Tag: consumer services

IBM pulls ads from X after Elon Musk’s incendiary comments over white pride

IBM Corp.
IBM,
+0.31%
has abruptly pulled ads from X, formerly Twitter, amid a maelstrom of controversial comments from billionaire owner Elon Musk and the placement of IBM ads.

“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a statement emailed to MarketWatch.

IBM suspended advertising following a report by the Financial Times on Thursday that IBM ads appeared next to posts supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. A Media Matters study also found ads from Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+0.90%,
Oracle Corp.
ORCL,
+0.53%,
and Comcast Corp.’s
CMCSA,
-0.28%
Xfinity and Bravo were adjacent to pro-Nazi content.

On Wednesday, Musk agreed with a post on X supportive of an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote in response to the post.

Compounding matters, Musk on Thursday said on X it was “super messed up” that white people are not, in the words of one far-right user’s tweet, “allowed to be proud of their race.”

Adding fuel to the fire, Musk said on Wednesday that the Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League “unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel.” (Musk has threatened to sue the ADL because of its criticism of lax moderation practices on X that it says have allowed antisemitism to spread.)

The cascading conflagration prompted Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
-3.81%
bull and investment adviser Ross Gerber to grumble on X: “Getting a flood of messages from clients wanting out of tesla and anything to do with Elon Musk. Many saying they are selling their cars as well. What is he doing to the tesla brand??!!?!?”

Earlier this year, Gerber backed down from his “friendly activist” efforts to join Tesla’s board, saying he felt his concerns had been addressed. His firm, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, has its own ETF, AdvisorShares Gerber Kawasaki
GK,
which has Tesla as its top investment, and has attracted many clients with Tesla shares in its portfolios

In an interview on CNBC late Thursday, Gerber said that while he is not selling his Tesla stock, ” I’m not going to mince words about it anymore as a shareholder. It’s absolutely outrageous, his behavior and the damage he’s caused to the brand.”

Gerber said Musk has essentially abdicated his responsibilities as Tesla CEO: “It’s all about Twitter, and what he can tweet, and how many people he can piss off… What’s going to happen to Tesla over the next 10 years, are they gonna achieve their mission if the CEO isn’t actually the CEO? Because he’s certainly not acting as the CEO of Tesla.”

An X executive told MarketWatch that the company did a “sweep” of the accounts next to the IBM ads. Those accounts “will no longer be monetizable” and specific posts will be labeled “Sensitive Media.”

The executive said 99% of measured ad placements on X this year have appeared adjacent to content scoring “above the brand safety floor” criteria set by industry standards.

Late Thursday, X’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, tweeted: “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board — I think that’s something we can and should all agree on. When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop.”

The posts and ad placement come amid a wave of antisemitism on digital forums including X and a downturn in advertising on the platform linked to hate speech and misinformation. Musk said in July that ad revenue had plunged about 50%.

The latest kerfuffle is likely to complicate the efforts of Yaccarino, who was hired in June from Comcast Corp.’s
CMCSA,
-0.28%
NBCUniversal to sway advertising agencies and major brands to stay on, or initiate relationships with, the platform now known as X.

Tesla shares fell nearly 4% on Thursday but are still up about 90% to date in 2023.

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November 16, 2023
Soros snaps up tech stocks in Q3, but dumps some of the biggest names

Soros Fund Management, the investment firm founded by billionaire George Soros, took new positions or bulked up on IPOs and a number of tech names during the third quarter.

But it sold off small holdings of some of the largest — like Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. — as well as electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive.

According to a filing on Tuesday, the firm during the third quarter bought up 325,000 shares of chip designer Arm Holdings
ARM,
+3.37%,
which went public in September, for $17.4 million. It also bought smaller stakes in recent IPOs such as Maplebear Inc.
CART,
+1.25%,
better known as grocery-delivery platform Instacart, and digital-marketing firm Klaviyo Inc.
KVYO,
+6.90%.
Those purchases were disclosed as investors remain cautious on new IPOs.

Elsewhere, the fund took a new position, of around 41,000 shares, in Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+1.43%.
And it did so as well for Datadog Inc.
DDOG,
+4.58%,
buying 62,000 shares during the quarter. It also bought up 574,962 shares of Splunk, and took fresh positions in Snowflake Inc.
SNOW,
+4.51%
and Taiwan Semiconductor
TSM,
+2.58%.

Soros also packed on more to some of its other tech holdings. It added 125,000 shares to its stake in Uber Technologies Inc.
UBER,
+3.14%,
boosting its position by 16.6% for a total of 878,955 shares. It also bought 42,000 more shares of another gig-economy player, DoorDash Inc.
DASH,
+4.37%,
a 30.9% increase for 178,075 shares.

While Soros boosted its stake in General Motors
GM,
+4.83%,
it sold off its 4.2 million shares in Rivian
RIVN,
+4.39%.
The firm also sold off its positions — of roughly 10,000 shares apiece — in tech giants Microsoft
MSFT,
+0.98%
and Nvidia
NVDA,
+2.13%.

Soros Fund Management also sold off its stake in Walt Disney Co.
DIS,
+1.82%.

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November 14, 2023
Groupon’s stock craters after earnings as CEO says business ‘continues to be challenged’

Groupon Inc. shares were tumbling more than 20% in Thursday’s extended session after the discounting marketplace announced a new rights offering and acknowledged “challenged” business conditions.

The company said in a Thursday afternoon release that its board approved an $80 million fully backstopped rights offering to all holders of its common stock. The rights offering will occur through the distribution of nontransferable subscription rights to purchase common stock at a price of $11.30 a share.

Groupon
GRPN,
-2.73%
also posted third-quarter results, showing revenue down to $126.5 million from $144.4 million a year prior and slightly below the $129.7 million FactSet consensus, which is based on estimates from three analysts.

The company logged a net loss of $41.4 million, or $1.31 a share, compared with a loss of $56.2 million, or $1.86 a share, in the year-earlier period.

“We are turning our focus to delivering projects across product, engineering, sales, marketing and revenue management that we expect will reinvigorate our marketplace and position our business to return to growth,” interim CEO Dusan Senkypl said in a release.

Added Senkypl: “While we did not make as much progress on key projects as I expected and our business continues to be challenged, I am pleased to see sequential improvement in our financial performance, Local Billings return to growth, and our plan to strengthen our liquidity position.”

In addition, co-founder Eric Lefkofsky plans to leave Groupon’s board of directors, according to Thursday’s release. “With a new management team and the announcement of today’s financing strategy, I am confident that Groupon is on the right track to become the ultimate destination for experiences and services,” Lefkofsky said.

Groupon’s stock is up 58% so far this year but off 97% from its 2011 all-time high.

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November 9, 2023
Haley, Christie open to raising Social Security retirement age

Social Security’s pending insolvency grabbed attention at the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night, with some candidates saying they would be willing to raise the full retirement age for young people just starting out.

“We have to raise the retirement age,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “I have a son who’s in the audience tonight, who’s 30 years old. If he can’t adjust to a few years increase in Social Security retirement age over the next 40 years, I got bigger problems with him than his Social Security payments.”

Also see: ‘Rich people should not be collecting Social Security,’ Chris Christie says at GOP debate

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, said promises to current older adults must be kept, but young people just starting out should see higher retirement ages.

“What we need to do is keep our promises, those that have been promised should keep it,” Haley said. “But for like, my kids in their 20s, you go and you say ‘We’re going to change the rules.’ You change the retirement age for them.”

Currently, the full retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

Read: Social Security is now projected to be unable to pay full benefits a year earlier than expected

Haley declined to cite a specific age that retirement should be raised to, but said it should reflect longer life expectancy.

Sen. Tim Scott, however, said he would protect Social Security for older adults and not raise the retirement age.

“Let me just say to my mama and every other mama or grandfather receiving Social Security: As president of the United States, I will protect your Social Security.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’d protect Social Security for seniors.

“I know a few people on Social Security and … my grandmother lived until 91 and Social Security was her sole source of income. And that’s true for a lot of seniors throughout this country,” DeSantis said. “So I’d say to seniors in America: Promise made, promise kept.”

When pressed whether he would raise the retirement age, he said: “So it’s one thing to peg it on life expectancy, but we have had a significant decline in life expectancy in this country, and that is the fact.”

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November 8, 2023
Datadog Stock Skyrockets 30% on Upbeat Outlook and Customer Growth

Datadog stock surged Tuesday after the security software provider generated more profit than expected in the quarter and raised its sales outlook for the full year.

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November 7, 2023
RingCentral’s stock jumps on narrowing loss, revenue beat, raised guidance

RingCentral Inc.’s stock jumped about 10% in after-hours trading Monday after it reported a narrowing quarterly loss, results that beat analysts’ forecasts on the top- and bottom-lines, and sales projections that were raised.

The cloud-based communications company
RNG,
-0.25%
posted a third-quarter net loss of $42.1 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $284.6 million, or $2.98 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings were 78 cents a share.

Total revenue improved nearly 10% to $558.2 million from $509 million a year ago. Subscription sales were $531 million, or about 95% of total
revenue.

Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast on average adjusted earnings of 75 cents a share and revenue of $554 million.

“The results speak for themselves: Our solid third-quarter results demonstrate our ability to drive long-term durable, profitable growth,” RingCentral Chief Executive Tarek Robbiati said in an interview. This marks his first quarter as company CEO after five years as chief financial officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
HPE,
-0.13%.

Robbiati credited his predecessor for the quarterly performance and vowed to “infuse AI into everything we do.”

“We are leveraging AI into our core of products,” he added. “AI is a massive trend in turbo-charging productivity.”

At the same time, RingCentral raised its annual total revenue guidance to between $2.198 billion and $2.205 billion. FactSet analysts are projecting $2.198 billion.

The company’s board last week also authorized an incremental $100 million stock-repurchase plan.

Shares of RingCentral are down 20% in 2023; the broader S&P 500 index
SPX
is up 14%.

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November 6, 2023
Disney and other entertainment giants report after upbeat results from peers, but investors are getting harsher on companies that don’t deliver

Last month, Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
+1.80%
stock jumped after it reported big subscriber gains and hiked prices. Last week, results from Paramount Global
PARA,
+15.44%
beat expectations, sending shares of the streaming and entertainment giant on its best percentage gain in nearly a year, and Roku Inc.
ROKU,
+8.58%
also offered an upbeat outlook.

This week — as Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. all report results — we’ll get a deeper sense of whether the entertainment industry is starting to make investors happy again, even if they make viewers less happy in the process.

Those companies will report as the streaming industry, under pressure from investors to turn a better profit, consolidates and as platforms charge more to watch and cram more advertisements into shows and films.

Cable TV providers and movie theaters, too, are trying to figure out a way forward as streaming becomes more prevalent. Even as Hollywood’s writers come back to work following a strike that shut down production, its actors are still striking, with issues surrounding AI usage to portray actors, streaming payments and other issues in the balance.

Disney
DIS,
+2.14%,
which reports results on Wednesday, faces questions about losses at Disney+, efforts to cut billions in costs and stamp out streaming-account sharing, its planned takeover of the streaming platform Hulu and speculation over which of its large media properties it might sell. BofA analysts recently estimated that ESPN, which Disney has leaned on for years, could be worth around $24 billion. Meanwhile, activist investor Nelson Peltz has been angling for seats on Disney’s board, and its fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continues.

Elsewhere, Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD,
+6.23%
— the parent company of the streaming service Max, Warner Bros. Pictures, Discovery Channel, CNN and other channels — reports on Wednesday, as it tries to turn its reserves of intellectual property into franchise films. Meme-stock theater chain AMC
AMC,
+2.19%,
which also reports Wednesday, following upbeat results from rival Cinemark Holdings Inc.
CNK,
-2.43%.

Sales at the theater chains have been lifted in recent months by “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” While both were original films, analysts have said the avalanche of sequels and remakes in theaters is unlikely to stop.

The pressure to boost profits will ultimately affect what TV shows and films get made, and what viewers actually consume. And a report from FactSet on Friday found that investors have been more unkind than usual to companies whose results come up short of Wall Street’s expectations.

That report found that through the third-quarter earnings season, companies whose earnings miss expectations have seen an average stock-price drop of 5.2% during the two days before the publication of the results through the two days after. If that figure holds, it would be the stock market’s biggest adverse reaction to an earnings miss since the second quarter of 2011.

This week in earnings

Among S&P 500 companies, 55 including one from the Dow, will report quarterly results during the week ahead.

EV startup Rivian Automotive Inc.
RIVN,
+0.68%
reports amid concerns about EV demand. Following Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s
LYV,
+3.53%
blowout quarterly results last week, results from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.
MSGE,
+1.03%
will shed more light on people’s appetites for live entertainment. Results from digital marketing platform Klaviyo Inc.
KVYO,
+3.86%
and fast-casual chain Cava Group Inc.
CAVA,
+5.49%
— both recent IPOS — will offer a deeper look at digital ad budgets and a competitive restaurant backdrop, respectively.

The New York Times Co.
NYT,
+0.91%
also reports during the week. So do Planet Fitness Inc.
PLNT,
-0.09%,
Gilead Sciences
GILD,
+0.44%,
eBay Inc.
EBAY,
+3.98%
and Take-Two Interactive Software
TTWO,
+1.03%.

The call to put on your calendar

Cybersecurity drama: Cyberattacks are getting more severe, and customers are starting to feel their effects more acutely. Against that backdrop, casino and resort operator MGM Resorts International
MGM,
+5.27%
will report quarterly results on Wednesday, in the wake of a cyberattack that took down some of its systems. MGM has said that attack, which the company disclosed in September, would cost them roughly $100 million.

The company said the fallout of that attack — which disrupted hotel bookings and put hotels on manual operations, resulting in long lines — was largely contained to September. But the SEC last week accused software company SolarWinds Corp.
SWI,
+1.74%
of failing to disclose its purported cybersecurity vulnerabilities, potentially leaving other companies wondering whether they’re vulnerable to similar legal action.

The numbers to watch

The gig economy and delivery demand: Rival ride-hailing platforms Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. report results on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Maplebear Inc.
CART,
+0.94%,
better known as the grocery-delivery platform Instacart, also reports on Wednesday.

Analysts have been kinder to Uber
UBER,
+2.73%,
the larger of the two ride-hailing companies. But Lyft has tried to cut its prices and roll out new services, including one that tries to match women and non-binary riders and drivers. The financials from all three companies will land after strong results from food-delivery platform DoorDash Inc.
DASH,
+5.35%,
which has expanded its services into retail an effort to compete with Instacart and other delivery providers. And they’ll fill in the picture of rider demand following the back-to-school season and a bigger push to get workers back into offices.

Beyond ride-sharing, results from Uber and Instacart will narrow the lens on delivery demand, as some analysts question whether higher prices for basics and the return of student-loan payments might make food delivery more dispensable. Analysts also seem likely to zero on in those companies’ high-margin digital-ad businesses, as more e-commerce platforms try to turn their apps and websites into online billboard space.

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November 5, 2023

Here’s why you might not have to pay a 6% commission next time you sell a home

Going back decades, if you wanted to buy or sell a stock on the open market, you had to pay a 2% commission to buy and a 2% commission to sell. Then the advent of discount brokerage, led by Charles Schwab Corp.
SCHW,
+1.64%,
made lower commissions available until eventually, with improved technology and efficiency, the entire industry changed to enable the average investor to avoid commissions completely.

But the internet hasn’t done much to reduce the cost of selling a home in the U.S. Sellers typically pay a 6% commission to a real-estate agent to list and sell a home, with the seller’s agent splitting that commission with the buyer’s agent. But all of that may change because of a verdict this week in a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the National Association of Realtors.

Aarthi Swaminathan covers the case, what may happen next and the implications for home sellers and buyers:

Real-estate advice from the Moneyist

MarketWatch illustration

Quentin Fottrell — the Moneyist — works with three readers to answer tricky real-estate questions:

Economic outlook

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may have bolstered the case that the central bank is finished raising interest rates for this economic cycle. The federal-funds rate was left in its target range of 5.25% to 5.50%.

Jon Gray, the president of Blackstone Group, spoke with MarketWatch Editor in Chief Mark DeCambre and said he expected the Fed to succeed in bringing down inflation without pushing the U.S. economy into a deep recession.

Friday employment numbers: Jobs report shows 150,000 new jobs in October as U.S. labor market cools

Bond-market trend switches again

The U.S. Treasury yield curve has been inverted for nearly a year.

FactSet

Normally, longer-term bonds have higher yields than those with short maturities. But the yield curve has been inverted for nearly a year, with 3-month U.S. Treasury bills
BX:TMUBMUSD03M
having higher yields than 10-year Treasury notes
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y.

There has been elevated demand for long-term bonds, as investors have anticipated a recession and a reversal in Federal Reserve interest-rate policy. When interest rates decline, bond prices rise and vice versa.

As you can see on the chart above, the yield curve was narrowing until mid-October. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes were close to 5% on Oct. 19, but they have been falling the past several days as the three-month yield has remained close to 5.5%.

In this week’s ETF Wrap, Christine Idzelis reports on where all the money is flowing in the bond market.

In the Bond Report, Vivien Lou Chen summarizes the action as investors react to the Federal Reserve’s decision not to change its federal-funds-rate target range this week and to other economic news.

For income-seekers looking to avoid income taxes, here’s a deep dive into municipal bonds, with taxable-equivalent yields and a deeper look at those within four high-tax states.

Ford’s good news — in the bond market

Ford Motor Co.’s debt rating has been lifted by S&P to investment-grade.

Getty Images

Ford Motor Co.’s
F,
+4.14%
credit rating was upgraded to an investment-grade rating by Standard & Poor’s on Monday. This takes about $67 billion in bonds out of the high-yield, or “junk,” market, as Ciara Linnane reports.

A stock-market warning based on history

The original Magnificent Seven.

Courtesy Everett Collection

By now you have probably heard the term “Magnificent Seven” used to describe stocks of the tremendous tech-oriented companies that have led this year’s rally for the S&P 500
SPX
: Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-0.52%,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+1.29%,
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+0.38%,
Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+3.45%,
Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
+1.26%

GOOG,
+1.39%,
Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+1.20%
and Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+0.66%.
With Tesla’s recent decline, that company is now the ninth-largest holding in the portfolio of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY,
which tracks the benchmark index. Here are the top 10 companies held by SPY (11 stocks, including two common-share classes for Alphabet), with total returns through Thursday:

Company	Ticker	% of SPY portfolio	2023 total return	2022 total return	Total return since end of 2021
Apple Inc.	AAPL, -0.52%	7.2%	37%	-26%	1%
Microsoft Corp.	MSFT, +1.29%	7.1%	46%	-28%	5%
Amazon.com Inc.	AMZN, +0.38%	3.5%	64%	-50%	-17%
Nvidia Corp.	NVDA, +3.45%	3.0%	198%	-50%	48%
Alphabet Inc. Class A	GOOGL, +1.26%	2.1%	44%	-39%	-12%
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A	META, +1.20%	1.9%	158%	-64%	-8%
Alphabet Inc. Class C	GOOG, +1.39%	1.8%	45%	-39%	-11%
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B	BRK.B, +0.80%	1.8%	13%	3%	17%
Tesla Inc.	TSLA, +0.66%	1.7%	77%	-65%	-38%
UnitedHealth Group Inc.	UNH, -0.98%	1.4%	2%	7%	9%
Eli Lilly and Company	LLY, -2.15%	1.3%	60%	34%	115%
Sources: FactSet, State Street (for SPY holdings)

Five of these stocks (including the two Alphabet share classes) are still down from the end of 2021. SPY itself has returned 14% this year, following an 18% decline in 2022. It is still down 7% from the end of 2021.

Mark Hulbert makes the case that a decade from now, the Magnificent Seven are unlikely to be among the largest companies in the stock market.

A different market opportunity: India is seeing a multidecade growth surge. Here’s how you can invest in it.

The MarketWatch 50

The MarketWatch 50 series is back, with articles and video interviews starting this week, including:

PayPal soars after earnings report

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss.

MarketWatch/PayPal

After the market close on Wednesday, PayPal Holdings Inc.
PYPL,
+1.89%
announced quarterly results that came in ahead of analysts’ expectations, and the stock soared 7% on Thursday even though the company lowered its target for improving its operating margin.

In the Ratings Game column, Emily Bary reports on the positive reaction to PayPal’s new CEO, Alex Chriss.

A less enthusiastic earnings reaction: EV-products maker BorgWarner’s stock suffers biggest drop in 15 years after downbeat sales outlook

Consumers drive mixed reactions to earnings results

Apple Inc. reported mixed quarterly results.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Here’s more of the latest corporate financial results and reactions. First the good news:

And now the news that may not be so good:

Harsh verdict for SBF

It might seem that some legal battles never end, but it took only a year from the collapse of FTX for the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, to be convicted on all seven federal fraud and money-laundering charges brought against him. The charges were connected to the disappearance of $8 billion from FTX customer accounts.

Here’s more reaction and coverage of the virtual-currency industry:

Want more from MarketWatch? Sign up for this and other newsletters to get the latest news and advice on personal finance and investing.

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November 3, 2023

You can save up to $23,000 in your 401(k) next year, IRS says

Retirement savers can tuck away slightly more in 2024 than in 2023, but this year’s contribution increases are more modest than last year’s, according to new inflation-related adjustments released by the IRS.

People who are building up their 401(k) accounts will be able to contribute a maximum of $23,000, a more than 2% increase from the $22,500 maximum for 2023.

IRA contribution limits will climb to $7,000 for 2024, a 7.6% increase over the $6,500 limit in 2023.

When the IRS announced its adjustments for 2023, 401(k) savers got a big increase of nearly 10% year over year, and the IRA contribution limit went up more than 8%.

The 2024 adjustments reflect an economy where inflation rates, although cooling, are still warm.

For 2024, the catch-up amount for workers 50 and older is holding at a maximum of $1,000 on IRA contributions and of $7,500 for people with 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans, the IRS said.

The IRS numbers set a limit on how much people can set aside each year in 401(k) accounts, but data suggest many people fall far short of those maximums.

In 2022, people with retirement accounts through Vanguard had an average account balance of $112,572. The median account balance was $27,376, the wealth-management giant reported.

The new retirement-account contribution limits are part of the tax code’s yearly changes to account for inflation.

Taxpayers are still awaiting the IRS adjustments for tax brackets, standard-deduction amounts and other provisions for tax year 2024.

The tax agency adjusted the ranges on income-tax brackets last year by 7%.

Roth IRA rules and the Saver’s Credit

The numbers on 401(K) and IRA contributions were just one part of the IRS announcement Wednesday.

The tax agency also lifted the income thresholds for people making Roth IRA contributions. Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars, so they aren’t taxed when account holders pull out the money.

Read also: If saving $23,000 in your 401(k) next year isn’t enough, you can double that (or more) with the right strategy — and it’s legal

But Roth IRA contributions hinge on household income. In 2024, individuals and people filing as head of household who make between $146,00 and $161,000 must limit their Roth IRA contributions. People with incomes above $161,000 won’t be able to contribute to a Roth IRA.

That’s up from a 2023 phase-out range of $138,000 to $153,000.

For married couples filing jointly, the phase-out range climbs to $230,000 – $240,000. That’s an increase from this year’s range of $218,000 to $228,000.

Other retirement tax rules are also slated for 2024 updates.

For example, there’s the “saver’s credit” which is designed to help low- and moderate-income households that are finding a way to put aside money for retirement. It pays up to $1,000 for individuals and up to $2,000 for married couples. The amount depends on income and contribution amounts.

For 2024, married couples saving for retirement are eligible for the credit if their income stays under $76,500, up from $73,000. The income maximum is $38,250 for individuals, up from $36,500.

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November 1, 2023
Who is having the most influence over your money in 2023? Meet the MarketWatch 50.

What do Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Shawn Fain and Lina Khan have in common? On the surface, it might not seem like much — one is an impetuous tech-bro genius, another is a buy-and-hold nonagenarian investor, and the other two are a tough union boss and a business-busting regulator.

But each of them are having a serious impact on your money. They all appear on this year’s MarketWatch 50 list of the most influential people in markets. The MarketWatch 50 is our tally of the investors, CEOs, policymakers, AI players and financial…

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October 31, 2023
Here’s why Zillow, Redfin and other real-estate stocks tanked after a jury ruling

Shares of real-estate names plunged Tuesday following a jury ruling that has the potential to shake up the way people purchase homes.

A Missouri jury earlier Tuesday deemed that the National Association of Realtors, HomeServices of America and Keller Williams colluded to inflate or maintain high commission rates. Jefferies analyst John Conaltuoni said in a note to clients that a judge could issue an injunction preventing commission sharing on MLSs, or multiple listing services, which would hurt the buyer-agent business.

See more: A Missouri jury goes after the real-estate industry’s commission structure. Here’s what that could mean for homeowners.

Shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc.
OPEN,
-9.09%
plunged 9% on Tuesday, while shares of Zillow Group Inc.
ZG,
-6.87%

Z,
-6.98%
fell 7%, shares of Redfin Corp.
RDFN,
-5.67%
dropped 6% and shares of RE/MAX Holdings Inc.
RMAX,
-4.36%
declined 4%.

Conaltuoni thinks the recent ruling could bring big changes to the Participation Rule, which is an NAR requirement for seller agents to disclose the compensation being offered to buyer agents when they list through an MLS. The Participation Rule could soon get banned or turn optional, in his view.

Such a ban “would cause negotiations about buyer agent commissions to occur when an offer is presented, since there would no longer be an avenue to communicate splits up front,” he wrote. “This would eliminate the seller’s incentive to compensate buyer agents, which would force them to seek compensation directly. Shifting the burden of payment to buyers would likely meaningfully reduce their use of agents given most already struggle to cover closing costs.”

Conaltuoni further commented that were the rule to become optional, the “status quo” likely would continue.

Read: Why aren’t homeowners selling their homes? It’s not just the ‘lock-in effect’

What would these developments mean for Zillow, which reports earnings Wednesday afternoon? He flagged that nearly two-thirds of the company’s revenue comes from its Premier Agent business, which itself is primarily made up of revenue from buyer agents. “[A] reduction in their usage would force [Zillow] to pivot to offering products for seller agents and create near-term headwinds to revenue,” he wrote, while cutting his price target on Zillow’s stock to $48 from $60.

Bernstein’s Nikhil Devnani wrote that Zillow “is NOT part of this case and not directly impacted by the ruling,” but there’s the potential for repercussions down the line.

“Premier Agent is built around buyer commissions,” Devnani said. “And a reduction to commission rates (which could happen if cooperative compensation were outright banned in the worst case scenario) would create challenges for industry revenue growth, in our view. Maintaining the current structure with more transparency would have less impact we believe. It would need a stronger decoupling of who pays for buyer and seller agents.”

While Redfin shares dropped Tuesday along with other names, Chief Executive Glenn Kelman put out a blog post titled: “Change Comes to the Real Estate Industry.”

“The judge may take days or weeks to decide what structural changes the jury’s verdict will entail,” he wrote, and appeals could take years.

But traditional brokers “will undoubtedly now train their agents to welcome conversations about fees, just as Redfin has been doing for years, especially when advising a seller on what fee to offer to buyers’ agents,” he continued. “Rather than saying that a fee for the buyers’ agent of 2% or 3% is customary or recommended, agents will say that a buyers’ agent fee, if one is offered at all, is entirely up to the seller. This is as it should be.”

RBC Capital Markets analyst Brad Erickson wrote after the ruling that just over half of Redfin transactions come from the buyside. Its stock and Zillow’s “partially reflected these risks coming in,” in his view.

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October 31, 2023
Carlsberg CEO says the Putin regime stole brewery operations in Russia

“There is no way around the fact that they have stolen our business in Russia, and we are not going to help them make that look legitimate.”

That’s new Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Anderson, according to a Reuters account of a journalist call on Tuesday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin this summer ordered the seizure of Carlsberg’s stake in its Baltika subsidiary. Earlier this month, Carlsberg ended license agreements that allow for its beers to be produced in the country.

According to the presidential decree, Carlsberg retains title to the shares in Baltika Breweries but no longer has any control or influence over the company.

From the archive (March 2022): Carlsberg and Heineken both say they will exit the Russian market

Carlsberg reported a 3% decline in organic volume growth, as a 6.3% slide in Central and Eastern Europe and a 5.2% decline in Western Europe was partly offset by a 1.5% rise in Asia.

The brewer said two-thirds of the volume decline was due to bad weather and another one-third to consumer sentiment.

Organic revenue, however, rose by 5.8%, on price hikes. It kept its operating-profit guidance for the year unchanged at 4% to 7% growth, and launched a new stock-buyback program valued at 1 billion Danish crowns.

Carlsberg said comparisons in the fourth quarter will be positive in China, in light of the year-ago lockdown, but the weak macro environment in Southeast Asia will continue to impact markets.

Carlsberg shares
CARL.B,
-0.83%
were steady on Tuesday but have dropped 8% this year.

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October 31, 2023
Big Tech earnings have been strong, but Apple is about to answer the thousand-dollar question

While the stock market reactions may not prove it, Big Tech is four-for-four so far this earnings reporting season.

Alphabet Inc.
GOOG,
-0.03%

GOOGL,
-0.09%,
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+6.83%,
Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+2.91%
and Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.59%
all beat earnings and revenue expectations for the latest quarter, showing, among other things that the advertising market was healthy in the latest quarter and that software spending is holding up.

But one more major test looms in the week ahead. Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+0.80%
is due to deliver September-quarter results on Thursday and those earnings will answer a key question: Are consumers still so willing to purchase thousand-dollar iPhones in the current economy?

Results from other companies in recent weeks have painted a mixed picture of consumer spending. Visa Inc.
V,
-0.87%,
Mastercard Inc.
MA,
-0.14%
and American Express Co.
AXP,
-1.42%
say that spending remains resilient, but there are also signs that cracks are starting to form in categories deemed non-essential. Just look at Align Technology Inc.
ALGN,
+0.20%,
the maker of Invisalign orthodontic aligners, which saw its stock plunge last week after noting that people seem to be putting off dental and orthodontic visits.

Read: Invisalign maker’s stock craters after soft earnings, but analysts still say it’s a buy

Granted, some might say that iPhones are glorified necessities these days for Apple fans, even with their high price tags. But Apple conducted an effective price increase on its iPhone 15 Pro model when it rolled out its new phones in September, all while delivering a mostly incremental suite of feature upgrades across all its latest models. Will the new phones prove enticing enough in a period of stretched budgets?

Just judging by S&P 500
SPX
results so far in the aggregate, the odds would seem to be in Apple’s favor for a beat this quarter. About half of index components have already reported, and 78% have posted earnings upside, while 62% have surprised positively on the top line, according to FactSet.

Revenue will be the key item for Apple, as consensus expectations call for a small decline on the metric, which would mark the fourth consecutive year-over-year drop. It’s also worth noting that companies on the whole haven’t been topping revenue estimates by their usual margin. S&P 500 components in aggregate have reported revenue 0.8% above expectations, which compares with a five-year average of 2.0%, FactSet Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters wrote in a recent report.

Apple’s report could also highlight the impact of currency on corporate results, as the company generates more than half of its revenue internationally.

“Given the stronger U.S. dollar in recent months, are S&P 500 companies with more international revenue exposure reporting lower (year-over-year) earnings and revenues for Q3 compared to S&P 500 companies with more domestic revenue exposure?” Butters asked. “The answer is yes.”

This week in earnings

Many U.S. investors in financial-technology companies likely hadn’t heard of European payments player Worldline SA
WLN,
+9.06%
before last week, but a warning from the French company about deteriorating conditions in Europe helped send shares of PayPal Holdings Inc.
PYPL,
-2.63%
and Block Inc.
SQ,
-3.98%
sharply lower Wednesday, in a selloff one analyst deemed an overreaction. Those companies will look to reassure Wall Street about the health of their businesses with their own reports this week. Plus, while not a payments name, SoFi Technologies Inc.
SOFI,
-0.43%
will provide another read on the fintech sector. Investors will be watching to see how the end of the student-loan moratorium impacted student lending volumes.

The week ahead will also shed light on how consumers’ dining preferences have evolved in the current economy. Starbucks Corp.
SBUX,
-0.70%,
Dine Brands Global Inc.
DIN,
-0.12%,
Cheesecake Factory Inc.
CAKE,
-0.47%
and Sweetgreen Inc.
SG,
+0.59%
are among names on the docket. Plus, amid concerns about the impact of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy on eating habits, Kraft Heinz Co.’s management will be in the spotlight.

Don’t miss: What exactly are patients taking new weight-loss drugs eating and what are they avoiding? Bernstein asked them.

The call to put on your calendar

You can’t spell Advanced Micro Devices without AI (sort of): Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+0.43%
has been ruling the chip world this year thanks to its dominance with the sort of hardware needed to power the corporate AI fervor. Investors will be watching Tuesday afternoon to see how quickly Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s
AMD,
+2.95%
own AI story is coming together. “The AMD narrative feels all about their data center (and, particularly, their AI story) right now,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a note to clients. “In the near term the achievability of their 2H data-center growth (guided to 50% half-over-half) will be the question.” Rasgon expects AMD to discuss recent customer wins for its MI300X chip, though he thinks it will take time for the company to see “real volume.”

The number to watch

PayPal transaction margins: Shares of the one-time investor darling are trading at their lowest levels since May 2017, and the latest source of anguish for Wall Street is the company’s transaction margins. PayPal’s lower-margin unbranded checkout business has been growing more quickly than its higher-margin branded checkout product, a trend that’s been weighing on overall transaction margins. Barclays analyst Ramsey El-Assal expects the third quarter to mark a bottom on the metric before trends stabilize in the fourth quarter. “We do not believe the stock is crowded on the long or short side into earnings, as investors lack conviction regarding the magnitude of transaction margin headwinds in Q3,” he wrote in a recent preview. “In any case, we view Q3 as a potential clearing event.” PayPal posts results Wednesday afternoon.

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October 29, 2023
Financial advisers make rich people richer. But is that all there is?

In 1989, author Marsha Sinetar wrote a bestselling book, “Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow.” She urges readers to pursue a career that stokes their passion.

Many advisers take that advice. They love what they do. And the money follows: Median pay for U.S. financial advisers was $95,390 in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Lately, though, the passion is waning for some advisers. They still love the practice of wealth management — customizing financial plans, constructing client portfolios and analyzing the ever-growing menu of investment products.

They’re just not as enamored of their clients’ wealth. Reassuring wealthy retirees that they can afford to buy a second (or third) vacation home has its merits. But helping them accumulate more and more wealth rings hollow after awhile.

Steve Oniya, a Houston-based certified financial planner, works with a diverse mix of clients. He enjoys helping them achieve their goals, regardless of their net worth. “It’s more gratifying helping them get over some hurdles to get to the life that they really want,” he said. “You make more of an impact that way.”

He compares his work to a firefighter’s job. Some days, they rescue people from burning buildings. Other days, they put out a dumpster fire. Yet they’re always driven to excel and perform at a high level.

Nevertheless, if an adviser serves rich clients who hoard their money, don’t give to charity and lack perspective on what matters most in life, a day at the office can feel dispiriting. “Sometimes advisers may be passionately opposed to certain clients’ values,” Oniya said. “In those instances, end the relationship or limit the scope.”

Oniya said he does not find clients’ wealth objectionable. He sees his role as an ally who seeks to understand — and not judge — others’ beliefs and values.

“I like to stay in the neutral camp,” Oniya said. “It’s easy to empathize with another person and see they are a person who needs help just like others. We’re generally here to advise them on how to be more efficient and effective financially in attaining their goals.”

The arc of an adviser’s career comes into play as well. To build a practice, newly minted financial planners might welcome pretty much anyone with sufficient assets.

Once they establish a stable book of business, advisers may get picky in deciding whom to serve. Their onboarding process might get more rigorous in an effort to determine if they’re aligned with a potential client’s aspirations, goals and priorities.

Some advisers shift gears as they gain experience working with different types of clients. They come to realize what they like most about the job and adjust their practice — and the type of clients they serve — accordingly.

“Everyone evolves,” said Angeli Gianchandani, a professor of marketing at University of New Haven’s Pompea College of Business. “Advisers may see there’s a greater reward and opportunity helping people in a different income bracket.”

As a self-test, advisers at a career crossroads might want to ask themselves how they’d respond to two clients. The first one says, “You saved me $5 million. Now I want to save $10 million to buy a bigger yacht.”

The other says, “You helped me pay off my student debt” or “You helped me save enough for a down payment to buy my first house.”

“You may feel more valued and appreciated as an adviser” if you pave the way for someone who lacks vast wealth to build a nest egg for the future, Gianchandani says.

Advisers who have misgivings about helping wealthy people attain greater wealth are not alone. Brooke Harrington, a sociology professor at Dartmouth College, interviewed 65 wealth managers between 2007 and 2015. About one-quarter expressed qualms about helping lower ultra-wealthy clients’ tax liabilities.

Still, another 25% did not feel such qualms. They saw their role as defending their clients from an unjust tax code.

More: Wall Street legend Byron Wien dies at 90. Here are his ’20 life lessons’

Also read: The IRS is auditing the rich. Can you fly under the radar if you’re not wealthy?

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October 27, 2023
Inside Kanye West’s troubled Adidas partnership: Tears. Rage. Thrown shoes. Even a scrawled swastika.

The ending of the partnership between the artist Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, in October 2022 appeared to come after weeks of his comments about Jewish people and Black Lives Matter, but the New York Times is reporting that the relationship was troubled from the very start.

At a meeting on the collaborative creation of the very first shoe in 2013, Adidas
ADS,
-0.10%

ADDYY,
-0.03%
designers were stunned when West rejected all of the ideas that were presented using fabric swatches on a table and a mood board, the seven-month investigation found. Instead, West, the Times reports, grabbed a sketch and drew a swastika in marker.

The move shocked the Germans in the room. Germany has a strict ban on displaying the symbol of the Nazi era apart from for artistic purposes. Adding to the sense of horror, the company’s founder — Adolf, or “Adi,” Dassler, who died in 1978 — was a Nazi Party member, and the meeting took place close to Nuremberg, where leaders of the Third Reich were famously tried for crimes against humanity.

“A year ago this week, Adidas threw in the towel.”

West’s fixation on the Nazi era continued, the Times reports, when he later told a Jewish manager at Adidas to kiss a portrait of Adolf Hitler every day. He also told Adidas workers that he admired Hitler’s use and command of propaganda.

West also brought porn to the workplace and made crude, sexual comments at meetings, according to the Times report. Before the swastika episode, West, according to the Times, had made Adidas executives watch porn at a meeting in his Manhattan apartment.

In 2022 he reportedly ambushed executives with a porn film. Other workers complained to top managers that he had made angry sexual comments to them.

The artist, said to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also frequently cried or became angry during meetings, according to the Times investigation. In one instance in 2019, he reportedly moved the operation designing his shoes to Cody, Wyo., and ordered the Adidas team to relocate. In a meeting to discuss his demands with executives, he threw shoes around the room, the Times reports.

Adidas sought to adapt to this behavior, given how valuable the West-established Yeezy brand was to the company, locked in a perennial battle for both revenue and buzz with its U.S.-based rival Nike Inc.
NKE,
-2.04%.
Yeezy sales would rapidly surpass $1 billion a year and help Adidas resonate with young American customers.

Ratings Game (July 2020): Gap hopes it can burnish its image with a new Kanye West clothing line, repeating the rapper’s brand success with Adidas

Managers launched a group text chain they called the “Yzy hotline” to discuss his behavior. To reduce stress on individuals, the company is said to have rotated managers in and out of dealing directly with West.

Over time, meanwhile, Adidas sweetened the terms of West’s deal. Under a 2016 contract, he was entitled to a 15% royalty on sales with a $15 million upfront payment as well as millions of dollars in Adidas stock. In 2019, a further $100 million a year was earmarked for marketing, but, in reality, West could spend those funds at will.

A year ago this week, though, as public awareness of West’s problematic attitudes are remarks spiked, Adidas threw in the towel, and as sales of Yeezy shoes fell away, it warned it would record its first annual loss in decades. As West’s net worth plummeted, the company wrestled with the decision of how to dispense with its final $1.3 billion in Yeezy products, mulling options including disassembly and repurposing, donation to charity, and outright disposal.

When a decision was reached to sell the product — in release batches — with some of the proceeds directed to charity and most of the rest flowing to Adidas, West, even then, was entitled to royalties.

From the archives (October 2022): Kanye West is no longer a billionaire after Adidas shelves Yeezy partnership

Also see (November 2022): Nike parts ways with Kyrie Irving as controversy swirls over Brooklyn Nets star’s apparent endorsement of antisemitic film

After bottoming in October 2022, Adidas shares have mounted a 67% comeback, with relief over the company’s not having had to book a damaging loss on the Yeezy line one factor in the restoration of investor confidence.

Adidas is quoted as having told the Times that it “has no tolerance for hate speech and offensive behavior, which is why the company terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership,” while West reportedly declined requests for interviews and comment.

The Times investigation is said to have been based on access to hundreds of previously undisclosed internal records.

Read on: Michael Jordan is now worth $3 billion. Here’s what billionaire athletes have in common.

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October 27, 2023
Amazon Stock Jumps on Earnings Beat. Cloud Results Were Good Enough.

Amazon shares rose in late trading Thursday after the company posted better-than-expected financial results for the September quarter.

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October 26, 2023
Meta’s Earnings Story Will Be a Good Ol’ Rebound in Ads

Oct 25, 2023, 1:00 am EDT

In recent quarters, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talking more about artificial intelligence and cost cutting, while focusing less and less on the company’s multibillion-dollar investment in the metaverse. Expect more of the same when the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads reports results after the close Wednesday.

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October 24, 2023
Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson nominated for speaker by House Republicans

House Republicans on Tuesday night voted for Rep. Mike Johnson to become their latest nominee for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, with the Louisiana congressman’s selection capping a tumultuous day in which Rep. Tom Emmer was briefly the nominee.

Johnson, vice chair of the House Republican Conference, picked up support in two rounds of voting and drew a majority votes in a third ballot, topping the number of votes cast for Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida. That’s according to posts on social media by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who as chair of the conference is the No. 4 House Republican.

The GOP-run House wasn’t due to hold a floor vote on the speaker position on Tuesday night, but the chamber could do that Wednesday.

Analysts have been warning that the long process of picking a new speaker is preventing the Republican-run House from addressing crucial matters, such as supporting Israel and passing a budget to avoid a government shutdown next month that could rattle markets
SPX.

It has been three weeks since the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican.

The selection of Johnson marks the the fourth time that House GOP lawmakers have picked a speaker nominee this month. Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 House Republican, was nominated around mid-day Tuesday, beating out Johnson, but bowed out about four hours later after some colleagues and former President Donald Trump refused to support him.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio secured the nomination on Oct. 13, but was dropped as the nominee last Friday as GOP opposition to him grew over three rounds of voting on the House floor. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, was tapped for the post on Oct. 11 but ended his speaker bid a day later due to opposition from fellow Republicans.

McCarthy on Tuesday floated a plan that would reinstall him as speaker and set up Jordan as the assistant speaker, according to an NBC News report citing unnamed sources.

In the third ballot on Tuesday night, Johnson scored 128 votes, Donalds got 29 votes, and 44 lawmakers backed people who weren’t on the ballot, according to multiple published reports. Most of those Republicans supported McCarthy, while one supported Jordan.

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October 24, 2023
Microsoft and Alphabet results show Wall Street only cares about AI

Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. both reported mostly strong results Tuesday, but the disparate reactions from investors showed that Wall Street only cares about artificial intelligence right now.

While Microsoft shares
MSFT,
+0.37%
rose 4% in after-hours trading following the company’s latest report, Alphabet shares
GOOG,
+1.61%

GOOGL,
+1.69%
dropped 6% as Wall Street got the sense that AI is manifesting differently in the companies’ cloud businesses.

Microsoft surprised investors with 28% constant-currency growth in its Azure cloud-computing business, above the company’s own forecast and the projection for 25.6% growth that analysts were modeling on average. While Microsoft continues to see “optimization” challenges as customers remain conscious about their spending, the company is also benefiting from AI tailwinds in the cloud.

Companies looking to beef up their AI offerings are often looking to add AI services for their customers through additional cloud services, so they don’t have to do as much internal development themselves. In addition, AI offerings ranging from chatbots to tools that can streamline the writing of reports require ever more computing power, and both Azure and Google Cloud are starting to offer new software applications to address those needs.

Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella called AI a “unique and different” factor that was helping Azure trends. “Given our leadership position, we are seeing complete new project starts, which are AI projects,” he said in response to an analyst question about the sustainability of cloud growth rates.

In addition, Microsoft, which has invested heavily in ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, offers an Azure OpenAI service that more than 18,000 organizations are now using. Some of these customers are new to Azure.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood forecast that Azure revenue growth should be around 26% in constant currency in the fiscal second quarter, driven by new workload trends and with the growing contributions from AI.

Investors seem less confident that Alphabet is seeing the same tailwinds in its Google Cloud business, especially as that segment showed its slowest quarterly growth since Google began breaking out results that way back in 2019. Cloud revenue of $8.4 billion, with growth of 22%, was $250 million shy of consensus estimates on Wall Street, according to Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Baird. That overshadowed an upbeat performance in the company’s advertising business.

When one analyst asked Alphabet executives about the deceleration in the revenue growth of its cloud business, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai was vague but said that customers are being selective of where they are spending their IT budgets.

“On cloud, what I would say is overall, we have definitely started seeing customers looking to optimize spend,” Pichai said. “We leaned into it to help customers, given some other challenges they were facing, and so that was a factor.”

Alphabet is seeing “a lot of interest in AI,” but it remains to be seen whether that’s contributing materially to its financial performance just yet.

“Google Cloud missed consensus revenue expectations (although in line with Baird) on slowing growth, and we believe consistent with the view that newer Gen-AI workloads will take time to move the needle,” Sebastian wrote in a note to clients.

Insider Intelligence senior analyst Max Willens added that Google Cloud is facing tough competition, and while the business seems to have traction with AI startups that “may bear fruit in the long run, it is not currently helping Google Cloud enough to satisfy investors.”

Wall Street clearly is looking to AI to fuel better growth rates and help offset sluggish macroeconomic trends. The poster child for that dynamic is Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+1.60%,
which is expected to single-handedly drive earnings growth for the information technology sector thanks to booming demand for its AI hardware.

Read: Big-tech results will decide ‘where we go from here’ amid investor caution. They would fall if it weren’t for this one company

Given economic pressures, it’s becoming obvious that companies without much of an AI story to contribute this quarter will continue to fall out of favor with investors.

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October 24, 2023
Microsoft Tops Estimates, Powered by Cloud Business

Microsoft shares were trading higher after the company posted better-than-expected financial results for its September quarter, aided by better performance than expected from the company’s cloud computing business.

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October 24, 2023