Markets advance and head for a weekly gain

Dow rose 218, advancers over decliners 3-1 & NAZ was off 8.  The MLP index added 1+ to the 303s & the REIT index gained 2+ to the 428s.  Junk bond funds were mixed & Treasuries had limited buying & yields eased lower (more below).  Oil went up almost 1 to  about 71 & gold jumped 30 to 2705.

Dow Jones Industrials

Nvidia (NVDA) founder, CEO & Pres Huang expanded on "the big idea" behind the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, what it means for human jobs & the company’s plan to ramp up its chip production.  "The idea that AI would somehow do 100% of somebody’s job is very, very unlikely and, quite frankly, impractical for any time in the horizon," he continued.  "What is very likely is that AI will do 20, 30, 40% of 100% of the jobs in the world."  It's been a year of wins for the tech-based "Magnificent 7" stock as their market cap currently sits at $3.5T, the largest of any US company.  NVDA shares have tripled this year.  Its rapid growth has also powered exchange traded funds that focus on the chipmaker.  "The idea that AI would somehow do 100% of somebody’s job is very, very unlikely and, quite frankly, impractical for any time in the horizon," he continued.  "What is very likely is that AI will do 20, 30, 40% of 100% of the jobs in the world."  "AI is going to revolutionize and transform everybody's jobs. And it's really important that everybody should learn how to use AI. They're not going to lose their jobs to AI," Huang clarified.  The stock fell 4.12.

Nvidia CEO talks AI boom, addresses concerns about technology replacing workers

Amazon (AMZN) announced it would invest an additional $4B in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup founded by ex-OpenAI research execs.  The new funding brings the tech giant's total investment to $8B, though AMZN will retain its position as a minority investor, according to Anthropic behind the Claude chatbot & AI model.  Amazon Web Services will also become Anthropic's “primary cloud & training partner,” according to a blog post.  From now on, Anthropic will use AWS Trainium & Inferentia chips to train & deploy its largest AI models.  Anthropic is the company behind Claude, one of the chatbots that, like OpenAI's ChatGPT & Google's Gemini (GOOG), has exploded in popularity.  Startups like Anthropic & OpenAI, alongside tech giants are all part of a generative AI arms race to ensure they don't fall behind in a market predicted to top $1T in revenue within a decade.  In Mar, AMZN's $2.75B investment in Anthropic was the company’'s largest outside investment in its 3-decade history.  The companies announced an initial $1.25B investment in Sep 2023.  AMZN stock was off 69¢.

Amazon to invest another $4 billion in Anthropic, OpenAI’s biggest rival

The 10-year Treasury yield was little changed as investors weighed mixed economic data & assessed the state of the economy.  The yield on the 10-year Treasury sat at 4.428%, down by less than 1 basis point & the 2-year Treasury yield was last trading at 4.375% after rising by more than 2 basis points.  Yields & prices move in opposite directions & 1 basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.  Investors considered the current state & outlook for the US economy in recent reorts brought a series of mixed data points.  The latest weekly initial jobless claims came in at 213K, below the previous week's figure & expectations.  The data suggests that the labor market is holding steady, or even strengthening.  However, other figures that were also released yesterday indicated weakness in the economy.  Continuing claims for jobless insurance rose to 1.9M & came in ahead of forecasts, while the Philadelphia Federal Reserve manufacturing index of activity in the region slowed to -5.5 in Nov,  against the estimate of +6.9.  PMI surveys released today ticked higher from Oct to Nov.  However, the University of Michigan's consumer confidence gauge came in below where economists expected.

10-year Treasury yield wavers as investors weigh state of U.S. economy

Stocks rose as investors surveyed Pres-elect Trump's efforts to build his team.  Markets are regrouping after NVDA's earnings fell short of definitively settling the question of whether AI would keep boosting stocks.  Still, the major gauges were on track to close the week with wins of over 1%, despite getting off to a lackluster start as the post-election rally stalled.