Dow set to open at record high on rate-cut hopes, UnitedHealth's gains
UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab jumped 10% in premarket trading after Warren Buffett's company (BRKa.N), opens new tab revealed a new investment in the health insurer, while a securities filing showed Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management included bullish positions in the company.
Rising costs in the broader healthcare sector and an about 46% slump in heavyweight UnitedHealth's shares this year have left the Dow (.DJI), opens new tab lagging its Wall Street peers on the road to record highs. The price-weighted index last scaled an all-time high on December 4.
This week, however, the healthcare sector (.SPXHC), opens new tab is the top performer on the benchmark S&P 500 and is on track for its best weekly performance in three.
Other insurers also gained, with Elevance (ELV.N), opens new tab up 4.2%, Centene (CNC.N), opens new tab rising 4% and Molina (MOH.N), opens new tab adding 3.5% before the bell on Friday.
Meanwhile, data showed retail sales rose by an expected 0.5% in July, but a spike in import prices raised concerns that U.S. tariffs could fuel inflation in the months ahead.
Wall Street's main U.S. stock indexes are on track for their second week of gains, buoyed by expectations that the Fed could restart its monetary policy easing cycle with a 25-basis-point interest rate cut in September.
The central bank last lowered borrowing costs in December and said U.S. tariffs could add to price pressures. However, recent labor market weakness and signs that tariff-induced inflation was yet to reflect in headline consumer prices have made investors confident of a potential dovish move next month.
"The totality of the data keeps the Fed alive for a September rate cut," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
"If you take the components of consumer inflation and producer inflation and extrapolate that out to the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, it's going to be well within the confines of what the Fed would like to see to feel comfortable cutting rates in September."
At 08:43 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 269 points, or 0.60%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 7.5 points, or 0.12%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 25 points, or 0.10%.
On the trade front, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would unveil tariffs on steel and semiconductors next week.
Applied Materials tumbled 12.8% after the chip equipment maker issued weak fourth-quarter forecasts on sluggish China demand, fueling concerns over tariff-related risks.
Shares of other chip equipment makers such as KLA (KLAC.O), opens new tab and Lam Research (LRCX.O), opens new tab lost 5.1% and 4.4%, respectively.
Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab rose 3.1% on the heels of a 20% gain this week after a report said the Trump administration was in talks with the struggling chipmaker for the U.S. government to potentially take a stake in the company.
On the commodities front, crude prices slipped to around $65 a barrel with attention on a meeting in Alaska between Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that markets hope could pave the way for a resolution to the Ukraine conflict. The meeting will take place at 1900 GMT.
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The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump hiked tariffs on US imports. Now he's looking at exports – sparking fears of ‘dangerous precedent'
Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the White House bearing an unusual gift. 'This box was made in California,' Cook reassured his audience in the Oval Office this month, as he took off the lid. Inside was a glass plaque, engraved for its recipient, and a slab for the plaque to sit on. 'The base was made in Utah, and is 24-karat gold,' said Cook. Donald Trump appeared genuinely touched by the gift. But the plaque wasn't Cook's only offering: Apple announced that day it would invest another $100bn in US manufacturing. The timing appeared to work well for Apple. That day, Trump said Apple would be among the companies that would be exempt from a new US tariff on imported computer chips. The Art of the Deal looms large in the White House, where Trump is brokering agreements with powerful tech companies – in the midst of his trade war – that are reminiscent of the real estate transactions that launched him into fame. But in recent days, this dealmaking has entered uncharted waters. Two days after Cook and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a closed-door meeting with Trump at the White House. The president later announced Nvidia, along with its rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), will be allowed to sell certain artificial intelligence chips to Chinese companies – so long as they share 15% of their revenue with the US government. It was a dramatic about-face from Trump, who initially blocked the chips' exports in April. And it swiftly prompted suggestions that Nvidia was buying its way out of simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trade experts say such a deal, where a company essentially pays the US government to export a good, could destabilize trading relations. Martin Chorzempa, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that it creates 'the perception that export controls are up for sale'. 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While they can be used for inference on trained models, they aren't powerful enough to train new AI models. When announcing the deal with Nvidia and AMD, Trump said the chip is 'an old chip that China already possesses … under a different label'. This is where a major debate on AI policy comes in. Those who take a hardline stance on the US's relationship with China say that allowing Chinese companies to purchase even an 'old chip' could still help the country get an advantage over the US. Others would say a restriction on such chips wouldn't be meaningful, and could even be counterproductive. To balance these two sides, the Trump administration is asking companies to pay up in order to export to China – a solution that people on both sides of the AI debate say is a precarious one. 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The Guardian
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Puppy fat jabs: are our pets next in line for weight-loss drugs?
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Reuters
38 minutes ago
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US-India trade talks scheduled for August called off, source says
Aug 16 (Reuters) - A planned visit by U.S. trade negotiators to New Delhi from August 25-29 has been called off, a source said, delaying talks on a proposed trade agreement and dashing hopes of relief from additional U.S. tariffs on Indian goods from August 27. The current round of negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement is now likely to be deferred to another date that has yet to be decided, the source with direct knowledge of the matter said. The U.S. embassy in New Delhi said it has no additional information on the trade and tariff talks, which are being handled by the United States Trade Representative (USTR). India's trade ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters email seeking comments. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing New Delhi's continued imports of Russian oil in a move that sharply escalated tensions between the two nations. The new import tax, which will come into effect from August 27, will raise duties on some Indian exports to as high as 50% - among the highest levied on any U.S. trading partner. Trade talks between New Delhi and Washington collapsed after five rounds of negotiations over disagreement on opening India's vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases. India's Foreign Ministry has said the country is being unfairly singled out for buying Russian oil while the United States and European Union continue to purchase goods from Russia.
