Stocks had a nice day yesterday, and they’re tacking on some points in the early going today. Treasuries, crude oil, and gold were a bit higher as well, while the dollar was flat.
On the news front…
This is a key week for Wall Street because A) We’re about to get some very important inflation data and B) Several Federal Reserve speakers are sharing their latest thoughts on monetary policy. Depending on what tomorrow morning’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures show – and what Fed officials say – we could see a big rally...or suffer a renewed swoon. Buckle up.
Meanwhile, companies like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Alphabet (GOOGL), and even Intel (INTC) are coming for Nvidia (NVDA), the dominant producer of semiconductors that power the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution. They hope that by using an open-source software approach, they can siphon off customers frustrated with Nvidia’s proprietary approach. Several startup firms are also trying to carve out a market niche in the red-hot AI space.
NATO is currently holding a two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, one attended by President Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and several other alliance leaders. The goal is to project unity in the face of Russian aggression.
Officials also approved a detailed defensive blueprint for how the 31 NATO nations would respond to further aggression from a country like Russia. Finally, Sweden looks set to gain NATO membership soon after a last-minute deal was reached with holdout alliance member Turkey.
When in doubt, stimulate your economic problems out! That’s how China operates, so it’s no surprise news of additional stimulus measures is leaking out of the country. Several of the programs will be aimed at the real estate sector, which has been hit hard thanks to rampant overbuilding, weaker home sales, and defaults from debt-encumbered developers.
