Source: CNBCTV18
Alphabet Inc. shares gained after the company said it will offer “AI mode” in search to all US users, showing its commitment to redesigning its core business to keep pace with new rivals in the artificial intelligence age.
“We want to get our best models into your hands,” Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said Tuesday at the company’s developer conference in Mountain View, California. “So we are shipping faster than ever.”
Alphabet’s stock rose much as 5.6% on Wednesday after some analysts expressed confidence that the company can reorient its search product.
Chatbot Arena started as an academic project, where researchers and students at the University of California at Berkeley worked to evaluate the capacity of artificial intelligence tools. Now, the group has spun out into a new company, called LMArena, that’s raised $100 million in seed funding from a slate of A-list investors.
Andreessen Horowitz and UC Investments — which manages an investment portfolio for the University of California — led the fundraising, which the company plans to announce Wednesday. The deal includes backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, among others, the company said.
Wall Street kept a close eye on the budget wrangling in Washington, with stocks, bonds and the dollar falling on concern over whether the US will be able to rein in its ballooning deficit that threatens America’s status as the world’s safe haven.
Following a surge from its April lows, the S&P 500 dropped for a second straight day. More than 85% of its companies retreated, though big tech outperformed – with Alphabet Inc. up almost 5%. Equities also trimmed losses as Bloomberg News reported the European Union was expected to share a revised trade proposal with the US.
The Ontario government will spend nearly C$3.1 billion ($2.2 billion) to encourage Indigenous participation in the mining industry, in a bid to ramp up critical minerals production across Canada’s most populous province.
Premier Doug Ford’s government said Wednesday that most of the money will go to loan guarantees that enable Indigenous business groups to invest in Ontario mining projects. Funds will also go toward grants and scholarships for Indigenous students interested in careers in mining and resource development.
The spending is part of a countrywide push to accelerate mining projects and cut down on regulatory hurdles at a time when global demand for raw materials like nickel, copper and cobalt is growing. Canada has an abundance of critical minerals and Ontario is home to some of the country’s largest mines, but the nation has struggled to permit projects quickly in part due to red tape, long consultation periods with local Indigenous groups and litigation regarding environmental concerns.
The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to halt a judge’s order that would force it to answer questions from a watchdog group and turn over documents about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in a fight over public access to the office’s records.
The Justice Department is challenging a ruling that requires the US DOGE Service to comply with demands by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, for information about its structure and operations. That includes making DOGE administrator Amy Gleason available to testify under oath at a deposition. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on May 14 denied the government’s request to intervene.
Conservative hardliners threatened to block Republicans’ massive tax and spending package, jeopardizing passage of President Donald Trump’s signature economic legislation.
Ultraconservatives lashed out shortly after House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he had an agreement with lawmakers from high-tax states to increase the limit on the deduction for state local taxes to $40,000.
Several hardline Republicans said House GOP leaders aren’t honoring concessions the White House promised them.
Ultraconservative Representative Andy Harris of Maryland said Wednesday morning the Trump administration promised them in a “midnight deal” deeper cuts in Medicaid and faster elimination of Biden-era clean energy tax breaks.
The Trump administration is filing criminal charges against more immigrants in the US illegally as part of an effort to skirt state and city policies that limit local cooperation.
The effort is starting in California, where prosecutors are tracking everyone booked into state and local jails in a seven-county region. They’re looking for foreigners who have been previously deported in order to charge them with a felony for re-entering the US without permission, said Bill Essayli, the US Attorney for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles.
Under “Operation Guardian Angel” federal prosecutors have filed about 350 criminal arrest warrants for foreigners arrested on state or local charges in the area since January, compared with about 17 during all of 2023 and 2024, Essayli said in a interview.
Shares of Canada Goose rose roughly 20% on Wednesday after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, though the company pulled its fiscal year 2026 outlook due to “macroeconomic uncertainty.”
The luxury retailer said it will not be providing a financial outlook for the fiscal year 2026 due to the uncertainty, citing “dynamic consumer spending patterns brought on by the unpredictable global trade environment.”
Nonetheless, Canada Goose said it “remains confident in the strength of the brand, the Company’s solid financial position, and its ability to adapt to changing conditions.”
Malaysia declared it’ll build a first-of-its-kind AI system powered by Huawei Technologies Co. chips, only to distance itself from that statement a day later, underscoring the Asian nation’s delicate position in the US-Chinese AI race.
Deputy Minister of Communications Teo Nie Ching said in a speech Monday her country would be the first to activate an unspecified class of Huawei “Ascend GPU-powered AI servers at national scale.”
Malaysia would deploy 3,000 units of Huawei’s primary AI offering by 2026, she said in prepared remarks reviewed by Bloomberg News. Chinese startup DeepSeek would also make one of its AI models available to the Southeast Asian country, the official added.
Stocks fell Wednesday as traders fretted over another move higher in Treasury yields and monitored the progress on a new U.S. budget bill that could put pressure on the country’s deficit.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 362 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 shed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 0.7%.
The 30-year Treasury bond yield moved back above 5% on Wednesday, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield traded over 4.53%. Yields moved above those key levels earlier in the week after Moody’s downgraded U.S. bonds late Friday.
Oil rallied on a CNN report that Israel is preparing to potentially strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
West Texas Intermediate jumped as much as 3.5% earlier, briefly surpassing $64 a barrel, before paring gains. It wasn’t clear whether a final decision on any attack had been made, CNN said, citing US intelligence and unidentified American officials.
Oil has been volatile since last week on mixed headlines about the fate of Iran-US nuclear talks, which could pave the way for more barrels to return to a market that’s expected to be oversupplied later in the year. An attack by Israel would hinder any progress in those negotiations and add to unrest in the Middle East, which supplies about a third of the world’s crude.
US stocks are set to extend a retreat, with traders nervous about rising bond yields as House lawmakers debated tax cuts at the center of the Trump administration’s policy agenda. The dollar also fell.
S&P 500 futures slid 0.5% alongside a retreat in European shares. Oil climbed about 1.5% on a report that Israel could be gearing up for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Yields on 30-year Treasuries rose further above the 5% mark. The greenback lost ground against all major currencies.
A dinner on Thursday in Washington — billed as the “Most Exclusive Once in Lifetime Invitation” — is the latest and boldest spectacle Bill Zanker has launched for Donald Trump.
Since Zanker co-authored a 2007 book with Trump, they’ve had a number of splashy collaborations, including a crowdfunding site and a series of non-fungible tokens featuring superhero versions of Trump, with events for some of the largest holders at Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago.
These days, though, Zanker is uniquely positioned to sell the Trump name — and access to the president himself.
The UK, along with the European Union and Portugal, delayed debt sales due to temporary disruptions caused by issues with Bloomberg LP software.
The UK added an extra 90 minutes to its window for receiving auction bids, while the EU postponed the deadline for a bills sale by one hour. Both sales eventually concluded with solid investor demand.
The delay reflects “ongoing market-wide Bloomberg system issues,” wrote the UK’s Debt Management Office in a statement. And the EU echoed that, saying its move reflected “global technical problems with Bloomberg.”
VF Corp. sunk 12% on Wednesday after forecasting a bigger-than-expected loss and warning investors it was rushing products to the US to beat the 90-day window of tariff pauses from the Trump administration.
The owner of brands such as Timberland and Vans sees an operating loss of as much as $125 million for this quarter. Analysts on average expected a loss of $73.1 million.
The shares had already declined 33% this year through Tuesday as the apparel maker struggles with increased costs due to tariffs and a consumer that’s been pulling back from discretionary goods.
When CFRA’s Paige Meyer slapped a “sell” rating on UnitedHealth Group Inc. in February, she was the lone analyst out of 30 tracked by Bloomberg with a negative view of the company.
Meyer’s price target, implying a 22% fall for the share,s glared in a sea of optimistic forecasts, while her warnings on regulatory uncertainty and high medical expenses seemed almost alarmist.
The health insurance giant was, after all, an industry bellwether that was widely considered a safe bet by Wall Street, even as it faced rising costs and was recovering from the murder of a top executive last year.
Medtronic PLC is expecting at least $200 million impact from tariffs on its exports, and issued lower-than-expected earnings per share outlook.
The medical devices maker has offset nearly 80% of tariff costs by rerouting shipments, seeking levy exemptions, and cutting discretionary spending, Chief Financial Officer Thierry Pieton told Bloomberg News. The company gets 7% of sales from China, and manufactures the majority of its products in the US.
Medtronic sees fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of $5.50 to $5.60 — below the $5.83 analysts project — with the range depending on whether higher tariffs between the US and China resume after the 90-day pause.
Target Corp. cut its sales forecast following a weaker-than-expected quarter — the latest sign the big-box retailer’s plans to recapture growth are faltering.
The company now expects net sales to decline by a low single digit this year, down from previous guidance for an increase of about 1%. In the quarter ended May 3, comparable sales dropped 3.8%, more than analysts had expected, on slower shopper traffic. Consumers also spent less per visit.
Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell attributed the results to multiple factors, including weakness in discretionary spending, declining consumer confidence, uncertainty over tariffs and shopper backlash against the company’s decision to halt diversity initiatives. He listed growth in e-commerce as a bright spot.
Lowe’s Cos. comparable sales beat expectations during the latest quarter as shoppers maintained home spending despite weakening consumer sentiment and economic turbulence.
The home-improvement retailer said its comparable sales dipped 1.7%, better than what analysts expected.
The company maintained its guidance for the year. The stock is up 2.5% in pre-market trading.
Oil rallied following a CNN report that new US intelligence suggests Israel is preparing for a potential strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Brent crude rose above $66 a barrel. It wasn’t clear that Israeli leaders have made a final decision on whether to carry out the strikes, CNN said, citing unidentified officials.
Oil has been volatile since last week on mixed headlines about the fate of Iran-US nuclear talks, which could pave the way for more barrels to return to a market that’s expected to be oversupplied later in the year. An attack by Israel would hinder any progress in those negotiations and add to unrest in the Middle East, which supplies about a third of the world’s crude.
Taiwan’s central bank said it strategically let the local dollar rally earlier this month to let market expectations for gains play out, a move that allowed the currency to post its sharpest appreciation since the 1980s.
“It’s a tactic, we can cool down the market expectations by doing this,” Deputy Central Bank Governor Yen Tsung-ta said in response to questions from lawmakers about whether the Taiwan dollar’s rise was normal. “We had used similar tactics before.”
The Taiwanese dollar had surged as exporters rushed to sell the greenback, partly on expectations the authorities will allow it to strengthen to help reach a trade deal with the US. The advance may have been exacerbated by life insurers — among Asia’s biggest holders of US debt — seeking to hedge those holdings, which make up the bulk of their more than NT$23 trillion ($767 billion) of foreign assets.
A gauge of the dollar fell to a two-week low as traders awaited a Group-of-Seven meeting this week for any signs the Trump administration is seeking a weaker US dollar.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dropped 0.5% on Wednesday, its third straight decline. Options markets reflected the shift, with one-month sentiment turning the most bearish in five years.
“The broad dollar decline is counter-intuitive but suggests financial markets are losing confidence in US policies,” wrote Elias Haddad, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. “The fundamental backdrop remains difficult for the dollar for three reasons: (i) the Trump administration implicitly supports a weaker dollar, (ii) the US economy faces stagflation risk, and (iii) US policy credibility has been undermined by the trade war.”
US Treasury yields ticked higher on Wednesday as investors closely monitored discussions on the budget bill and federal deficit, which is particularly contentious after Moody’s lowered the U.S.′ credit rating.
At 3:53 a.m. ET, the 30-year Treasury yield was up over 4 basis points to 5.016%. The 10-year yield was more than 4 basis points higher at 4.528%. The 2-year yield advanced just over 2 basis points, reaching 3.994%.
One basis point is equivalent to 0.01%, and yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The UK’s annual inflation rate hit 3.5% in April, coming in above analyst expectations, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had anticipated the consumer price index would reach 3.3% in the twelve months to April.
The latest data release comes against a recent trend of cooling inflation, with the rate of price rises slowing to 2.8% in February and 2.6% in March.
Gold rose as traders assessed trade tensions and the Federal Reserve’s rate path, with some buying back their previously built bearish positions after bullion reached a key level.
The precious metal’s climb to $3,250 an ounce helped trigger some short covering, sending it higher by as much as 1.7%, according to Ole Hansen, head of commodities strategy at Saxo Bank A/S.
“Gold has seen an underlying bid all day as the market considers whether we are past peak optimism,” said Hansen, adding that technical buyers rushed in once the $3,250 level was broken.
For now, the Dow futures are trading 230 points lower, while futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down 30 points and 130 points respectively.
US markets had ended lower on Tuesday, but after recovering from the lows of the session.
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