justify;">One news outlet said Nvidia could get permission to export its chips to Saudi Arabia.</li></ul><h2 style="margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;">Good inflation news and other factors drove Nvidia up today.</h2>Shares of Nvidia (NVDA 8.15%) were moving higher today on several news items, including a cooler-than-expected inflation report this morning, a well-received presentation at a Goldman Sachs conference this morning, and news that the federal government could allow it to export chips to Saudi Arabia. As a result, the stock closed up 8% on the news.Chip stocks largely jumped as well on the inflation report, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF up 4.6% on the news, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.2%.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/pic_1_1_52533da657.png" alt="pic 1"></figure>Image source: Nvidia<h2 style="text-align:justify;">Falling interest rates are good for Nvidia</h2>Investors seemed unsure if the CPI report, which showed inflation rising just 2.5% year over year in August, was good news for stocks, but by the afternoon, the Nasdaq was soaring, paced by Nvidia.The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates next week, but investors are unsure if it will cut rates by 25 or 50 basis points. Ideally, interest rates will come down while the economy remains strong or even gets stronger. That would be the best scenario for Nvidia, as lower rates make growth stocks more valuable, and it should encourage borrowing for investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, meaning spending on Nvidia components.Speaking at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang didn't make any major news, but touted the company's technology and the future of generative AI, noting the company's advantages, including its software libraries for applications like autonomous driving and climate tech. He also added, "Demand is so great that delivery of our components, our technology, infrastructure, and software is really emotional for people because it directly affects their revenue. It directly affects their competitiveness."Finally, according to a report from Semafor, the federal government is considering permitting Nvidia to export advanced chips to Saudi Arabia, which it would use to train advanced AI models. While Saudi Arabia isn't a huge market, the loosening of export rules would benefit Nvidia and could lead to other markets opening up.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/pic_2_1_d0a24d0524.png" alt="pic 2"></figure><h2 style="text-align:justify;">Will Nvidia keep gaining?</h2>Tailwinds seem to be forming for the company, as falling interest rates will support investment and its valuation. It's also set to release the Blackwell platform in Q4, and its top customers, including tech giants like Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Alphabet, have all said that investing in AI infrastructure is a top priority.Even after today's gains, Nvidia stock is still down 17% from its high in June, leaving room for more gains. The stock still looks like a good bet to outperform, even after skyrocketing over the last two years.fool

August inflation was cooler than expected, setting up the Federal Reserve to cut rates next week.
Nvidia should benefit from lower interest rates, as it will help its valuation and encourage economic growth and investment in AI infrastructure.
One news outlet said Nvidia could get permission to export its chips to Saudi Arabia.



Why Nvidia Stock Popped Today

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Will Tesla Stock Split in 2024? No, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his Board of Directors have not announced any plans for a Tesla stock split in 2024.But the maverick CEO of SpaceX and Starlink could send a tweet anytime, keeping Tesla stock split rumors alive, so it is worth keeping abreast of the situation.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/Tesla_Stock_Split_1_jpg_8b2ce62173.webp" alt="Tesla-Stock-Split-1.jpg.webp"></figure>Why Doesn’t Tesla Split Its Stock? TSLA Stock Price Tesla (TSLA) stock is well down from all-time highs; thus, the impetus to make shares more affordable is not quite there.If Tesla’s current stock price isn’t viewed as prohibitively high, there might not be a strong need for a split. In other words, Tesla may believe the price is already within reach for most investors.That’s not to say a Tesla stock split date could never be announced at these prices. Historically, management has tried to bump shares out of a slump by conducting stock splits.Management at Tesla may feel that its current stock price accurately reflects its market value, and therefore doesn’t see the necessity of a split.A higher stock price can convey stability to investors, and Tesla may want to preserve that perception.Earnings Tesla’s 2023 annual earnings paint a mixed picture.While revenues increased by 24% year-over-year from 2022 to 2023, reaching $81.5 billion in 2023, its net profit declined. In 2022, Tesla had a net profit of around $12.6 billion, but in 2023, that figure dropped to approximately $10.5 billion, reflecting a 17% year-over-year decrease in profits. This drop in profitability comes from price cuts on its vehicles to stay competitive, squeezing margins. With profits down and costs rising, Tesla’s current financial position might not justify another stock split, which usually signals strong confidence in future growth.Elon Musk’s Distractions It seems fair to assume that a Tesla stock split couldn’t happen without CEO Elon Musk’s approval. However, Musk appears to be preoccupied with his other ventures, from Starlink to X Corp (formerly Twitter) to SpaceX and Neuralink.To his credit, he appears to be juggling all his ventures with sufficient verve – but a Tesla stock split is probably far down the pecking order of Elon Musk’s priorities.More broadly, if Tesla’s top team doesn’t see any major strategic benefits from a split at this time, it might choose not to proceed with one. Without a clear advantage, they could prefer to maintain the current structure rather than change it unnecessarily.EV Market Outlook While the trend towards electrifying vehicles still looks to be intact, the industry is not without uncertainties. For one, the value of used Teslas has been falling, pointing to potentially falling demand as well as government discount schemes to buy new EVs, which distorts the incentives behind market pricing.Tesla’s previous stranglehold over the EV market has also been waning as the major car manufacturers catch up. There is high demand for hybrids, and new low-cost EV competitors, mostly from China, are bringing down the average price.What Does This Mean for Investors? Long-term Tesla shareholders will have preserved the memory of TSLA shares north of $400 and would likely want to see a return to those levels, something a stock split closer to $200 would delay.Tesla could theoretically do a 2-for-1 stock split at ~$200, bringing the shares back to $100 – a nice round number and affordable to most potential investors. That would mean that the adjusted Tesla record high would not be $409.97 but rather $204.99.The possible downside of such a move would be psychological. Long-term shareholders, while understanding that the all-time high price has adjusted post-split, might still want to see the shares rise over $400—and over the pre-split record high.

But the maverick CEO of SpaceX and Starlink could send a tweet anytime, keeping Tesla stock split rumors alive, so it is worth keeping abreast of the situation.

Will Tesla Stock Split in 2024 After TSLA Bounces Back?

Trump Media &amp; Technology Group&nbsp;(DJT&nbsp;-6.60%)&nbsp;has been one of the most polarizing stocks to own this year. When the optimism surrounding Donald Trump's chances of winning the presidential election was high, the stock was doing well. But when the outlook changed, the stock quickly went into negative territory.What's sometimes forgotten is that there's a real company behind the stock, not just the former president. Trump Media may not be much of a business right now, but its fundamentals are still the ultimate reason why investors should consider investing in the stock or not.However, the company's future is uncertain, and a lot seems to be hinging on whether the former president gets elected this year. Is this stock too risky to own? Could it ultimately be headed to $0?<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/a573cfd2ea868773a9dc3f626cf1480f_a3213d9723.png" alt="a573cfd2ea868773a9dc3f626cf1480f.png"></figure><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">It has the classic signs of a meme stock</h2>Trump Media generates minimal revenue, and the social media platform Trump Social isn't exactly taking off and giving other social media stocks cause for concern. As is the case with other&nbsp;meme stocks, factors outside of the company's core operations impact its share price, not its fundamentals.When President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the election in July, shares of Trump Media stock proceeded to fall, as speculators likely saw worsening prospects for Trump winning against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris than they did against Biden. Since that announcement on July 21, Trump Media has lost half its value.Another feature of a risky meme stock is that there are often plenty of&nbsp;short-sellers&nbsp;betting against it. The stock has averaged a fairly high short interest of more than 7% this year, and that percentage has been rising in recent weeks.&nbsp;This opens the door to a possible&nbsp;short squeeze&nbsp;if speculators become more bullish on Trump's chances, which would add to the overall risk and volatility that may come from owning the stock.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">The fundamentals are what matter, and they aren't great</h2>Trump Media doesn't report user metrics -- likely because they aren't all that impressive. After all, they could help give investors a reason to buy the stock if they were good. At least they could provide investors with the hope that there's potential for the platform to draw interest from advertisers down the road, even though the business isn't profitable today and revenue isn't strong,I always look at the information a company leads with when it reports earnings, as that can help indicate what it thinks is most important for investors to focus on. For an unprofitable company, it might be user growth or some other metric to suggest it's doing well, such as shrinking losses.In Trump Media's August press release announcing earnings, the top bullet point was that it had $344 million in cash and no debt on its books. That's not exactly exciting for&nbsp;growth investors. Simply having a lot of cash doesn't make a business worth investing in, especially if it's not generating much revenue and burning through money -- as is the case with Trump Media.An average investor who's looking for a quality stock would likely pass on Trump Media stock because there isn't much substance behind it. At this point, it's largely a speculative play.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Is the stock heading to $0?</h2>Trump Media stock could rally if speculators believe Trump's prospects for winning the upcoming election look good and become more bullish on his chances. That would still be a short-term reason to bet on the stock -- not to&nbsp;invest in it for the long term.A short-term move fueled by election hopes wouldn't change the fundamentals, which are what matter most for investors. If the business isn't demonstrating meaningful growth in its operations, isn't profitable, and isn't generating positive cash flow, there's little reason to expect the stock to go anywhere but down.These are the reasons I think Trump Media stock ultimately will get to $0. It just may be a matter of how long until it gets there and what path it takes.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT -6.60%) has been one of the most polarizing stocks to own this year. When the optimism surrounding Donald Trump's chances of winning the presidential election was high, the stock was doing well. But when the outlook changed, the stock quickly went into negative territory.

Is Trump Media & Technology Stock Heading for $0?

Stock splits are essential to a functional stock market even though they don't affect the value of a company. Think of a company's market cap (value) as a pie or a pizza, if you prefer. All the split does is create more slices; it doesn't make the whole any larger. However, they are still essential, especially for those who aren't billion-dollar hedge funds. Microsoft (MSFT 0.17%) has split its shares nine times, most recently in 2003. A single share would cost $123,800 today without stock splits. That price is out of reach for many, if not most investors to buy a single share. And, as you can see below, the price is towering again.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/3cdfca261af7d8e570b42af33c63039b_873c77163a.png" alt="3cdfca261af7d8e570b42af33c63039b.png"></figure>Splits also indicate that a company is booming, since the share price must have grown significantly. Unlike Microsoft, ServiceNow (NOW 1.54%) has never split; however, with share prices of $879, this could change soon.Here is why these companies are having tremendous success.Microsoft The release of the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT pushed the AI race to the center of society's and investors' consciousness. When Microsoft made a multibillion-dollar investment in its creator, OpenAI, it was full throttle for tech companies to catch up. ChatGPT integrates with Microsoft Bing, which could allow Bing to steal some market share from Alphabet's Google Search, which generated $95 billion in revenue in the first half of 2024. Even small inroads for Bing will generate billions in revenue.Another major AI product is Microsoft Copilot. Copilot integrates into several products, answers questions, summarizes or generates text, creates images, codes, and analyzes data. According to Microsoft, 60% of the Fortune 500 use Copilots, a staggering figure given the technology's newness. These innovations drove sales growth of 16% in fiscal 2024 to $245 billion. Operating income grew 24% to $109 billion, a terrific 45% margin.Microsoft stock trades at 36 times earnings, which is higher than its three-year and five-year averages of 33; however, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio drops to 33 on a forward basis. Due to the lofty valuation, investors shouldn't expect the price to skyrocket overnight. Still, Wall Street can justify the current price based on Microsoft's AI opportunities.ServiceNow ServiceNow and Microsoft have partnered for years on many technology initiatives. The latest integrates ServiceNow's AI product, Now Assist, with Microsoft Copilot. Without boring you with too many technical details, the Now Assist product increases productivity in areas like human resources, IT support, customer service, and others. For example, Now Assist saves customer service agents time by summarizing a customer's recent interaction so the agent doesn't have to go through the transcript, allows agents to search vast databases quickly to find answers faster, etc. The increased productivity is invaluable for companies in a highly competitive world.<figure class="image"><img src="https://infofinance-prod.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/download_317e644b63.avif" alt="download.avif"></figure>Around 85% of the Fortune 500 use ServiceNow. The chart below shows just how much ServiceNow's customer base has grown. Each year that a customer adopts ServiceNow is represented by a different color, and the expansion shows the increased revenue from these customers over time.ServiceNow is in a higher growth phase than Microsoft ($2.6 billion in sales on 22% growth last quarter), so sales rather than bottom-line earnings better represent its valuation. Its current price-to-sales ratio is 18, which aligns with its 5-year average. Looking forward, the company expects 2024 subscription sales of $10.5 billion, and $15 billion in 2026. This means the stock price could conceivably return nearly 50% through 2026 by maintaining the same valuation.Microsoft and ServiceNow are making huge moves in AI, and with soaring stock prices, splits may be on the horizon.

Stock splits are essential to a functional stock market even though they don't affect the value of a company. Think of a company's market cap (value) as a pie or a pizza, if you prefer. 

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Why Nvidia Stock Popped Today

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