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☆ On tap this week: Jobs report plus 10 key earnings. Here's what we want to see
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +18 min

All three major averages advanced for the week, powered by strong mega-cap earnings and favorable inflation data. Looking to next week, earnings season enters its second half with the last of our mega-caps — Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) — set to report on Thursday. We'll get a better read on the employment picture on Wednesday with the ADP report and then, more importantly, on Friday's nonfarm payrolls report for July. Thursday after the close brings us to the main events of the week: Earnings from Apple and Amazon. For those looking to review first quarter performance ahead of these releases, be sure to keep our first-quarter earnings report card handy.

Persons: We'll, that's, Stanley Black, Decker, Emerson, Bausch, Leggett, Platt, SIRI, Ares, COLM, PERI, Kraft Heinz, Phillips, Ferrari N.V, Johnson, Robinson, COOK, BUD, Kellogg, Papa, Pitney Bowes, Parker, Trimble, Ziff Davis, Nonfarm, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Apple Tim Cook, Kevin Dietsch Organizations: Nasdaq, Dow, Federal Reserve, Federal, ISM Manufacturing, Services PMI, Investors, Caterpillar, Devices, Starbucks, Natural Resources, AMD, Management, Emerson Electric and, Humana, Bausch Health, Apple, Microsoft, Resource Partners, AerCap Holdings, CNA Financial Corp, CNA, Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Bank, SJW, Hutchison China MediTech, Camtek Ltd, Silvercrest Asset Management, Loews Corp, Oxford Lane Capital Corp, Banco Santander, Silicom Ltd, SuperCom Ltd, Arista Networks, Avis Budget Group, Diamondback Energy, Lattice Semiconductor Corp, Republic Services, Yum China Holdings, Western Digital Corp, Power Systems, Tenet Healthcare Corp, Vornado Realty, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, PetMed, SBA Communications Corporation, Brixmor, Snack Foods Corp, Cushman & Wakefield, Sanmina Corporation, TFI, PMI, Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, Uber Technologies, Pfizer, Enterprise Products Partners, Merck, JetBlue Airways Corporation, Allegro MicroSystems, Altria, SunPower Corp, SiriusXM Holdings, Molson Coors Beverage, Marriott International, Toyota Motor Corp, BP, SYSCO Corp, Marathon Petroleum Corp, Ares Management, Equitrans Midstream Corporation, Game Technology, Illinois Tool, IDEXX Laboratories, Rockwell Automation, Packaging International Corp, Gartner, Zebra Technologies Corp, IQVIA Holdings, Oshkosh Corporation, Leidos Holdings, Eaton Corp, yte Corp, Lear Corp, Starbucks Corp, Devon Energy Corp, SolarEdge Technologies, Lumen Technologies, Virgin Galactic Holdings, Caesars Entertainment, VF Corp, Sciences Corp, Paycom, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Suncor Energy, Holdings, Chesapeake Energy Corp, Boston Properties, American International Group, AIG, Allstate Corp, Aspen Technology, Electronic Arts, EA, Flowserve Corporation, Denny's, Corp, Prudential Financial, Store, Ternium S.A, Vimeo, Emerson, Lomb, CVS Health, Generac Holdings, Cameco Corp, Perion Network Ltd, Builders, Carlyle Group, Scorpio, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd, Rithm Capital Corp, AeroSystems Holdings, Vertiv Holdings Co, Johnson Controls, CDW Corp, DuPont, Brands Holdings, Scotts Miracle, Gro, SMG, Brands, Allegheny Technologies, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, ABC, Real Estate Corporation, Adient plc, Editas, Garmin Ltd, WWE, Bunge Ltd, Criteo S.A, PayPal, QUALCOMM, Occidental Petroleum Corp, Apache Corp, Albemarle Corp, MGM Resorts International, MGM, Marathon Oil Corp, Joby Aviation, Industrial, CF Industries Holdings, Goodyear Tire &, Realty ome Corp, Metlife, Pacific Biosciences of, Rush Street Interactive, Zillow, JFrog Ltd, Herbalife Nutrition Ltd, Simon Property Group, McKesson Corp, Storage, Cerus Corporation, GXO Logistics, MAX Holdings, Health, Anheuser, Busch InBev, Warner Bros ., Cheniere Energy, ConocoPhillips, Hasbro, CIGNA Corp, Lantheus Holdings, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Fiverr International, Air Products & Chemicals, TopBuild Corp, EPAM Systems, Lightspeed Commerce, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Cummins, CMI, Slair Corporation, Starwood Property Trust, Vulcan, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, New Energy Corp, Cedar Fair Entertainment, Intellia Therapeutics, Lending, Privia Health, Dickinson, Chimera Investment, CIM, Hyatt Hotels Corp, Lion Electric, LEV, Deluxe Corp, Murphy Oil Corp, PBF Energy, Papa John's, Targa Resources Corp, Wix.com Ltd, Apollo Global Management, LLC, Butterfly, Sempra Energy, Aptiv PLC, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Canada Goose Holdings, Hannifin Corporation, WESCO International, WCC, Arrow Electronics, Constellation Energy Group, Midstream Partners, Coinbase, Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras, Gilead Sciences, Opendoor Technologies, Booking Holdings, Atlassian Corporation, International, Redfin Corporation, Motorola Solutions, Monster Beverage Corporation, Consolidated Edison, Rocket Companies, Apple Hospitality, Cirrus, Resources, Universal Display Corporation, Chesapeake Utilities Corp, Social, Defense, Security Solutions, Post Holdings, Tandem Diabetes Care, Nikola Corporation, Magna International, Dominion Energy, ACM Research, Frontier Communications, Brookfield Renewable Partners, inTEST Corporation, American Pipeline, TELUS International, XPO Logistics, Fluor Corp, Gray Television, Cboe, LyondellBasell Industries, Twist Bioscience, Global, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Allen & Company Sun Valley, Getty Locations: U.S, China, India, Oxford, Chile, Illinois, Columbia, Pacific, Pacific Biosciences of California, Southern, PBI, Gilead, Sun Valley , Idaho

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - Amazon shoppers snagged deals on food delivery, travel and healthcare during a two-day Prime Event that ended on Wednesday, highlighting the potential for growth in services at an e-retailing giant long focused on goods. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the shift to include services. Amazon offered a 28% discount for a one-year subscription to its One Medical service for U.S. Prime members who signed up before the Prime Day event ended. Experimenting with more Prime Day deals on services and discounted memberships could bolster Amazon's advertising services, Lipsman said. Investors expect ad revenue to reach $11.2 billion in the third quarter, which will include Prime Day data, according to Refinitiv data.

Persons: David Klink, we’re, Klink, Amazon's Grubhub, Grubhub, Andrew Lipsman, Lipsman, Arriana McLymore, Howard Goller Organizations: YORK, Adobe Analytics, Huntington National Bank, Walmart, Paramount, Priceline, Booking Holdings, Priceline's Hotel Express, Amazon, Intelligence, Merchants, Thomson

That compares with a 14.8% gain for the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX). Microsoft (MSFT.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Nvidia (NVDA.O), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Tesla (TSLA.O) combined account for 43.8% weight in the index, according to Refinitiv data as of Monday's close. The special rebalancing may be conducted at any time if the aggregate weight of companies, each having more than 4.5% weight in the index, tops 48%, according to Nasdaq. COULD THE S&P 500 FOLLOW SUIT? Apple and Microsoft are the only two firms with weight over 4.5% in the S&P 500.

Persons: Hogan, Cameron Lilja, Dow, Wells, Sam Stovall, Sruthi Shankar, Medha Singh, Bansari, David Randall, Shounak Dasgupta Organizations: Nasdaq, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Riley, U.S . Securities, Exchange, Dow Jones, Tesla, Booking Holdings, Gilead Sciences, Devices, CFRA, Thomson Locations: Wells, Gilead, Bengaluru, New York

☆ Amazon partners with travel site Priceline in a first for Prime Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Doyinsola Oladipo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is partnering with travel booking site Priceline to offer discounts during Tuesday's Prime Day, the first time an online travel agency has participated in the shopping event. Priceline is the first travel brand to offer an exclusive U.S. Prime Day deal, Amazon said. We know travelers are shopping on Amazon and booking travel with Priceline," said Lesley Klein, senior vice president of marketing at Priceline. Booking Holdings has several sites, so this isn't the first time the company has worked with Amazon on Prime deals. Amazon several years ago attempted to build a hotel booking service called Amazon Destinations but it closed a few months after launching.

Persons: Priceline, Lesley Klein, Booking.com, Doyinsola Oladipo, Jeffrey Dastin, David Gregorio Our Organizations: YORK, Amazon.com Inc, Tuesday's, Priceline's, Express, Booking Holdings, Prime, Amazon, Tourism, U.S . Travel Association, Thomson Locations: U.S, Germany, Austria, New York, San Francisco

☆ Travel agency Booking to defend ETraveli deal at July 7 EU hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Booking announced its bid for peer Etraveli, owner of the brands Gotogate and Mytrip and operator of airline content distribution services provider TripStack, in November 2021. The European Commission said last month the deal will make it harder for rivals to compete with market leader Booking, by reinforcing its position in hotels and further expanding its reach into travel services like flights and car rentals. Booking will attempt to address regulators' concerns at a closed hearing in Brussels on Friday, Booking told Reuters via email. Senior officials from the EU competition watchdog and national antitrust agencies, as well commission lawyers, will participate in the hearing. Booking may have to offer remedies following the hearing to prevent a veto on the deal.

Persons: Foo Yun Chee, Emma Rumney Organizations: Holdings, European, Sweden's, Booking, TripStack, Capital, European Commission, EU, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Brussels

☆ U.S. Big Tech says it meets EU gatekeeper status, TikTok criticises label
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Samsung and TikTok owner ByteDance also unexpectedly said they would meet the criteria, although TikTok disputed whether it should be included on the list. "Europe is completely reorganising its digital space to both better protect EU citizens and enhance innovation for EU startups and companies," Breton said in a statement. Booking.com (BKNG.O) said it expected to meet the gatekeeper threshold by the end of the year and will then notify the EU executive. It fell short of the quantitative threshold ahead of Monday's notification to the Commission due to the pandemic. ($1 = 0.9173 euros)Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Thierry Breton, ByteDance, Booking.com, Breton, TikTok, Foo Yun, Louise Heavens, Mark Potter Organizations: Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Meta, Microsoft, Samsung, Union's, EU, European Commission, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Europe, EU

☆ Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft say they meet EU gatekeeper status
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, July 4 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Amazon (AMZN.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Meta Platforms (META.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) have notified the European Commission that they qualify as gatekeepers under new EU tech rules, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Tuesday. Samsung and TikTok owner ByteDance also said they meet the EU thresholds, Breton said. "Europe is completely reorganising its digital space to both better protect EU citizens and enhance innovation for EU startups and companies," Breton said in a statement. They will then have six months to comply with the DMA rules. Booking.com (BKNG.O) said it expects to meet the gatekeeper threshold by the end of the year and will then notify the EU executive.

Persons: Thierry Breton, ByteDance, Breton, Foo Yun Chee, Louise Heavens Organizations: Google, Apple, Microsoft, European Commission, Digital Markets, Samsung, EU, Companies, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Europe

☆ Booking.com to launch trip planner partially powered by tech behind ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 27 (Reuters) - Booking.com (BKNG.O) said on Tuesday it would test a trip planner, partially powered by ChatGPT's large language model, on its travel booking app that would allow select travelers in the U.S. to pose queries and create itineraries. "Our new AI Trip Planner provides us with some really exciting possibilities to help our customers plan and search for travel options in a very natural, human way," Booking.com's technology chief Rob Francis said in a statement. The technology, known as generative AI, has taken the tech world by storm and pushed many companies to explore its uses. An early version of the trip planner will become available to some of Booking.com's loyalty program "Genius" members in the United States over the coming weeks. Reporting by Priyamvada C and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi MajumdarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Rob Francis, Expedia, Priyamvada, Shilpi Majumdar Organizations: Thomson Locations: U.S, San Francisco, United States, Bengaluru

☆ These 'undervalued' and 'enticing' stocks are screaming buys heading into summer, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Zillow An "enticing buying opportunity remains" in Zillow, according to Stephens analyst John Campbell. MarketAxess Atlantic Equities analyst Simon Clinch advised investors buy the dip in MarketAxess, the electronic trading platform for credit markets. To be sure, Clinch acknowledged that pressures remain, but the "long term growth opportunity remains attractive" and headwinds should soon turn into tailwinds. Booking Holdings- Argus, buy rating "We believe that BKNG shares are undervalued at current prices near $2,713. As such, our rating remains BUY.

Persons: Bowlero, Steven Wieczynski, Wieczynski, John Campbell, Campbell, Simon Clinch, Clinch, Zillow, Stephens, Cowen Organizations: CNBC, Liberty Media, Lucky, ZG, Company, Liberty Formula One, Booking Holdings, Argus Locations: Zillow, Atlantic

Look no further than artificial intelligence from Google (GOOGL.O) at Priceline as early as this summer, the companies told Reuters. New tools from Google's cloud division give Priceline access to generative AI, like the technology behind ChatGPT that can draft text as if a human wrote it. For Priceline, the embrace of novel technology may give it an edge over myriad sites that market travel options, Google among them. Among other uses, Google's AI will be generating coding suggestions for hundreds of software developers at Priceline, said Brodbeck. And Google's AI will speed up marketing for trending destinations.

Persons: Martin Brodbeck, there's, Brodbeck, Thomas Kurian, Kurian, Priceline, intranets, Jeffrey Dastin, Sonali Paul Organizations: Google, Reuters, Booking Holdings, Amazon, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: New York, Priceline, Bryant, Palo Alto, Calif

☆ What could be next for travel stocks as artificial intelligence grows
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Best positioned to harness AI Some big travel industry names have already begun experimenting with AI. Wasiolek noted that the company operates as a hybrid online travel agency and metasearch model, while Booking, Expedia and Airbnb , among others, serve as online travel agencies. "The difference is the barriers to entry are higher for online travel agencies because these operators control and manage the relationships with travel suppliers on their platform, while metasearch is simply a platform that hosts online travel agency managed content and content directly from travel suppliers," Wasiolek explained. These platforms represent more direct competition to Tripadvisor than online travel agencies. But success in travel from Google could also pose problems for online travel agencies.

Persons: Wall Street's, Nick Jones, Expedia, Redburn, Alex Brignall, JMP's Jones, Dan Wasiolek, Wasiolek, metasearch, Redburn's Brignall, CNBC's, it's, Michael Bloom Organizations: JMP Securities, ChatGPT, Equity, Google, Holdings, Morningstar

☆ Booking Holdings beats profit estimates on strong travel demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Booking Holdings Inc (BKNG.O) reported a better-than-expected profit for the first quarter on Thursday, as the online travel agency benefited from pent-up demand that drove consumers to book flights and hotels despite worries of an imminent recession. While experts in the industry largely remain confident about demand in the near-term, high inflation and concerns around a potential slowdown, however, threaten consumer spending. Last month, U.S. hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc (HLT.N) signaled signs of travel demand weakening in the second half of the year after it raised its full-year profit outlook. Booking reported an adjusted profit of $11.60 per share in the quarter ended March 31, compared to analysts' estimate of $10.61 per share, as per Refinitiv data. Reporting by Priyamvada C and Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A solid start to earnings season will be put to the test in the week ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

The biggest week of this earnings season showed us that things aren't as bad as many feared. The week ahead of earnings, including several more Club names, should tell us more. The results are always important, but it's the guidance and management commentary we will really hone in on to better understand the path ahead. In Amazon's case, a solid first quarter for its AWS cloud business was overshadowed by management seeing a material slowdown in April. ET: Nonfarm Payrolls Looking back It was the biggest week of this earnings season for the Club as several of our mega-cap holdings and industry bellwethers reported results.

☆ EU singles out 19 tech giants for online content rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The 19 companies include Alphabet's Google Maps, Google Play, Google Search, Google Shopping and YouTube, Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Amazon's (AMZN.O) Marketplace and Apple's App Store. The others are Microsoft's two units Linkedin and Bing, booking.com (BKNG.O), Pinterest (PINS.N), Snap Inc's (SNAP.N) Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, Zalando (ZALG.DE) and Alibaba's (9988.HK) AliExpress. "We consider these 19 online platforms and search engines have become systematically relevant and have special responsibilities to make the internet safer," Breton told reporters. Breton singled out Facebook's content moderation system for criticism because of its role in building opinions on key issues. So I look forward to an invitation to Bytedance's headquarters to understand better the origin of Tiktok," Breton said.

As Wall Street gears up for another earnings season, analysts see some stocks better positioned than others for gains. Against this backdrop, CNBC Pro used FactSet data to screen for stocks that Wall Street analysts think have the largest potential upside heading into a new earnings season. And more than half of analysts covering Booking Holdings still rate it a strong buy or buy, according to Refinitiv data. BKNG YTD mountain Shares of Booking Holdings Another stock expected to outperform during earnings season is Paccar . Salesforce's earnings per share are estimated to climb by 24% over the next six months.

☆ Expedia Group launches in-app feature powered by ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Online travel booking company Expedia Group Inc (EXPE.O) said on Tuesday it launched an in-app feature powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT for users to start conversations and receive hotel, flight and destination recommendations. Expedia and Booking Holdings Inc's (BKNG.O) Kayak are among the first travel companies to integrate generative artificial intelligence with travel search as the industry seeks ways to make travel planning easier. The Vrbo and Hotels.com operator said the feature will also automatically save recommendations. “We can now offer travelers an even more intuitive way to build their perfect trip,” said Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern. Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New YorkOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Want to invest in companies that empower women? Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Known as gender lens or gender equity investing, the idea is to invest for financial return, while promoting gender diversity. Yet those funds represent less than 0.01% of total equity fund assets in the United States, according to the firm. Her women CEO and CFO clients were getting tremendous results, she said. In January, the asset management firm launched the Hypatia Women CEO exchange-traded fund (WCEO). Women in leadership matters, but we need a more robust scorecard to assess gender equity.

☆ Tesla, tech and travel stocks have ginormous gains this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Beaten-up travel stocks have also enjoyed solid gains this year, as investors bet that the worst-case fears of an imminent recession may turn out to be for naught and consumers catch up on missed travel. Some fear this ferocious rebound in consumer and tech stocks may be happening too quickly. “That means there are broader opportunities outside of tech and growth stocks and more in the value and small cap sectors.”Growth stocks, and tech in particular, make more sense as investments if the Fed were set to start slashing interest rates. Add all that up and it could mean that the recent rebound for Tesla, big techs and media firms and other consumer stocks could be short-lived. “Inflation and interest rate uncertainty means we continue to believe value stocks, including the global energy sector, will outperform growth stocks,” Haefele said.

☆ U.S. travel companies experience high demand but economic worries cloud outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Doyinsola Oladipo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Fears of recession and the impact of inflation on consumer budgets could curb a rebound in travel demand reported by U.S. travel companies in the fourth quarter, although bookings are holding up so far this year, analysts said. U.S. travel spending in December 2022 totaled $97 billion, 3% above 2019 levels and 7% above 2021 levels, according to the U.S. Travel Association. The demand contrasts with declining home improvement sales and other discretionary purchases that have hurt furniture stores and retailers like Home Depot. International travel spurred demand growth for Airbnb and Marriott International Inc (MAR.O) in the fourth quarter. Group bookings are still down 15% compared to pre-pandemic levels, while headwinds in several industries continue to affect business travel, said Truist's Scholes.

☆ Booking Holdings says quarterly revenue up 36% on strong travel demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Doyinsola Oladipo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Online travel agency Booking Holdings Inc (BKNG.O) reported a 36% year-over-year increase in fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, aided by sustained travel demand. The Booking.com and KAYAK operator's revenue rose to $4 billion for the quarter, exceeding Wall Street's estimates for $3.89 billion in revenue, according to Refinitiv data. Gross bookings for the quarter rose 44% from the year-ago period to $27.3 billion, the company said. Booking Holdings said gross travel bookings for fiscal year 2022 increased 58% to $121.3 billion. Other U.S. travel companies including Booking's peer, vacation rental Airbnb Inc (ABNB.O), also reported strong fourth quarter results on sustained travel demand, despite economic concerns.

☆ Goldman Sachs sees strong margins for these stocks in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Against this backdrop, Goldman Sachs outlined a slew of Russell 1000 stocks that have grown margins in 2022 and are slated to expand once again in the new year. The aircraft leasing company is expected to grow margins by 386 basis points this year after expanding by 116 basis points through the third quarter of last year. Margins for Illumina are expected to expand by 2.15% in 2023, and Goldman anticipates they will rise 1.91% for Booking Holdings. Booking saw its margins expand by 573 basis points through the third quarter, the largest among the stocks included in the screen. The company is slated to expand its margins by 69 basis points this year after a 2.54% expansion in 2022.

☆ Warren Buffett is missing out on this year’s market comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But the Oracle of Omaha has missed out on this year’s stock market rally. Buffett, in fact, has promoted that idea to investors many times, arguing that most individual stock pickers will not be able to beat the market. And to his credit, that usually pays dividends: Berkshire stock was up 3% last year in a down market. “High rates of inflation create a tax on capital that makes much corporate investment unwise,” Buffett said in his 1980 shareholder letter to Berkshire investors. Investors will get several more clues about consumer spending this week when several top retailers report earnings.

☆ The Fed’s favorite inflation gauge will be the big market hurdle of next week
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Most important this week is Friday's core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index for January. In comparison, the consumer price index (CPI), released this past week, only tracks price changes over time. The market is expecting the core PCE price index to rise 0.4% monthly and 4.9% annually. In addition to the core PCE price index, we're going to be looking closely at the housing and utilities component. Lastly, the January producer price index came in hotter than expected, rising 0.7% from December versus expectations for 0.4% increase.

Bob Berg | Moment Mobile | Getty ImagesIn a fragmented media landscape, events like the Super Bowl are prized by advertisers for the exposure they offer. These commercials are an institution in and of themselves, with the ads generating conversation for weeks ahead and days after the big game. Consumers might recall well-crafted Super Bowl ads years after their debut. So does Super Bowl exposure truly help boost business? It drove so many viewers to Coinbase's app that it crashed on the night of the Super Bowl.

☆ AI is the latest Wall Street craze. Is it also the next bubble?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

All of this AI news has helped boost shares of Baidu (BIDU), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) this year. Shares of the artificial intelligence software company have more than doubled this year, to about $26. SoundHound AI, which makes speech- and other audio-recognition software, has also seen its stock more than double this year. The fact that many of the world’s largest tech companies are embracing artificial intelligence is evidence of that. “We believe tech companies and tech equities will continue to face headwinds, as long as the Fed keeps its foot on the brake,” Siebel said in December.

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