And that’s with good reason – the chipmaking giant’s revenue is expected to have more than trebled to $24.8 billion from $7.2 billion a year earlier, with earnings per share soaring to $5.57 from $1.09, according to LSEG data.
As a curious taster on Friday, Advanced Micro Devices gained more than 1% as Microsoft said it plans to offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD AI chips that will compete with components made by Nvidia.
Reddit, meantime, rose 10% following a partnership with OpenAI to bring its content to ChatGPT.
But it’s not been all about AI this year as still-buoyant U.S. growth and near double-digit aggregate annual earnings gains meet persistent optimism of lower interest rates later in the year.
Treasury yields backed up a touch on Friday after the week’s relief on April consumer inflation was dampened by irksome import prices and stubborn Federal Reserve soundings, not least from known-hawk Michelle Bowman.
But there’s still 40 basis points of easing priced into this year’s Fed futures strip and an 80% chance of a move by September. And the main Wall St stock indexes clocked their fourth straight week of gains, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 40,000 for the first time.
On the rates front at least, the week’s 20-year Treasury bond auction, release of the latest Fed minutes and Thursday’s flash May business surveys from around the world stand out as weather vanes. With Fed Chair Jerome Powell isolated due to a COVID infection, Monday’s appearance of Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and governor Chris Waller may set the tone.
Otherwise, the week contains a smorgasbord of mostly second-tier economic data.
