Hey Snackers,
At its annual virtual reality conference, Meta unveiled a slate of new products and features, but the real highlight? The bloopers, including Live AI’s terrible instructions when a celebrity chef requested a recipe for a Korean-inspired steak sauce, or when CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to take a video call from CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth failed five times, which you can watch here.
The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all posted fresh closing highs on Thursday.
The benchmark US stock index ended 0.5% higher, the Nasdaq 100 rallied 1%, and the Russell 2000 far outperformed with a 2.5% advance. Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel, and small-cap stocks love Federal Reserve rate cuts.
The record close for the small-cap Russell 2000 was its first since November 2021, which means it’s also the first time in nearly four years that all three major indexes closed at fresh peaks on the same day.
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Intel spikes on Nvidia’s $5 billion investment plan
The chipmaker Intel has successfully hitched its wagon to the biggest star in the semiconductor space: Nvidia. In a joint press release, the two companies announced “a collaboration to jointly develop multiple generations of custom data center and PC products that accelerate applications and workloads across hyperscale, enterprise and consumer markets” — and it will also see Nvidia purchase $5 billion in Intel stock at a price of $23.28 per share.
Traders loved it. Intel finished the day up 22%. Heck, the market as a whole loved it; as you saw up top, pretty much everything finished green across the board yesterday.Â
Intel and Nvidia plan to codesign two products: first, custom-made CPUs for data centers that Nvidia would integrate into its AI infrastructure platforms, and second, system-on-chips for PCs that integrate Nvidia’s RTX GPUs for better performance.
In AI data centers, Nvidia GPUs — the processing units the company is best known for — are often used in combination with Intel’s CPU chips, so if Nvidia can collaborate on making custom Intel chips using Intel’s proprietary x86 architecture, it might improve the overall performance of Nvidia’s AI systems.
Also, the collaboration could mean the superfast connections Nvidia has developed to link up its GPUs (called NVLink) might start to be used more with Intel CPUs, which hasn’t been typical so far.
The deal seems primarily focused on developing new semiconductor products that should improve Intel’s access to the fast-growing AI market, rather than on making Nvidia a customer for Intel’s troubled contract manufacturing business, or “foundry,” where it produces chips for others.Â
The Takeaway
As Wedbush Securities put it, “This is a game changer deal for Intel as it now brings them front and center into the AI game. Along with the recent US Government investment for 10% this has been a golden few weeks for Intel after years of pain and frustration for investors.”
Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension highlights Nexstar and Sinclair’s vast control over US airwaves
Wednesday evening, ABC announced it was yanking Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air. An ABC spokesperson said that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be “preempted indefinitely” following comments Kimmel made on his show Monday around the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The decision — which was strongly condemned by some Democratic lawmakers, entertainment unions, and actors — came after a fierce pressure campaign from FCC Chair Brendan Carr as well as two of the country’s largest TV broadcasting groups, Nexstar and Sinclair Inc., which each own several ABC affiliate stations across the US.
When we say “several,” we mean an absolute ton: if you don’t think you live in an area served by one or the other, you may be surprised. We mapped where each controls the local airwaves.
In a press release Wednesday, Sinclair referred to itself as “the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group.”
Nexstar, the owner of NewsNation and CW, owns or partners with more than 200 television stations.
Both companies significantly expanded their market share in Trump’s first term through multibillion-dollar acquisitions, and one is currently looking to get even bigger: Nexstar announced a $6.2 billion merger agreement with rival Tegna, which owns 64 US stations.
The Takeaway
The upcoming merger has many critics noting parallels to the cancellation of CBS’s top-rated “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” in July, which came amid the merger of Paramount Skydance. At the time, Paramount called it a “financial decision,” but it was also a move that pleased Trump, who celebrated Colbert’s cancellation in a post on Truth Social, writing, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.” And Wednesday night, he lauded Kimmel’s suspension as “great news for America.” When you’re in the middle of a merger deal that could raise regulatory scrutiny, as Nexstar is, it’s good business to have the president on your side.
The Best Thing We Read Today
Call us petty, but sometimes we just enjoy sipping the tea as execs feud online. While Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy filing sparked some of the social ribbing one would expect (see: jokes about its planes becoming Spirit Halloween stores), you don’t often see the CEO of a rival airline piling on, but United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby sure has, and also brought the CEO of Frontier into the feud. It’s no Drake-Kendrick-level beef, but it’s still fun to follow.
Yesterday's Big Daily Movers
Novo Nordisk shot up after its Wegovy pill showed significant weight loss in trials and Ozempic was found to reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes
Abercrombie & Fitch rose after BTIG kicked off coverage on the stock with a “buy” rating
CrowdStrike popped after giving a beefy revenue outlook and seeing boosted price targets from Wall Street
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The Winning Formula: The Intersection of Business and SportsÂ
The Winning Formula is a Nasdaq original series spotlighting conversations at the intersection of business and sports.
Featuring notable athletes, entrepreneurs, and sports executives, the show — hosted by Nasdaq’s Joel Kolani and Poppy Shen — uncovers what drives performance, leadership, and innovation on and off the field.
What Else We're Snackin'
Uber is giving drone deliveries another go
Olive Garden is testing smaller-portioned, lower-priced meals to win over more cost-conscious diners
Thanks to a surge in global supply from OPEC+, major US oil refiners like Valero, Marathon Petroleum, and Phillips 66 are outperforming more than 90% of the S&P 500 this year
The SEC approved generic listing standards for crypto ETFs, paving the way for speedier listings and opening the floodgates for these products
Snack Fact Of The Day
NASA’s exoplanet count has passed 6,000, but none are just like Earth.