(Boursier.com) – Wall Street is expected to rise slightly 30 minutes from the opening. Investors continue to bet on a favorable outcome regarding the negotiations on the ceiling of the US debt increase. President Joe Biden said negotiators on the file were making “steady progress” to reach an agreement that would avoid a default by the United States.
In fairly quiet news this weekend, although a few business publications are expected to top the charts in New York, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak at a conference in Washington beginning at 5 p.m. (in Paris). Traders will be watching closely for any indication of the Fed’s next interest rate move. On the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasuries is up slightly to 3.669%, on a two-month high.
The euro/dollar parity reached $1.0813. A barrel of Brent is trading at $77.2. An ounce of gold is traded at $1,962. Bitcoin is trading around $26,920 on Coindesk.
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* waltz disney. The amusement park giant has decided to abandon plans to relocate thousands of California-based employees to the state of Florida due to the ongoing row between the group’s management and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis . According to an internal memo cited by several US media, Josh D’Amaro, president of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, told employees that the company, which was to build a new campus in the Lake Nona area of Orlando, had abandoned this giant project. “Given the significant changes that have occurred since this project was announced, including new management and changing business conditions, we have decided not to proceed with the construction of the campus,” said writes J.D’Amaro. “It was not an easy decision to make, but I think it’s the right one,” he continued. This campus project, whose cost was estimated at nearly a billion dollars, was to accommodate 2,000 employees.
The controversy between the two sides began in 2022 when Disney took a stand against DeSantis-backed legislation limiting gender discussion in public schools. The governor, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, hit back harshly by unveiling a series of measures against the entertainment group. The company has since sued and its boss, Bob Iger, has accused state officials of being anti-business and anti-free speech. Walt Disney has also announced the closure of its luxury hotel on the theme of Star Wars in Orlando in September, less than two years after its opening, while the group is engaged in a vast cost reduction plan which notably provides for the loss of 7,000 jobs.
* Microsoft. Twitter sent a letter to Microsoft boss Satya Nadella on Thursday accusing the tech giant of misusing the company’s social media data. In this letter, which several media have been able to consult – including the ‘New York Times’ – Twitter believes that Microsoft has violated an agreement on its data and has refused to pay for this use. In particular, the use of the API (application programming interface), particularly popular in artificial intelligence. In some cases, according to the letter, Microsoft used more Twitter data than it was supposed to. The group also reportedly shared the data with government agencies without permission.
The letter could be the prelude to sending a hefty bill. Elon Musk, who bought the social network last year for $44 billion, said the company urgently needed to make money and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Since then, Twitter has introduced new subscription options and taken other steps to try to fill its coffers. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company has received the letter from Twitter and is reviewing and responding to the questions. “We look forward to continuing our long-term partnership efforts with the company,” he said.
* Apple. ChatGPT lands on smartphones… The software, which is free, is now available in the United States for iOS devices via the Apple App Store. Thanks to the chatbot, users will be able to type and receive answers to their questions directly on their iPhone. It will also be possible to communicate via voice recognition, explains Apple in a blog post. However, the bot will only respond in writing. Users who wish can also pay extra for the most advanced version, ChatGPT-4. OpenAI plans to offer its application in other countries in the coming weeks and for users whose smartphone runs on Android, it will be necessary to wait a little.
* Northrop Grumman. NASA is due to unveil on Friday the name of the second private company – after SpaceX chosen in 2021 – which will build the shuttle responsible for taking astronauts to and from the Moon, which would put an end to a very tight competition between groups such as Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, and Northrop Grumman.
* lazard. The bank’s CEO, Ken Jacobs, is expected to step down and be replaced by Peter Orszag, who currently manages the financial advisory division, according to a source familiar with the matter quoted by ‘Reuters’.
* Western Petroleum. Berkshire Hathaway said it acquired new shares, increasing its stake in the oil company to 24.4%.
* Applied Materials back in pre-session in New York. The US semiconductor equipment giant beat analysts’ expectations in the second quarter but its forecasts disappointed. In the three months ended, the company posted net income of $1.56 billion, or $1.86 per share, compared to $1.54 billion or $1.74 per share a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share reached $2 against $1.85 for the same period last year and $1.83 consensus. Revenues reached $6.63 billion (+6.2%). In the third quarter, Applied Materials is betting on an adjusted EPS of $1.56 to $1.92 for sales ranging from $5.75 to $6.45 billion. Analysts on average had expected adjusted earnings per share of $1.66 on revenue of $6.06 billion.
“Our longer-term outlook is very positive as semiconductors become a larger and more strategically important global market and major technology inflections are enabled by materials engineering, creating outsized growth opportunities for Applied,” said Gary Dickerson, general manager of Applied Materials. At the earnings call, management said key consumer electronics markets, including PCs and smartphones, remain weak. It also said prices and factory utilization of memory chips fell in the quarter, while inventory rose.
* Morgan Stanley. James Gorman is expected to step down as chief executive of the bank within the next 12 months. He should then simply assume the role of executive chairman. “The board and I believe this will happen at some point over the next 12 months,” the executive was quoted as saying by ‘Bloomberg’. “This is currently expected in the absence of any major change in the external environment,” he added at the company’s annual meeting.