Nvidia’s good news

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Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia saw its shares spike after the company appeared to mollify investors concerned with product delays. The stock is up almost 14% this month, including a 2.4% gain on Monday that resulted in its first record close since June. The stock’s renewed strength came after Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang proclaimed that Nvidia’s much-sought after Blackwell chip “is in full production” and that demand for it “is insane.” Until recently, Blackwell chips were delayed due to engineering snags, prompting a selloff that’s now been erased. Adding to Nvidia’s sunny outlook was a report last week from Morgan Stanley analysts who said Blackwell orders “are booked out 12 months or so” with “every indication that business remains robust.” Without much in the way of economic data scheduled for this week, investors have decided strong earnings are in the cards across the board, along with a soft landing for the US economy. Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

All that good feeling on Wall Street these days hasn’t exactly been matched by analyst outlooks. There’s an unusual divergence in Corporate America’s profit forecast this season: while analysts have cut theirs, company guidance points to another strong quarter. Indeed, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show analysts expect S&P 500 firms to report a 4.2% increase in third-quarter earnings versus a year earlier. Guidance by the firms, on the other hand, implies a jump of about 16%. BI chief equity strategist Gina Martin Adams said the dichotomy was “unusually large,” and that the significantly stronger outlook suggests “companies should easily beat expectations.” That’s a hint that investors are not deterred by the reduced forecasts and instead betting that this earnings season will once again deliver positive surprises, just like it did in the first quarter.

Banks risk missing out on lucrative underwriting fees on two of the biggest buyout deals in the market. Why? Well it looks like private-equity firms are tweaking debt terms mid-way through the sales process, and banks are the worse for it. The practice of introducing portability into deals locks a company’s old borrowing in place and avoids the situation where a sale triggers change-of-control provisions that require a buyer immediately refinance or pay off debt. It’s good for private-equity firms, which are nervous about getting deals done in a rocky M&A market, and underscores the extent to which they now call the shots. But it’s bad news for banks, which have to accept fewer fees just as they were looking forward to profiting off a new crop of buyouts after some very lean times.

As severe drought parched the Valley of Mexico earlier this year, news outlets began a countdown to a total failure of the water system. Reservoirs more than 100 km away from Mexico City were at dangerously low levels and some areas already were facing acute shortages. Tanker trucks loaded with potable water sloshed down residential avenues to deliver emergency supplies. Without ample rain, “Day Zero” would theoretically arrive in June. But that darkest fear of urban planners, politicians, residents and academics never came to pass. So how did one of the world's largest cities avert all-out catastrophe?

Google is investing in the development of the next generation of nuclear power, backing a company that’s building small modular reactors and agreeing to purchase energy once the sites start supplying US grids. Google signed an agreement with Kairos Power to construct a series of so-called SMRs that use molten-salt cooling technology. The move is part of an effort to bring online new carbon-free electricity as the company builds out data centers in the next decade.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has again suggested deploying the US military against Americans. The remarks by Trump, 78, were similar to a previous strain of comments in which the former president, a self-professed fan of authoritarian strongmen such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, promised to be a dictator on day one and “terminate” portions of the US Constitution. Trump is still the subject of two prosecutions in which he has been indicted for attempting to overthrow American democracy and cling to power after losing the 2020 election.

If you’ve ever seen the sequel to the iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you will immediately recognize the importance of Europa when it comes to extraterrestrial life. It’s a pretty safe bet some engineers at NASA have as well. The space agency just launched a $5.2 billion mission to Jupiter’s frozen moon, a major step to determine if the distant world has the conditions to host life.

The Singapore government will block a proposed S$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) deal by Allianz to buy a majority stake in a homegrown insurance firm—three months after the transaction sparked a public backlash. The government decided it wouldn’t be “in the public interest” for the Income Insurance Ltd. deal to proceed in its current form. Officials with the city-state said they aren’t satisfied that Income can fulfill its social mission as a co-operative following such an acquisition. The rare move by Singapore comes as new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong prepares for an election that must be held by November 2025

For fans who love to watch New York sports teams, Monday is a trifecta. Major League Baseball’s Yankees and Mets will be playing in their respective League Championship Series on the same day the Jets will host a key Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills. It will be the first time in 18 years that the Mets and Yankees have played on the same day in the postseason.

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