Markets
markets
Tom Jones

Walmart rises after announcing new AI partnership with Google’s Gemini, as it’s set to join the Nasdaq 100 Index

Walmart is a rare winner in a sea of red this morning, up about 3.5% in premarket trading as of 5:50 a.m. ET, after the retailer yesterday announced a new partnership with Google that will allow customers to browse and buy Walmart and Sam’s Club products directly through the chatbot.

In the statement, Walmart said that shoppers will be able to access the features through Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) — a “new open standard for agentic commerce and AI tools” that the tech giant codeveloped with a range of retailers and launched on Sunday.

The partnership news follows another welcome event for Walmart shareholders, after Nasdaq revealed that the retailer would be joining the Nasdaq 100 Index prior to market open on January 20.

Ask me anything

When the ever-growing cohort of Gemini users ask the chatbot for shopping advice, they’ll now automatically be served product recommendations from the world’s largest retailer. Per the statement, users who choose to link their Walmart and Gemini accounts will also be able to use any membership benefits they may have and also get served recommendations based on previous purchases.

The new Gemini partnership builds on the deal that Walmart announced with OpenAI back in October, which has allowed ChatGPT users to browse and purchase the company’s products on the web and app platform.

In an interview around the announcement, David Guggina, Walmart’s chief e-commerce officer, said that the world is “moving past the era of the search bar.” Guggina added that the retailer is no longer just meeting people where they shop, but “anticipating how they live” — increasingly, that appears to mean via AI chatbots.

Walmart and Google Turn AI Discovery Into Effortless Shopping Experiences

Walmart and Google Turn AI Discovery Into Effortless Shopping Experiences

In the statement, Walmart said that shoppers will be able to access the features through Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) — a “new open standard for agentic commerce and AI tools” that the tech giant codeveloped with a range of retailers and launched on Sunday.

The partnership news follows another welcome event for Walmart shareholders, after Nasdaq revealed that the retailer would be joining the Nasdaq 100 Index prior to market open on January 20.

Ask me anything

When the ever-growing cohort of Gemini users ask the chatbot for shopping advice, they’ll now automatically be served product recommendations from the world’s largest retailer. Per the statement, users who choose to link their Walmart and Gemini accounts will also be able to use any membership benefits they may have and also get served recommendations based on previous purchases.

The new Gemini partnership builds on the deal that Walmart announced with OpenAI back in October, which has allowed ChatGPT users to browse and purchase the company’s products on the web and app platform.

In an interview around the announcement, David Guggina, Walmart’s chief e-commerce officer, said that the world is “moving past the era of the search bar.” Guggina added that the retailer is no longer just meeting people where they shop, but “anticipating how they live” — increasingly, that appears to mean via AI chatbots.

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markets
Luke Kawa

GameStop jumps in after-hours trading after CEO Ryan Cohen purchases another 500,000 shares

Ryan Cohen is putting his money where his mouth is.

The GameStop CEO bought another 500,000 shares of company stock for $10.8 million on Wednesday, per a filing.

The stock was trading higher on Wednesday thanks to Cohen’s purchase of 500,000 shares for roughly $10.6 million on Tuesday, and extended these gains in the after-hours session on this news.

“The Reporting Person believes that it is essential for the Chief Executive Officer of any public company to purchase shares of such company in the open market with his or her own personal funds in order to further strengthen alignment with stockholders,” per the filing. “The Reporting Person believes that any Chief Executive Officer who fails to do so should be fired.”

Cohen is poised to become even more financially enmeshed with GameStop’s stock and operating performance should shareholders approve a package that would tie his pay completely to ambitious targets for the company’s earnings and market cap.

The CEO now owns about 8.56% of shares outstanding.

markets
Luke Kawa

AppLovin tumbles; company dismisses negative report as “false, misleading, and nonsensical”

AppLovin managed to finish Tuesday well off its lows after initially getting clobbered in the wake of an incendiary report published by CapitalWatch.

Nonetheless, shares are getting torched on Wednesday, ending down nearly 6%. An AppLovin spokesperson forcefully denied the allegations made by CapitalWatch, which included calling the ad tech firm “the ultimate monument to 21st-century new-type transnational financial crime.”

Per an emailed statement:

“We categorically reject the claims made in this report, which is rife with false, misleading, and nonsensical allegations. AppLovin’s public filings transparently disclose our material investments, global operations, and information regarding significant shareholders.”

“Claims that AppLovin facilitated money laundering or its products are used for unauthorized downloads are patently false. AppLovin functions within a broader ecosystem that includes major app stores, operating systems, and payment providers, and the apps monetized through our platform must be publicly available on the major app stores and subject to their independent review and enforcement. Economically, the money laundering theory is implausible: publishers receive only a portion of advertiser spend, meaning any attempt to ‘launder’ funds would require forfeiting a substantial share while creating a highly visible, auditable transaction trail across multiple independent companies. Accepting the report’s premise would therefore imply a systemic failure across the broader mobile advertising and app-store ecosystem, for which the report provides no evidence.”

AppLovin craters after report from CapitalWatch alleges it’s a money-laundering operation for “transnational criminal kingpins”

Nonetheless, shares are getting torched on Wednesday, ending down nearly 6%. An AppLovin spokesperson forcefully denied the allegations made by CapitalWatch, which included calling the ad tech firm “the ultimate monument to 21st-century new-type transnational financial crime.”

Per an emailed statement:

“We categorically reject the claims made in this report, which is rife with false, misleading, and nonsensical allegations. AppLovin’s public filings transparently disclose our material investments, global operations, and information regarding significant shareholders.”

“Claims that AppLovin facilitated money laundering or its products are used for unauthorized downloads are patently false. AppLovin functions within a broader ecosystem that includes major app stores, operating systems, and payment providers, and the apps monetized through our platform must be publicly available on the major app stores and subject to their independent review and enforcement. Economically, the money laundering theory is implausible: publishers receive only a portion of advertiser spend, meaning any attempt to ‘launder’ funds would require forfeiting a substantial share while creating a highly visible, auditable transaction trail across multiple independent companies. Accepting the report’s premise would therefore imply a systemic failure across the broader mobile advertising and app-store ecosystem, for which the report provides no evidence.”

Tasha Matsumoto, Nate Becker
3h
Stocks jump as Trump walks back European tariff threats

All sector ETFs traded higher in the broad-based rally.

Benny, the mascot for the Chicago Bulls, performs during a break between the Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans at the United Center on January 14, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois.
markets
Matt Phillips

Intel soars amid retail engagement, analyst chatter

Intel ripped toward a new 52-week high Wednesday, amid a flurry of activity in the options market and a couple of positive analyst assessments ahead of its earnings report due tomorrow.

Shortly after 11 a.m. ET, call options activity was roughly equivalent to the full-day average over the past 10 sessions. Bets on stock swings using call options have become a highly popular retail trade, suggesting that retail investors are getting interested in the shares ahead of the report from the partially nationalized American chip icon.

(That interpretation is buttressed by what we’re seeing on social sentiment-monitoring sites like SwaggyStocks, which at about 11:30 a.m. listed Intel as the fifth-most-mentioned stock on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum over the past 24 hours.)

Wall Street analysts are also chattering about the stock, with RBC and Bernstein Research both writing about it in the last 24 hours.

RBC — which has a “sector perform” (or neutral) rating on Intel — said it expects a “slight beat and largely inline outlook” when the company reports after the close Thursday.

Bernstein’s Intel watchers — who have a “market perform” (also neutral) rating on the stock — seemed a bit more cautious, writing, “Overall numbers going forward still looking high to us. Fundamentals and valuation keep us sidelined.”

“If there is no memory, there’s no AI.”

FLASH FORWARD

ByMattPhillips

WedJan 212026

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