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Inflation data, Big Tech boost U.S. stocks
STORY: Wall Street's major indexes ended higher on Friday as investors flocked back to Big Tech stocks that had triggered broad sell-offs earlier in the week.The Dow climbed more than 1.6%, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed just above 1%.Five members of the so-called Magnificent Seven rose on Friday, led by Meta Platforms, which climbed more than 2.5%. The two exceptions were Tesla and Alphabet, whose lackluster earnings had triggered Wednesday's big market sell-off. With further Magnificent Seven earnings due next week, the immediate outlook for markets may hinge on what type of results these companies deliver. Anna Rathbun is chief investment officer at CBIZ Investment Advisory Services."I think what's behind this is there is this expectation from the investors saying, 'OK, we've given you AI-related hype for now over a year. We want to start seeing some quantitative metrics on the ROI of these billions of dollars you're putting into AI, and Alphabet didn't deliver that, right?' [FLASH] So for next week we have other stocks and other companies that are investing in AI. If investors have the same expectations, we may be looking at a similar type of disappointment if they don't deliver any quantitative metrics."Among other stock movers, Deckers Outdoor jumped more than 6% after it raised its annual profit forecast.Norfolk Southern soared nearly 11%, its largest one-day percentage gain since March 2020, after the rail operator reported second-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates thanks to robust pricing.And medical device maker Dexcom slumped more than 40% after cutting its annual revenue forecast.Data on Friday showed a moderate rise in U.S. prices, which underlined cooling inflation. Investors will now look to the Federal Reserve for possible signals of a September rate cut when the central bank holds its latest two-day policy meeting next week.
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Trump trade a bit 'confounding' -CIO
STORY: :: Lisa Bernhard, Reuters:: Anna Rathbun, Chief Investment Officer, CBIZ Investment Advisory ServicesCrypto stocks, gun stocks and shares of other companies that could benefit from a Trump presidency jump in what investors have nicknamed a Trump trade.Speaking with Reuters' Lisa Bernhard, Rathbun described how the Trump trade first appeared after the former real estate mogul turned reality TV star unexpectedly won the 2016 presidential election. "What we saw was a rally of small caps, rally of value-oriented stocks and yields going up," she said. "From a stock market perspective, we would call that a junk rally. So this is not based on fundamentals at all. And that is sort of what we saw after the assassination attempt earlier this month."She added that it was difficult to know if the most recent rally was "a pure Trump trade" given that it came on the heels of "a soft CPI number that had the markets expecting a Fed [rate] cut in September." Rathbun also wondered whether Trump, who headlines a bitcoin conference on July 27, will indeed be supportive of the cryptocurrency if he serves a second term. "I understand that he is accepting donations in cryptocurrency, so if you were a presidential candidate, you might have reasons to support that," she said before warning that those donations could be subject to the cryptocurrency's volatility. Rathbun also parsed the week's economic reports, including the latest inflation and GDP data.
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Spray-on marathon shoe launches in the shadow of Paris Games
STORY: This robotic arm is putting the finishing touches on a new high-tech marathon shoe... After three minutes spraying material onto a mold, it's complete. It's the latest effort by running brand On, founded in 2010. It's been trying to muscle its way onto the high-tech shoe leaderboard, traditionally dominated by the likes of Nike and Adidas.Built to be lightweight and bouncy so runners can maintain a fast pace over 26 miles, marathon shoes have become big business for sportswear brands.At $330, On's shoe is at the upper end of the market, though a less eye-watering price tag than Adidas' $500 model launched last September.The "LightSpray" production method requires fewer parts per pair and challenges the usual footwear manufacturing production model... which relies on shipping finished shoes to consumers from factories in South-East Asia. While most running shoe innovations focus on the midsole, On argues the LightSpray shoe's thin, seamless, one-piece upper makes it light and aerodynamic.Co-founder Caspar Copetti is hopeful about the technology’s future.“In terms of scaling it, it's actually quite simple basically, we just need more robots, right.”The launch comes as supply chain disruptions, geopolitical risks, and government incentives are driving interest in "nearshoring" – manufacturing or bringing production closer to the end customer.The midsole, foam, and plate of the LightSpray shoes are currently produced in Asia, but On executives say the aim is to eventually manufacture those elements in Switzerland as well. Co-founder Olivier Bernhard:“But I think really that this is a start of something so new, so good for the planet that, you know, we can do so much more.”
