Guess we have to put away the “Dow 40K” hats, at least for a while. The venerable index fell more than 600 points, or 1.5%, yesterday – its worst decline since March 2023. The Nasdaq fared better for a reason I’ll cover in a minute. Most markets are flattish this morning, including silver and gold. The latter dropped a quick hundred bucks this week.
Despite a lousy day for the markets overall, shares of Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) surged more than 9% after the company released incredibly strong fiscal first quarter results. The semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence (AI) stock didn’t just trounce estimates and issue a bullish forecast for the future. It also raised its dividend and announced a 10-for-1 stock split. While splits don’t alter the intrinsic value of a stock, they can drum up more retail buying interest.
NVDA Vs. The Dow (1-Day % Change Chart)
Source: Yahoo Finance
The Wall Street Journal published an in-depth story about the actress Scarlett Johansson’s fight with OpenAI over the latter’s new “Sky” Chat GPT tool. Johansson alleges the female voice assistant sounds eerily similar to her, and is seeking more details on how Open AI CEO Sam Altman came up with the product.
The suit raises broader questions about how AI models are trained. Creative talent and talent agents want to know whether protected or copyrighted materials are being incorporated into those models. They also want to make sure traditional or voice actors, as well as writers and artists, are compensated fairly for their work. Investors in shares of AI companies and entertainment and media companies will be watching closely to see how the process shakes out.
Editor’s Note: Stock and bond markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday, so we will not be publishing on Monday, May 27. Our normal newsletter publication schedule will resume Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend!
