After a big pullback for EVs, climbing gas prices are causing drivers to eye them again
When Jensen Huang speaks, Nvidia usually falls
Trump urges allies to help reopen Strait of Hormuz as tanker traffic nearly vanishes
Uber and Lyft both announced expanded AI and autonomous vehicle partnerships with Nvidia at the company’s GTC event, sending both ride-hailing stocks up after-hours.
Uber was recently up 3.3%, while Lyft rose 3%.
Uber said Nvidia-powered Level 4 robotaxis will launch on its platform in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2027, with plans to scale to 28 cities globally by 2028. Meanwhile, Lyft said it will use Nvidia’s AI infrastructure to improve ride-matching, mapping, and efficiency, while also using Nvidia’s DRIVE Hyperion platform as a foundation for future autonomous fleets.
Separately, Nvidia announced expanded autonomous driving partnerships with Kia and Hyundai.
The announcements highlight Nvidia’s growing push to provide the AI hardware and software powering next-generation robotaxi networks — packaging the technology needed for self-driving cars into a platform that other companies can use to compete with Tesla.
Tesla’s Robotaxi program has disclosed its 15th accident, Electrek reports, citing the latest filing from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to Electrek’s estimation, extrapolated from the last time Tesla disclosed mileage figures, that amounts to a crash every 57,000 miles — about 9x the rate for humans.
The latest crash involved a Model Y hitting a fixed object at 9 mph in January while the autonomous system was engaged.
Humans are very much still involved with Tesla’s so-called autonomous driving service. Despite the service announcing in January that it had started removing safety monitors from the front seats, only two unsupervised vehicles have been spotted in the last month, per Robotaxi Tracker. The entire fleet has also dwindled from around 50 vehicles to just 35. Their mileage is unavailable.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate futures are down more than 4%, while Brent futures are off more than 2% as of 1:25 p.m. ET as traders glom on to some optimistic signs about the flow of oil through the all-important Strait of Hormuz:
A Pakistani-owned tanker passed through the strait this weekend while broadcasting its signal, per Reuters, “indicating that some countries are able to negotiate safe passage for their vessels despite the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.”
US President Donald Trump said that some “fairly local” countries would soon be helping ships traverse the strait (while having added that other countries are “not enthusiastic” about the prospect of participating).
First non-Iranian cargo transits Strait of Hormuz with AIS on
— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) March 16, 2026
The Aframax tanker Karachi, carrying Abu Dhabi’s Das crude, has become the first non-Iranian cargo to transit the chokepoint while broadcasting its AIS signal, suggesting that select shipments may be receiving… pic.twitter.com/Q6j6W3Cxz3
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust are both up over 1% amid oil’s retreat.
That being said, the news flow is far from universally positive.
Reuters reports that the UAE’s crude output has been cut in half since the Mideast conflict started; Bloomberg says Kuwait’s production has suffered a similar decline.
A Pakistani-owned tanker passed through the strait this weekend while broadcasting its signal, per Reuters, “indicating that some countries are able to negotiate safe passage for their vessels despite the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.”
US President Donald Trump said that some “fairly local” countries would soon be helping ships traverse the strait (while having added that other countries are “not enthusiastic” about the prospect of participating).
First non-Iranian cargo transits Strait of Hormuz with AIS on
— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) March 16, 2026
The Aframax tanker Karachi, carrying Abu Dhabi’s Das crude, has become the first non-Iranian cargo to transit the chokepoint while broadcasting its AIS signal, suggesting that select shipments may be receiving… pic.twitter.com/Q6j6W3Cxz3
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust are both up over 1% amid oil’s retreat.
That being said, the news flow is far from universally positive.
Reuters reports that the UAE’s crude output has been cut in half since the Mideast conflict started; Bloomberg says Kuwait’s production has suffered a similar decline.
Memory stocks such as Sandisk, Micron, and disk drive makers Western Digital and Seagate sprinted ahead Monday, as this week’s big AI conference for tech bellwether Nvidia gets underway with a speech from the CEO slated for this afternoon.
As Luke Kawa pointed out earlier, CEO Jensen Huang’s speechifying at high-profile company announcements or industry events hasn’t always been a good thing for Nvidia shares. (The chip designer is holding its GPU Technology Conference, or GTC, this week.)
But Huang’s pronouncements have, at times, been pretty dang helpful for share prices of some companies in the orbit of the AI gods. Perhaps foremost among them are the memory stocks that have blasted toward the top of the S&P 500 in terms of price performance in recent years.
Case in point: the nearly 30% gain that Sandisk posted on January 6, the day after Huang’s keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in which he spotlighted memory as a key bottleneck constraining the AI build-out. (Fellow memory plays Western Digital, Seagate Technology Holdings, and Micron also posted double-digit gains that day.)
Memory stocks have been the highest-profile outlet for bullish AI industry impulses this year, and notable comments from Huang could put the wind back in their sails after they had slowed in recent weeks.
Of course, there are also other things happening in the sector, such as Micron’s announcement Sunday that it completed an acquisition of a new manufacturing site in Taiwan.
Either way, memory stocks are pushing higher after having exhaled a bit lately.
But Huang’s pronouncements have, at times, been pretty dang helpful for share prices of some companies in the orbit of the AI gods. Perhaps foremost among them are the memory stocks that have blasted toward the top of the S&P 500 in terms of price performance in recent years.
Case in point: the nearly 30% gain that Sandisk posted on January 6, the day after Huang’s keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in which he spotlighted memory as a key bottleneck constraining the AI build-out. (Fellow memory plays Western Digital, Seagate Technology Holdings, and Micron also posted double-digit gains that day.)
Memory stocks have been the highest-profile outlet for bullish AI industry impulses this year, and notable comments from Huang could put the wind back in their sails after they had slowed in recent weeks.
Of course, there are also other things happening in the sector, such as Micron’s announcement Sunday that it completed an acquisition of a new manufacturing site in Taiwan.
Either way, memory stocks are pushing higher after having exhaled a bit lately.
The tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have cost automakers at least $35.4 billion since the start of 2025, according to a new analysis by Automotive News.
That total will continue to climb this year, since the Supreme Court’s February tariff ruling largely leaves the 25% levy on vehicles and auto parts untouched.
Toyota has taken the biggest hit, projecting more than $9 billion in tariff costs in its fiscal year ending this month, while Detroit’s big three automakers — Ford, GM, and Stellantis — were hit with a combined $6.5 billion tariff charge in 2025.
In the fourth quarter, automakers sold about 8% fewer imported vehicles in the US compared to the same period a year ago, per the Automotive News Research & Data Center.
Tariff charges come at a rough time for legacy carmakers, which are also scaling back EV plans following the Trump administration’s elimination of tax credits and fuel standard goals. According to Automotive News, the cost of EV write-downs and restructuring is, so far, nearly $70 billion.
It’s primary election time in Illinois, and as voters in the state head to the polls on March 17, there are a few races to watch closely across both parties.
While polls show that Darren Bailey is leading in the Republican race for governor, the primary election for a rare seat in the Democratic Senate to replace Sen. Dick Durbin is proving to be a tight one.
At the top of the 10-candidate race are Raja Krishnamoorthi, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and Robin Kelly. Krishnamoorthi, a lawmaker from Chicago’s 8th Congressional District, was an early front-runner, received funding and support from several Congress members for the seat. Kelly, who represented the South Side’s 2nd Congressional District, has support from the Congressional Black Caucus and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn. Meanwhile, Stratton has been endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker, whose administration she used to work for, as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
While polls suggested that Krishnamoorthi was favored to win, Stratton has seen a boost and late surge, though Krishnamoorthi still remains close behind. Capitol News Illinois reports that Illinois Future PAC, funded by Pritzker, has spent more than $10 million on ads elevating Stratton. Meanwhile, two PACs affiliated with the crypto industry have attempted to attack Stratton and promote Kelly. Indian American Impact, which endorsed Krishnamoorthi, reportedly employed similar tactics against Stratton.
Political insiders tell Capitol News Illinois the race could go either way, but they still expect Krishnamoorthi to come out on top. Prediction markets currently show that Stratton narrowly leading Krishnamoorthi.
(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)
At the top of the 10-candidate race are Raja Krishnamoorthi, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and Robin Kelly. Krishnamoorthi, a lawmaker from Chicago’s 8th Congressional District, was an early front-runner, received funding and support from several Congress members for the seat. Kelly, who represented the South Side’s 2nd Congressional District, has support from the Congressional Black Caucus and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn. Meanwhile, Stratton has been endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker, whose administration she used to work for, as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
While polls suggested that Krishnamoorthi was favored to win, Stratton has seen a boost and late surge, though Krishnamoorthi still remains close behind. Capitol News Illinois reports that Illinois Future PAC, funded by Pritzker, has spent more than $10 million on ads elevating Stratton. Meanwhile, two PACs affiliated with the crypto industry have attempted to attack Stratton and promote Kelly. Indian American Impact, which endorsed Krishnamoorthi, reportedly employed similar tactics against Stratton.
Political insiders tell Capitol News Illinois the race could go either way, but they still expect Krishnamoorthi to come out on top. Prediction markets currently show that Stratton narrowly leading Krishnamoorthi.
(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)
Universal will now guarantee a minimum of five weekends before a movie hits home screens — which might help theater companies like AMC finally get back to profitability.
Meta is rising Monday morning after Reuters reported the tech giant is planning to lay off 20% of its employees in an effort to use AI to make its workforce more efficient and offset its surging AI capex costs.
On the company’s last earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted 30% efficiency gains for its software engineers and said some “power users” of the company’s AI coding tools saw productivity jump as high as 80% — what some saw as a veiled threat to employees who failed to use AI to boost their output.
Meta’s headcount was nearly 79,000 last quarter, having steadily risen since its layoffs during the self-described “year of efficiency” in 2023. A 20% cut would bring headcount to around 63,000 — the company’s lowest level since 2021.
Shares were recently up 2.7%.
Meta’s headcount was nearly 79,000 last quarter, having steadily risen since its layoffs during the self-described “year of efficiency” in 2023. A 20% cut would bring headcount to around 63,000 — the company’s lowest level since 2021.
Shares were recently up 2.7%.
Crypto-linked stocks such as Coinbase, MARA Holdings, Strategy, Cipher Mining, and IREN are up early as bitcoin’s recent bounce continues.
Shortly before 9 a.m. ET, bitcoin was trading around $74,000, near its highest levels since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 that marked the start of open hostilities.
Bitcoin is up roughly 25% since it slipped below $60,000 in intraday trading on February 6. Crypto watchers are spotlighting the neighborhood of roughly $77,800 — near the 50-day moving average — as the next price point to watch to see whether the recovery could stick.
Shortly before 9 a.m. ET, bitcoin was trading around $74,000, near its highest levels since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 that marked the start of open hostilities.
Bitcoin is up roughly 25% since it slipped below $60,000 in intraday trading on February 6. Crypto watchers are spotlighting the neighborhood of roughly $77,800 — near the 50-day moving average — as the next price point to watch to see whether the recovery could stick.
Ahead of Nvidia’s GTC keynote address this afternoon, I’ll make a confession: I find often find myself a bit entranced when CEO Jensen Huang speaks. It’s something about his oration and imagination — and the ability to back that up with the products that enable ever-increasing sales and profits.
However, lately, the market has been anything but impressed. Through 2025 and 2026, most of Nvidia’s major events (earning reports, CES, or GTC) were met with selling pressure.
That’s a track record the CEO will be looking to improve upon during today’s keynote address, slated to begin at 2 p.m. ET. And he’s being spotted to an early lead, with shares up a little less than 2% as of 10:42 a.m. ET.
The GTC, or GPU Technology Conference, is Nvidia’s twice-a-year event to discuss its outlook and product roadmap.
Note: On all of Nvidia’s down days in the above chart, shares also underperformed the S&P 500 on the session.
High-profile events have not, by and large, been positive catalysts for the stock. This probably doesn’t have much to do with anything the leader of the world’s most valuable publicly traded company actually says, and is more a function of how high expectations get any time you can circle an Nvidia date on the calendar.
The two recent exceptions were:
His address in DC in late October; the stock hit a fresh peak when Huang talked up more than $500 billion in orders for Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips through 2026. The stock went on to set its all-time intraday and closing highs the following session.
Q1 2026 earnings, where the stock booked a solid gain after better-than-expected results.
Update: A previous version of this post/chart misstated the reaction associated with Nvidia’s Q1 2026 earnings.
Despite a series of alarming mental health safety failures that resulted in ChatGPT users allegedly using the product to plan suicides and murder, OpenAI decided to double down on its plan to roll out an “adult mode,” allowing the AI chatbot to produce erotic content.
That decision raised alarms within the company, warning that users could develop unhealthy emotional dependence on the chatbot and that the new age estimation feature was imperfect — and therefore likely to allow minors to access the feature — according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Per the report, some 12% of the time, the age estimation feature mistakenly classified minors as adults.
OpenAI’s council of mental health experts were “furious” and unanimous in their opposition to the plans to move forward with the adult mode feature after they were told about the decision in January, with concerns about creating a “sexy suicide coach.”
Earlier this month, the company said it would delay the new feature to focus on other products.
That decision raised alarms within the company, warning that users could develop unhealthy emotional dependence on the chatbot and that the new age estimation feature was imperfect — and therefore likely to allow minors to access the feature — according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Per the report, some 12% of the time, the age estimation feature mistakenly classified minors as adults.
OpenAI’s council of mental health experts were “furious” and unanimous in their opposition to the plans to move forward with the adult mode feature after they were told about the decision in January, with concerns about creating a “sexy suicide coach.”
Earlier this month, the company said it would delay the new feature to focus on other products.
Nebius is skyrocketing in early trading on Monday, up nearly 14% as of 8 a.m. ET, after the Amsterdam-based company announced a new five-year deal with Meta worth as much as $27 billion.
The social media giant will initially buy dedicated AI computing capacity across multiple locations for $12 billion, which will be “one of the first large-scale deployments of the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform,” according to the company’s press release, with delivery beginning in early 2027.
Meta will also buy an additional $15 billion worth of Nebius’ planned capacity if it’s not sold to other customers over the same five-year period.
Nebius added in the press release that its guidance for 2026, in which the company is forecasting an annualized revenue run rate of $7 billion to $9 billion, per its Q4 earnings results, remains unchanged, signaling that the gains from the new deal will likely start rolling in after this fiscal year. This latest deal with Meta, which adds to their previous $3 billion deal announced in November, also notably relies on its partnership with another Big Tech company, Nvidia, which recently invested another $2 billion in Nebius.
This news of another major hyperscaler deal is sparking a bid for many of the other so-called neocloud companies, like CoreWeave, IREN, Applied Digital, Cipher Mining, and Riot Platforms, which also sell hardware and cloud capacity to AI infrastructure-obsessed tech giants.
For Meta, the deal underscores the company’s current financial focus: capital is to be used to expand in AI as quickly as possible, but spending in other areas is to be more cautious. Over the weekend, Reuters reported that the company was looking at layoffs that could affect more than 20% of its staff.
So far, dropping tens of billions of dollars on talent and compute capacity hasn’t catapulted Meta to the top of the AI leaderboards — just last week, The New York Times reported that the company was delaying the release of its Avocado model because it simply wasn’t good enough.