US stocks hit all-time highs as core inflation slows

The S&P 500 opened at an all-time high as core CPI inflation rose 0.3% month-on-month in April, allaying fears that the sharp re-acceleration in price pressures seen during the first quarter of the year would persist. On an annual basis, core inflation rose 3.6%, down from 3.8% in March.

This reading was in line with economists’ expectations. Retail sales figures released in tandem with the inflation data, however, showed spending unexpectedly flatlined in April. These data help bolster the case for the Federal Reserve to begin reducing interest rates at some point this year.

10-year Treasury yields fell as much as 10 basis points following this morning’s economic releases.

US consumer prices rise less than expected in April; core CPI slows

10-year Treasury yields fell as much as 10 basis points following this morning’s economic releases.

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Claire Yubin Oh

The solace of quantum

Quantum computing companies are stacking up piles of cash, capitalizing on their booming stock prices

IONQ, RGTI, QUBT, and QBTS have raised a total of ~$4.5 billion this year, as the battle for commercialization heats up.

Money grab - Multiple hands clutching dollar bills

Nia Warfield15m

Expedia soars as travel demand fuels big Q3 beat and price target hikes across Wall Street

Shares of Expedia leapt in early trading Friday after the travel platform posted a strong third quarter.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $7.57, surpassing the consensus estimate of roughly $6.98. Meanwhile, revenue climbed to $4.41 billion, also topping forecasts and driven by strong room-night growth in the US and Asia.

“Our strong third quarter results exceeded both our top- and bottom-line expectations, reflecting an improved demand environment, disciplined execution and tangible progress on our strategic priorities,” CEO Ariane Gorin said in a statement. “Notably, US room-night growth hit its fastest pace in over three years, we posted our 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit B2B growth—and consumer bookings grew 7%.”

For the full year, Expedia now expects revenue growth of 6% to 7%, up from its previous estimate of 3% to 5%. Wall Street welcomed the results:

Evercore ISI maintained its “Outperform” rating and lifted its target to $350 from $280.
Piper Sandler upgraded the stock to “Neutral” and hiked its target to $250 from $190
Wells Fargo maintained its “Equal Weight” rating and raised its price target to $272 from $212.
UBS kept its “Neutral” rating and raised its target to $234 from $209.
Truist reiterated its “Hold” rating and increased its target to $210 from $168.

Luke Kawa

The Art of the Science Deal

18m

D-Wave CEO’s pitch to the Trump administration: Buy our quantum computers in exchange for an equity stake

“I want them to get something of value in return, not just equity in the company, but I want them to get products that they can actually use to solve their hard problems,” said D-Wave CEO Dr. Alan Baratz.

Luke Kawa

31m

Key takeaways from Opendoor’s Q3 earnings call

A lot was said, and none of it gave the stock a boost.

Luke Kawa1h

Nvidia’s tumble rolls on as CEO Jensen Huang continues to talk about the one thing going wrong for the chip designer

Nvidia is down again in premarket trading as CEO Jensen Huang continues to talk about perhaps the one thing that isn’t going well for the world’s largest publicly traded company: China.

The chip designer has dropped more than 9% in the three days ended Thursday. That’s its biggest such tumble since April 7, the three sessions that followed President Donald Trump’s Rose Garden tariff announcements on April 2.

“Currently, we are not planning to ship anything to China,” Huang said on Friday while in Taiwan, per Reuters.

As it relates to Blackwell chips, this is the equivalent of me saying that I have no plans to ship raw elephant ivory tusks back home to Canada. For starters, I don’t have any, and secondly, it wouldn’t be legal.

And on the H20 side, China simply does not want the nerfed chips; or more precisely, policymakers are not allowing their tech champions to act upon any potential desire to get their hands on those GPUs. As Huang noted, the ball is in China’s court here.

“It’s up to China when they would like Nvidia products to go back to serve the Chinese market. I look forward to them changing their policy,” he said, per Reuters.

It’s not clear that analysts were ever expecting much of a pickup in Nvidia’s China business, even after export restrictions on the H20 were lifted.

Huang also further watered down his stance on the state of the AI race after the Financial Times reported that he said, “China is going to win the AI race,” earlier this week.

Not to get too deep into the sausage-making process of news here, but when an outlet as credible and prestigious as the FT is putting quotes around words and attributing them to the leader of the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, I personally feel fairly confident that those words were actually said.

“That’s not what I said,” Huang said, per Reuters. “What I said was that China has very good AI technology. They have many AI researchers.”

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