What we’re reading (10/6)
“Wall Street Strategists Lift S&P Targets Ahead Of Earnings Season On ‘Fundamental Strength’” (Yahoo! Finance). “Stocks kicked off the week near record highs on Monday as investors looked ahead to earnings season to weigh whether the AI boom, Fed easing, and resilient economic data can keep powering the rally higher. Despite mounting concerns over a government shutdown and fresh warnings of an AI ‘bubble,’ strategists across Wall Street say there's still upside for US equities heading into year-end.”
“Costco To Sell Ozempic And Wegovy At A Large Discount For People Without Insurance” (NBC News). “Ozempic and Wegovy are coming to a Costco near you. Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, announced Friday it will be selling the prescription injectable pens at the warehouse chain's pharmacies. A four-week supply of the weight loss drug will cost $499 out of pocket.”
“Her Stocks Were Quietly Stolen From Her I.R.A.” (New York Times). “It often happens like this: The criminal opens up a new account in a target’s name, using stolen data or a combination of stolen and false information (like an email address or a mobile phone number). Opening an account at Merrill Edge, as well as many other online brokers, doesn’t require much. That’s what the fraudsters did here, and Bank of America said it had received the all clear when it had run identify verification checks. With the new account, the impostor can request a transfer from another existing account, just like a real customer, which the institutions complete through the ACATS framework. But to pull off the heist, they need to know the other account’s details — and that’s what enabled the criminals to steal from the Vanguard I.R.A. belonging to Mr. Tran’s wife.”
“OpenAI’s New Chip Deals Raise A Tough Question: Where Will All The Power Come From?” (Business Insider). “The ChatGPT maker has signed a multibillion-dollar partnership deal with AMD to deploy 6 gigawatts of the semiconductor company's artificial intelligence chips. Just last week, OpenAI and chip designer Nvidia announced a deal for 10 gigawatts of computing power. OpenAI has said that it desperately needs access to more compute in order to realize its ambitious growth strategy, but its recent chip deals have begotten another crucial need: more power.”
“Ridley Scott Says Hollywood Is So “Drowning In Mediocrity” He’s Been Forced To Watch His Old Films” (Deadline). “‘The quantity of movies that are made today, literally globally – millions. Not thousands, millions… and most of it is s**t,’ he said. Scott added that films are too often ‘saved’ by digital effects because they haven’t got a ‘great thing on paper first.’”
