Markets

Stocks stay level as US-China trade talks kick off

Stocks got a small boost as US and Chinese officials met in London to continue trade talks, following temporary tariff cuts from both sides aimed at easing tensions. The S&P 500 eked out a 0.09% gain, well off of session highs, while the Nasdaq 100 added 0.17% and the Russell 2000 climbed 0.57%.

Consumer discretionary, materials, and tech were the top-performing sectors, while utilities and financials lagged. Chip stocks including On Semiconductor and AMD helped fuel the gains, as investors grow hopeful that talks will help loosen semiconductor export restrictions. Meanwhile…

Warner Bros. Discovery shares jumped as much as 10% before closing down 3% after the media giant announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies.

Apple shares ticked 1% lower after the tech giants highly awaited AI software and Apple Intelligence updates missed the mark at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

Shares of Robinhood Markets fell 2% after speculation that the brokerage platform would be added to the S&P 500 failed to pan out. (Sherwood News is an editorially independent subsidiary of Robinhood.)

Tesla, which started the day down following two analyst downgrades, managed to end the day up 4.5% after CEO Elon Musk reposted some President Trump-adjacent tweets, signaling a possible cooling to the pair’s public feud.

Shares of IonQ traded up as much as 11%, but gave back much of those gains by the close after the quantum computing company said it would acquire British startup Oxford Ionics.

Metsera jumped nearly 11% after the obesity treatment startup reported encouraging early trial results for its MET-233 drug candidate

Intuitive Surgical sank more than 5% after Deutsche Bank analysts gave stock a rare “sell” rating as competition in the robot surgery space finally starts to heats up.

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Nvidia reportedly halts production of H200 chips for sale to China in favor of Vera Rubin ramp

Selling H200s to China is proving more difficult than Nvidia had anticipated.

The FT reports that the chip designer has asked TSMC to stop output of the H200 processors and instead produce Vera Rubin offerings, its upcoming flagship edition, citing two people familiar with the matter.

There’s likely a lot more conviction that megacap tech companies outside of China will appreciate any supply boost for these next-generation processors than the US-China trade and regulatory morass that’s complicated H200 sales will suddenly be swept away.

Nvidia had H200s in inventory and, per the FT, also already produced 250,000 of these chips — so the sales opportunity is still there, but just diminished for now.

The loose sequencing on how we got here, based on myriad reports on the topic:

  • Nvidia has wanted to sell AI chips to China;

  • Back in December, US President Donald Trump said this would be allowed for the H200, a generation that was much more powerful than China produced domestically, but not cutting-edge tech (as well as chips with similar specs from other producers);

  • Leading Chinese tech companies wanted to buy a lot of these chips;

  • Nvidia called upon TSMC to increase production of these chips in expectation of realizing a sales opportunity as high as $54 billion for 2026;

  • China would prefer its companies to purchase from domestic producers to reduce their dependence on US technology;

  • The US wants to limit the total number of these newly-permitted AI chips that can get into China as well as how many each buyer can purchase;

  • Nvidia, which had planned to have its first shipments of H200s there by the Lunar New Year, still hasn’t sold any of these chips to China.

The twists and turns here, and conflicting media coverage, has been maddening to try and keep track of. I cannot imagine the level of frustration for an executive attempting to navigate their operations through this haze.

Maybe the real H200 sales were the friends we never made along the way.

markets

The Trade Desk jumps on reported deal talks to help OpenAI sell ads

The Trade Desk rose double-digits in premarket trading on Thursday, up more than 16.5% at 5 a.m. ET, after The Information reported that OpenAI has held early partnership talks with the company to help the ChatGPT maker sell ads going forward.

Per the report, OpenAI will initially use external partners to sell ads and scale up its business, having launched ads on ChatGPT just last month. The Trade Desk, which offers an automated platform for advertisers to place ads on a large scale, will apparently be one of those partners. Will Doherty, The Trade Desk’s senior VP of inventory development, oversees partnerships with the platforms and companies where businesses place ads, and is involved in the OpenAI talks, per one of The Information’s sources.

Sam Altman’s company is reportedly planning to bring ad tech functions in-house eventually, including automating sales and offering performance information to advertisers.

Per The Information, OpenAI has projected that the new emphasis on ads could help double revenues from its consumer business to $17 billion, as it looks for different ways to monetize its platform’s ~910 million users. With that in mind, OpenAI has already explored partnerships with retailers like Target, which offers ad services, and has also recently announced a technology partnership with ad tech veteran Criteo.

The partnership arrives as a huge boon for TTD, after revenue growth slowed in the last fiscal year, with shares down more than 30% so far in 2026 before today’s early jump.

Per the report, OpenAI will initially use external partners to sell ads and scale up its business, having launched ads on ChatGPT just last month. The Trade Desk, which offers an automated platform for advertisers to place ads on a large scale, will apparently be one of those partners. Will Doherty, The Trade Desk’s senior VP of inventory development, oversees partnerships with the platforms and companies where businesses place ads, and is involved in the OpenAI talks, per one of The Information’s sources.

Sam Altman’s company is reportedly planning to bring ad tech functions in-house eventually, including automating sales and offering performance information to advertisers.

Per The Information, OpenAI has projected that the new emphasis on ads could help double revenues from its consumer business to $17 billion, as it looks for different ways to monetize its platform’s ~910 million users. With that in mind, OpenAI has already explored partnerships with retailers like Target, which offers ad services, and has also recently announced a technology partnership with ad tech veteran Criteo.

The partnership arrives as a huge boon for TTD, after revenue growth slowed in the last fiscal year, with shares down more than 30% so far in 2026 before today’s early jump.

markets

American Eagle posts stronger-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue

If American Eagle has seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of Sydney Sweeney.

The jeans seller posted adjusted earnings of $0.84 per share, ahead of the $0.71 expected by analysts polled by FactSet. It booked $1.76 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, versus the $1.74 billion consensus.

Shares initially climbed more than 5% after-hours before paring gains to about 2%.

“Compelling new product collections, supported by fresh marketing campaigns, led to higher demand trends in the quarter,” said CEO Jay Schottenstein.

American Eagle said it’s expecting same-store sales to grow by high single digits in the first quarter.

Marketing controversy has proved to be a powerful mover of denim for AE. In its third-quarter earnings call in December, AE said its partnership with Sydney Sweeney — together with a Travis Kelce partnership — had garnered more than 44 billion impressions. The retailer hit meme stock status last July when it initially launched its “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” campaign.

As of Wednesday’s close, American Eagle shares had climbed 120% since the Sweeney ad first landed.

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