

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite saw gains, spurred by Nvidia's strong earnings, which ignited optimism in AI technology's growth potential. Nvidia's shares surged, influencing other tech and AI-related stocks positively. Despite recent concerns over interest rate hikes, market sentiment was buoyed by robust corporate earnings and promising business activity data.

News Corp., the owner of The Wall Street Journal, has signed a landmark content licensing deal with Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The agreement allows OpenAI to use current and archived content from News Corp-owned publications, including The Wall Street Journal, for answering user questions and training its AI tools1. The five-year deal is worth more than $250 million, with compensation coming in the form of cash as well as credits for the use of OpenAI technology. As part of the agreement, News Corp will also share its journalistic expertise to ensure high-quality content in OpenAI's products.

The acceleration of business activity, as indicated by the PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index), which reached 54.4 in May up from 51.3 the previous month, suggests a robust expansion in business activity despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to control inflation through monetary policies. Several factors contributed to this acceleration:
Impact of AI and Tech Sector Growth: The strong performance of companies in the technology sector, particularly Nvidia, which reported better than expected earnings and raised its guidance, spurred optimism and investment in the sector. This optimism likely contributed to increased business activity in related industries, such as server manufacturing and other AI-related technologies.
Corporate Developments and Deals: Positive developments in other sectors also contributed to the heightened business activity. For example, Snowflake's upbeat sales outlook and News Corp's deal with Microsoft-backed OpenAI for ChatGPT access to The Wall Street Journal content likely boosted investor confidence and corporate activity.
Overall Economic Sentiment: The PMI's increase indicates that businesses are experiencing growth in orders and production, which suggests a broader economic resilience. This could be due to various sectors adapting and possibly benefiting from the high-interest rate environment, or other economic factors not directly related to the Fed's policies.
These elements collectively suggest that while the Federal Reserve is attempting to moderate economic growth to manage inflation, sectors like technology continue to expand rapidly, driving overall business activity higher.