Important News Items for Investors
Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Cloudy days in September
2. Shutdown threat looms
Congress enters the week with no clear path toward passing a spending bill by a Saturday deadline and preventing a lapse in government funding. A prolonged shutdown could lead to furloughed workers, disrupted benefits, or slower economic growth. The Republican-led House left Washington for the weekend after failing to advance a funding plan, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy could not win the support of hardline conservatives who pushed for drastic spending cuts. “I don’t know what to think,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
3. Hollywood writers make a tentative deal
Hollywood writers and producers came to a tentative labor agreement that would end a nearly 150-day strike. Details of the deal, which the sides reached after two days of weekend talks, were not immediately known. Writers Guild of America members will have to ratify an agreement. The group told members it includes “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.” Screenwriters have sought a bigger cut of streaming revenues and protections from the use of artificial intelligence in an evolving industry. The work stoppage, combined with the actors strike that started in July, has led to delayed TV production and movie releases at major media companies.
4. Amazon bets big in AI race
Amazon is placing a major wager on the development of artificial intelligence. The e-commerce titan will invest $4 billion in AI company Anthropic, which makes chatbots that rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The deal will include a strategic partnership that makes Amazon Web Services Anthropic’s primary cloud provider and gives AWS customers new capabilities through Anthropic. The bet allows Amazon to dig further into AI development, as it tries to keep pace with rivals like Microsoft and Alphabet.
5. Credit card losses surge
Credit card company losses are rising at a rate not seen since the Great Recession, according to Goldman Sachs. Current losses of 3.63% have jumped 1.5 percentage points from a bottom in September 2021, according to the bank. Goldman expects those losses to climb further, to nearly 5%. The estimate comes at a time when U.S. credit card debt tops $1 trillion.
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