Last Week: 1.67%
YTD: 6.85%
1 Year: 30.08%
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Last Week: 1.32%
YTD: 4.05%
1 Year: 21.60%
Last Week: 1.35%
YTD: 6.50%
1 Year: 42.23%
Last Week: -0.88%
YTD: -0.41%
1 Year: 8.20%
YTD: 9.22%
1 Year: 46.24%
YTD: 3.46%
1 Year: 13.37%
Record Highs
Last week, the major US stock indices and Japan’s Nikkei hit all-time highs. The gains in the market come on the heels of growing optimism on artificial intelligence technology creating efficiencies and increases in productivity. Shares of chip giant, Nvidia, rose 16% on Thursday. They reported a massive 265% jump in revenue and large demand for their AI chips. It set a record single-day gain of any stock in history. The tech-heavy Nasdaq had its best day since February 2023. Investors continue to favor growth tech stocks, instead of value.
Fed Meeting Minutes
The Federal Reserve meeting minutes were released from their meeting last month. The report indicates growing concern that if they cut rates too quickly, inflation pressure could remain persistent. Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated they would potentially be able to cut rates at a more rapid rate if the labor market weakened or if there was “very, very persuasive lower inflation.” The Fed typically lowers rates because of slowing economic activity, which we have not seen yet.
Cell Service Outage
On Thursday, thousands of AT&T customers reported cellular outages, with some customers not having service for most of the day. The CEO of AT&T issued an apology and even said some customers’ accounts will be receiving a credit on their statement. The large outage raised concerns that they were the target of a cyber-attack. After a full review, the incident was caused by “the application and execution of an incorrect process used while working to expand our network,” said CEO John Stankey. Once the company realized there was an outage, it prioritized restoring service to first responders and reconnecting the remaining customers throughout the day.