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Stock index futures in green as traders brace for big jobs report. (00:28) DoJ sues Southern California Edison for sparking two wildfires. (01:47) OpenAI to launch its first AI chip with Broadcom: report. (02:47)
This is an abridged transcript.
Futures are in the green ahead of the opening bell as traders look forward to the big jobs report.
S&P 500 futures (SPX) +0.2%, Nasdaq 100 futures (US100:IND) +0.4%, and Dow futures (INDU) were flat.
The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) is flat at 4.17%. The 2-year yield (US2Y) fell 1 basis point to 3.61%.
The big jobs report is expected to show a “fairly steady” unemployment rate. On average, economists expect nonfarm payrolls of just 74K in August, slightly above July’s 73K. They see the jobless rate inching up to 4.3% from 4.2% in July. Traders will also focus on any revisions.
“Today sees the first of the three massive days for markets in the next nine business days. The payrolls are today, the CPI is next Thursday, and then the FOMC decision the following Wednesday. Ahead of today’s start to this run, markets have put in a strong performance over the past 24 hours, after soft data meant investors became increasingly convinced that the Fed would cut rates this month,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said.
Two California wildfires are back in the news. One from earlier this year and another from three years ago.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed two lawsuits against Southern California Edison (NYSE:EIX).
The DoJ wants $77M in damages and accused the Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company of sparking the Eaton and Fairview wildfires.
The department says repeated negligence led to the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of federal land in the two wildfires.
Edison International (NYSE:EIX) closed -1.2% on Thursday.
The DoJ claims a faulty power infrastructure controlled by SoCal Edison (EIX) or sparks from the infrastructure caused the Eaton Fire from January of this year. The fire killed 31 people and burned 8K acres.
The lawsuit related to the September 2022 Fairview fire claimed a sagging power line owned by the utility sparked the blaze, which burned nearly 14K acres.
OpenAI is set to produce its first artificial intelligence chip next year in partnership with Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO).
The Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter that OpenAI plans to use the chip internally rather than make it available to external customers.
OpenAI and Broadcom did not immediately respond to Seeking Alpha’s request for comment.
There were reports earlier this year that OpenAI is pushing ahead on its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia (NVDA) for its chip supply by developing its first generation of in-house AI silicon.
This move follows efforts by other tech giants such as Google (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META), which have built custom chips to handle AI workloads.
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Catalyst watch:
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The Roblox (RBLX) Developer Conference will take place in San Jose, California. The event is considered significant for investors due to the potential for announcements on new platform features, monetization tools, and developer incentives.
Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in mixed territory. Crude oil is down 0.3% at $63/barrel. Bitcoin is up 1.4% at $112,000. Gold is flat at $3,548.
The FTSE 100 is up 0.2% and the DAX is up 0.1%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) -16% – Shares tumbled after the retailer posted mixed Q2 results and slashed its FY2025 outlook.
On today’s economic calendar:
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