The S&P 500 closed very slightly lower on Monday as investors took a breather after three weekly gains while they awaited key inflation readings and earnings reports due this week while a survey showed consumers concerned about inflation.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 81.33 points, or 0.21%, to 39,431.51, the S&P 500 lost 1.26 points, or 0.02%, to 5,221.42 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 47.37 points, or 0.29%, to 16,388.24.
Market Movers
GameStop jumped 74% and was halted for volatility several times Monday after Keith Gill, the investor who became a folk hero on Reddit and other social media sites after betting on GameStop stock ahead of its parabolic run in January 2021, made his first post on his Roaring Kitty X account since 2021. Gill shared his bullish GameStop thesis in 2020 on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter and was rewarded wildly amid the 2021 short squeeze. He became a symbol for retail investors who bet against the Wall Street firms shorting GameStop stock. On Sunday, he posted a cartoon of a man leaning forward in a chair to show he’s now “locked in” on the game he’s playing. On Monday, Gill posted a wave of movie and television clips edited together that hyped up GameStop investors. GameStop rallied last week after Gill liked a post for the first time since 2021.
AMC Entertainment, another popular meme stock, surged 78% in the wake of Gill’s posts. Koss stock, which was also caught up in 2021’s squeeze, was up 37%.
U.S.-listed shares of Arm Holdings rose 7.7% following a report that said the chip designer was seeking to launch its first artificial-intelligence chips next year. Nikkei Asia said U.K.-based Arm planned to set up an AI chip division, with aims to build a prototype by spring 2025.
Squarespace jumped 13% to $43.25 after the digital publishing and media software company reached an agreement to be acquired and go private by private-equity firm Permira in an all-cash transaction valued at about $6.9 billion. Squarespace will be acquired for $44 a share.
Walgreens Boots Alliance rose 5.4% after a report from Bloomberg said the company was in early stage discussions with potential buyers for its U.K.-based Boots drug chain.
Tesla has launched a below-market financing rate for new Model Y electric-vehicle purchases. The company is offering a 0.99% annual percentage rate on qualifying new Model Y purchases. The deal wasn’t available a week ago—the quoted rate then was 6.49% APR. Lower financing rates can drive volume but the deal from Tesla amounts to another price cut amid slowing demand growth for electric vehicles, according to Al Root of Barron’s. Tesla shares were up 2%. The stock has declined 31% this year.
Intel was up 2.2% after The Wall Street Journal reported the semiconductor company could be nearing a deal with Apollo Global Management to build a chip plant in Ireland. Advanced talks have been taking place between Intel and the Apollo, which would supply more than $11 billion to help build the chip plant, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Intel and Apollo both declined to comment to Barron’s about the report.
Apple shares gained 1.8%. The tech giant is nearing an agreement with OpenAI to use the startup’s technology on the iPhone, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Incyte rose 8.6% after its board approved the buyback of up to $2 billion of shares and the biopharmaceutical company said it was offering to buy up to $1.672 billion worth of its stock in a modified “Dutch Auction.”
Earnings reports were expected this week from Walmart, Home Depot, Alibaba, Applied Materials, Deere, JD.com, Sony, On Holding, Cisco Systems, Copart, Dynatrace, Baidu, Take-Two Interactive Software, Under Armour, Nextracker, and Ross Stores.
Market News
OpenAI unveils new AI model as competition heats up
ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Monday it would release a new AI model called GPT-4o, capable of realistic voice conversation and able to interact across text and image, its latest move to stay ahead in a race to dominate the emerging technology.
New audio capabilities enable users to speak to ChatGPT and obtain real-time responses with no delay, as well as interrupt ChatGPT while it is speaking, both hallmarks of realistic conversations that AI voice assistants have found challenging, the OpenAI researchers showed at a livestream event.
Melinda French Gates Exits Foundation With $12.5 Billion
Melinda French Gates is stepping down as co-chair of the $75 billion foundation she helped run with her former husband, Bill Gates.
Her last day will be June 7 and she’ll receive an additional $12.5 billion to use for her own charitable purposes as part of an agreement with her ex-husband, French Gates said Monday in a statement.