⚖️ To Outsource or Not to Outsource

Plus, a one-year-old French AI startup already has a stunning valuation

Happy Tuesday afternoon to everyone on The Street. Here's a snapshot of where markets ended the trading session, plus tomorrow's trade idea delivered to you today.

  • 🟨 | US Stocks Were Mixed on Tuesday. Apple’s stock surged 7% to a record high, contributing to gains for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, which both also notched fresh closing records. However, the Dow fell 120 points as investors await tomorrow’s inflation report and Fed meeting.

  • 📈 | One Notable Gainer: Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ stock jumped 15% after Wolfe Research gave it an outperform rating, claiming its liver disease therapy Rezdiffra is the “biggest 2024 launch in biotech.”

  • 📉 | One Notable Decliner: Shares of Paramount fell 8% after National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, stopped talks with Skydance on a proposed merger between the two companies.

  • ⚖️ | Tomorrow's Trade: To Outsource or Not to Outsource. Scroll down for more.

Plus, want to trade Cboe index options?

YESTERDAY’S POLL RESULTS

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Bullish

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Bearish

S&P 500 Heatmap. Credit: Finviz

All Stock Heatmap. Credit: Finviz

Global ADR snapshot. Credit: Finviz

MARKET MOVERS

DAL (-2%) Shares of Delta Air Lines fell following reporting that company insiders have sold a significant amount of shares over the past year (YF)

GME (+23%) GameStop recovered from its 12% loss on Monday. This comes after meme stock promoter Keith Gill showed he is still holding his position (MW)

FMC (+4%) Chemical manufacturing company FMC saw shares surge on news that former CEO Pierre Brondeau is returning to the top position (MW)

CVGW (+8%) Fresh produce company Calavo Growers reported a substantial beat on both earnings and revenue for its fiscal second quarter (Investing.com)

ASO (-3%) Academy Sports & Outdoors reported a fiscal first-quarter miss, and its CEO claims consumers are getting choosier about how they shop (Barron’s)

TOGETHER WITH CBOE

OVERHEARD ON THE STREET

WaPo: The AARP Foundation filed a lawsuit against Raytheon on behalf of a 67-year-old, alleging age discrimination in hiring that favors recent college grads.

MW: It looks like President Biden will select derivatives regulator Goldsmith Romero to lead the troubled FDIC as Gruenberg prepares to resign.

Reuters: France's Mistral AI has raised $643 million euros in a funding round led by General Catalyst that values the one-year-old company at $6.2 billion.

YF: General Motors’ CFO claims that the company has experienced remarkable growth within its EV sector and that it is now “outpacing everybody.”

CNBC: Delta is planning to launch its premium economy service on NYC to LA flights amid the current air travel upsell race.

TOMORROW’S TRADE IDEA, TODAY

Outsourcing AI

Microsoft (MSFT) has elected to outsource its top AI research and software to OpenAI, according to the CEO of cybersecurity company Okta (OKTA). Analysts think this could be good news for Google (GOOG). 

McKinnon likes that Google doesn’t outsource its AI research and development. The CEO pointed out that all of the AI industry's transformers, which make up the models, originated from Google’s research.

A Huge Investment

Microsoft has invested around $13 billion into OpenAI, in an effort to fund AI breakthroughs and make the technology more widely available. According to McKinnon, this could result in Microsoft becoming more of a consultant than a player in the AI world. 

Even so, Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI is threatening Google’s search engine empire. Web searchers are increasingly choosing chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT over Google’s search bar. 

This shift comes as Google handles some issues with its own AI technology, like Gemini’s recent image generator controversy.

Not Exactly a Grassroots Effort

McKinnon differentiated the AI boom from previous tech revolutions, like the rise of the PC, since it’s sourced by established tech giants. Apple (APPL) was a little-known company when it created the first Macintosh, but a $13 billion investment from Microsoft to OpenAI is a different story. 

The CEO predicts that AI will face issues down the line because of the tech giants' involvement, hurting AI’s progression. Nonetheless, he expects that the industry will be so heavily regulated that only the giants will be able to compete. 

However it all unfolds, the AI race is certainly underway.

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TOGETHER WITH CBOE

ON OUR RADAR

Fox Business: Buc-ee’s, the popular travel center chain, opened its largest location in Texas with 75,000 square feet and 120 gas pumps.

AP: The national average for gas prices stood at $3.44 on Monday, a 9-cent drop from a week ago and the largest one-week drop recorded by AAA.

WSJ: The European Union ordered more than 40 million bird flu vaccines from manufacturer CSL to prevent the potential spread of the virus.

BI: Ken Griffin’s $63 billion Citadel lost 0.8% last month, while the firm’s rivals were nearly all positive.

WaPo: The Biden administration plans to block the use of medical debt to evaluate borrowers’ fitness for mortgages and other types of loans.

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