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Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2024. REUTERS/Tom BrennerTom Brenner | ReutersFalling interest rates are usually good news for banks, especially when the cuts aren't a harbinger of recession.That's because lower rates will slow the migration of money that's happened over the past two years as customers shifted cash out of checking accounts and into higher-yielding options like CDs and money market funds.When the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate by half a percentage point last month, it signaled a turning point in its stewardship of the economy and telegraphed its intention to reduce rates by another 2 full percentage points,...

AMD launched a new artificial-intelligence chip on Thursday that is taking direct aim at Nvidia's data center graphics processors, known as GPUs.The Instinct MI325X, as the chip is called, will start production before the end of 2024, AMD said Thursday during an event announcing the new product. If AMD's AI chips are seen by developers and cloud giants as a close substitute for Nvidia's products, it could put pricing pressure on Nvidia, which has enjoyed roughly 75% gross margins while its GPUs have been in high demand over the past year.Advanced generative AI such as OpenAI's ChatGPT requires massive data centers full of GPUs in order to do the necessary processing, which has created demand for more companies to provide AI chips.In the past few years, Nvidia has dominated the majority of ...

The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday.The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus.The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.Excluding food and energy, core prices increased 0.3% on the month, putting the annual rate at 3.3%. Both core readings also were 0.1 percentage point above forecast.A separate report Thursday showed ...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion AR Glasses, as he makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S. September 25, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo | ReutersWhen Facebook changed its name to Meta in October 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg used the occasion to show the world his vision of a digital future of work and recreation accessible through a virtual reality headset. The company soon opened its play universe called Horizon Worlds, featuring floating personalized avatars.As the rebranding to Meta approaches its third anniversary, none of that stuff has gone mainstream. But the company appears to have found its footing in virtual and augmented reality through a different medium.After achieving surprise early success in the s...

Ian Read, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., gestures as he speaks during a panel session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017.Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesActivist Starboard Value accused Pfizer of threatening litigation against the company's former CEO and CFO in order to get them to break ranks with the investor's nascent turnaround campaign at the pharmaceutical giant.Starboard managing member Jeff Smith said in a Thursday letter to Pfizer's board that the company or its advisors also "threatened" to claw back former chief executive Ian Read and ex-CFO Frank D'Amelio's past compensation and cancel their unvested shares.Smith asked that the board assemble a special committee to investigate the matter, describing i...

The latest inflation report came in slightly hotter than expected, knocking stock prices lower. But there are some encouraging signs within it. The consumer price index rose by 0.2% in September on a month-over-month basis and 2.4% from the year-earlier period . Economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast expected a 0.1% gain month over month and 2.3% increase year over year. Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, also was more than expected. Some investors worried the report means the Federal Reserve may not be able to cut rates further. But the odds of a quarter-point Fed rate cut in November actually rose after the report came out. Per the CME Group's FedWatch tool, the fed funds futures market indicated a 94% probability of a quarter-point rate cut next month. That's up from about...