Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

News of the day for Sept. 18, 2026

Major indexes snapped a three-day losing streak on Thursday as oil prices and government bond yields fell.
Credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Stock futures are pointing to a slightly higher open this morning as the market wraps up a volatile week of trading; the Nasdaq is on track to post weekly gains, while the S&P 500 and Dow enter the session down for the week; Warren Buffett is stepping aside as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway’s board; cryptocurrency stocks are rising alongside bitcoin; and the Apple 18 Pro and Pro Max, along with other new products, are available today. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stock Futures Rise at the End of Volatile Week

Stock futures are slightly higher this morning as markets look to close out a volatile week on a positive note. Futures tracking the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq were recently up 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell fractionally. The major indexes surged Thursday thanks to a tech rally that helped markets bounce back from three days of losses. WTI crude oil futures were down 0.4% at $101.50 per barrel, losing ground for the second consecutive day. The yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked higher to 4.97% after sliding yesterday as investors reacted to the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates, as well as the prospect more rate hikes are coming. Gold futures were up 0.4% to roughly $4,415 an ounce, while bitcoin traded at $78,000, up from an overnight low of $76,200 (more on that below).

Nasdaq on Pace to Post Weekly Gains

After surging yesterday, one of the three major stock indexes is on track to post weekly gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which jumped 1.7% yesterday, enters today up 0.3% for the week, while the Dow and S&P 500 are down 1.5% and 0.3%, respectively. All three major indexes fell last week amid inflation data that essentially secured this week’s interest rate hike. This would mark the third straight week of losses for the Dow, and the second straight for the S&P 500. Since the start of the month, the Dow is down 2.6%, while the S&P 500 has shed 0.6% and the Nasdaq is up just 0.2%. So far, September has lived up to its reputation of being a the weakest month for the year for the stock market.

Warren Buffett Stepping Down as Berkshire Chair

Warren Buffett is transitioning to another new role at Berkshire Hathaway, the investment giant announced this morning. Buffett will become Chairman Emeritus, remaining a member of the board, while his son Howard, who has been on Berkshire’s board since 1993, has been elected to replace him as Chairman. “Serving as your Chairman has been the privilege of a lifetime, and I have never taken your trust for granted,” the 96-year-old Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders. “Father Time always wins. He has, however, been generous with me. He has given me the opportunity to see Berkshire reach a point where I am more confident than ever about what lies ahead.” Berkshire shares , which were little-changed in premarket trading, have gained just 1% since the start of the year, when Buffett handed over the CEO reins to Greg Abel.

Crypto Stocks Rise Alongside Bitcoin

A number of cryptocurrency-related stocks are on the rise Friday, tracking a rise in bitcoin. Shares of crypto exchanges Robinhood (HOOD) and Coinbase (COIN), stablecoin firm Circle (CRCL), and Strategy (MSTR), the largest single corporate holder of bitcoin, were all solidly higher ahead of the opening bell. The sector got a bit of relief yesterday as the Securities and Exchange Commission issued some new rules for the crypto industry. The news suggested that individual federal agencies are preparing to fill in the existing regulatory gaps while federal legislation remains stalled in Congress.

Apple Launches First New Products Under New CEO

Apple (AAPL) is launching new phones, watches and other products today. After being unveiled in last week’s annual launch event, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and the AirPods 5 are all available in Apple stores. The other product Apple announced last week, the foldable iPhone Duo, doesn’t launch until Oct. 23, while the base iPhone 18 isn’t expected to be revealed until next spring. The performance of the new lineup serves as Apple’s first big test since CEO John Ternus took over at the start of the month. Apple shares were little changed premarket, and enter the day trading within 1% of their July record high.

Chair Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference following Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Sept. 16, 2026.
Credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Federal Reserve officials pushed back the date they expect inflation to descend to a 2% annual rate.
• It was the fifth time since 2021 that the Federal Open Market Committee has extended the timeline to meet its inflation goal.
• Although inflation has fallen from its 2022 peak, a return to the 2% target has proved elusive.

Victory in the Federal Reserve’s war on inflation is just over two years away. Will it always be?

Officials at the Fed predicted inflation, as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, will finally fall to the central bank’s target of a 2% annual increase in 2029. That’s later than the Federal Open Market Committee’s projections in June.

Fed officials revised their forecasts on Wednesday after recent economic data showed inflation remains stubbornly high at 3.7% in July. With diesel prices surging to record highs because of the Iran war, inflation seems unlikely to subside on its own. The central bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter-point this week in a bid to blunt the steeper-than-usual consumer price increases.

What This Means For The Economy

Financial markets can expect interest rates to remain higher for longer as the Fed wages an extended campaign to bring down inflation.

The figure shows the median projection from Federal Open Market Committee participants. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has not taken part in the exercise so far in his tenure. It was the sixth time since 2021 that the Fed has pushed back the long-awaited date.

The Federal Reserve has a mandate from Congress to maintain “price stability” in the economy, and since 2012, has explicitly defined price stability as a 2% annual inflation rate.

Inflation Goal Is a Moving Target

Inflation had stayed near or under the Fed’s 2% target in the years leading up to the pandemic. Then, in March 2021, government stimulus spending and the Fed’s easy-money policies cranked up demand in an economy still snarled by pandemic-related supply chain disruptions. It was a recipe for inflation to take off, and it did.

In March 2021, annual PCE inflation suddenly jumped to 2.7%, its highest in nearly a decade. That same month, Fed officials forecast the outburst would quickly subside, returning to the 2% target the very next year. Instead, it just kept rising. The next time officials projected inflation, in June 2021, they said it would stay above 2% until after 2023. In September, that date moved again to after 2024. And so on.

Although inflation has fallen from its recent peak in 2022, it’s hovered stubbornly above the ever-elusive 2% mark, as tariffs, the Iran war, and other setbacks have kept higher inflation gnawing at household budgets and the overall economy.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Warsh tackled a question about why the Fed has moved the anticipated date once again, and how that squared with the Fed’s statement that the rate hike would support a “timelier return.” Warsh, noting that he didn’t make a projection himself, said that call had been up to his colleagues, and he restated his determination to wrestle inflation down to 2%.

“Today’s action starts to show we’re serious about this, and we will deliver on the price stability objective,” he said.

Some experts thought moving the target date signals that the Fed is accepting a gradual cooling of inflation rather than planning to crank up interest rates rapidly to quash it. The Fed’s main policy tool, the fed funds rate, influences borrowing costs on all kinds of other loans. Raising it discourages spending and, in theory, allows supply and demand to rebalance.

“Is the Fed really willing to put enough pressure on the economy with rate hikes to pull inflation to target by hitting demand?” Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments, wrote in a commentary. “We don’t get back to trend until 2029, which doesn’t say aggressive rate hikes.”

For sale signs are posted in front of condominiums for sale in July in Los Angeles, California. Mortgage rates rose this week to their highest since early 2025.
Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

What You Need to Know

• Mortgage rates jumped this week to their highest in more than a year and a half, following 10-year Treasury yields spiking in recent weeks.
• Rates near 7% could further slow a housing market already freezing up because of high prices and borrowing costs.
• Where rates go next likely depends on whether the Iran war eases, lowering fuel prices, or worsens, stoking inflation worries.

The housing market was already stalling. Now borrowing costs have jumped to their highest in more than a year.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.95% from 6.76% a week ago, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s the highest since late January 2025 and the biggest one-week jump since April 2025.

The surge in borrowing costs came after the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed Tuesday to its highest since 2007. Mortgage rates largely track Treasury yields, which rise when investors are concerned about inflation. Yields rose over 5% as fighting in the Middle East pushed up oil prices and sent diesel to record prices.

Rising rates since the Iran war began in late February have already added hundreds of dollars to the typical mortgage payment on a newly purchased home, pushing buyers out of the market and slowing sales.

The latest jump will make things harder for buyers and sellers, Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com, wrote in a commentary.

What This Means for the Economy

Mortgage rates help shape who can afford a home, and the housing market drives related industries like homebuilding.

The rise in rates is posing a further challenge to the housing market and industries like homebuilding already reeling from higher borrowing costs.

The increase hits buyers just as the season usually shifts bargaining power their way, Krimmel wrote. “For sellers, the question now is whether they respond by slashing prices or delisting their home altogether. With rates now five basis points from 7% [at 6.95%], the stall in fall is coming early this year.”

Freddie Mac’s survey is the most widely watched in financial markets, but other gauges show a similar climb.

Zillow data tracked by Investopedia shows the average 30-year rate rose to 7.23% Monday. (Zillow publishes rates daily and uses different criteria than Freddie Mac for the loans it follows.)

Where rates go from here is uncertain, Krimmel said. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped under the 5% mark after the Federal Reserve’s rate hike Wednesday gave the financial markets greater confidence that the central bank would use its main policy tool to fight inflation. Oil prices also fell on news that Saudi Arabia was restoring oil flows through a major pipeline damaged by the fighting.

“Geopolitics rather than the Fed’s outlook over the next few months may prove decisive for where mortgage rates land,” Krimmel wrote.

Update, Sept. 21, 2026: This article was updated with Monday’s mortgage rates. It was originally published Sept. 17.

The SEC said it plans to ensure progress continues on crypto rules.
Credit: J. David Ake / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• The SEC on Thursday rolled out a temporary exemption of existing securities laws that facilitates trading of tokenized stocks.
• The move follows Congress’ failure to advance the Clarity Act for crypto regulation.

Federal agencies are stepping up their support for digital assets after a major disappointment for the cryptocurrency industry in Congress earlier this week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday handed the industry what is effectively a hall pass, in the form of a five-year conditional exemption of existing securities laws, that facilitates trading of tokenized stocks, or digital representations of public companies’ shares that can move on blockchains. Versions of this exist today, via Robinhood and others, though the vast majority are synthetic or derivative-based investment products and are circulated outside of the U.S.

The federal agency’s signal that it’s working to clear the regulatory path for crypto arrived swiftly—just 48 hours after the Clarity Act, a broad framework for digital assets, suffered a near-death blow to passage on Tuesday when the bill failed to garner enough votes to pass through Senate’s cloture vote, a procedural motion that could’ve moved it to a floor vote.

The Trump administration’s commitment to keep crypto moving forward in the absence of a clear legislative path for industry-specific rules appears to be keeping spirits up. Bitcoin got a small boost following the SEC’s move, leaving it around where it was prior to the cloture vote. Crypto-linked stocks including Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and Circle (CRCL) were up at least 3% in recent trading.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a video message published today that the agency is using “its statutory authority” in the wake of Congress’ inability to advance the Clarity Act “to ensure progress continues.” 

The exemption, albeit temporary, allows venues where tokenized securities trade to operate without fear of punishment so long as they abide by certain conditions. For example, before a trading venue can allow a tokenized stock to trade, it has to give the issuing company 30 days notice and the “ability to object.”

With Thursday’s gains, Arm shares are up some 140% since the start of the year.
Credit: Long W Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Arm Holdings’ stock is up 8% Thursday after its CEO expressed increased confidence in hitting a $2 billion AI chip sales target.
• Arm’s stock has gained 140% this year but remains down over 40% from its June peak.

Bullish comments from Arm Holdings’ chief executive last night are helping its stock rank among the Nasdaq’s top gainers today.

Arm’s (ARM) U.S.-listed shares are up 8% as tech stocks rally Thursday, a day after CEO Rene Haas told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the firm is even “more confident today” it can meet the $2 billion sales target for its debut AI chip than it was when it announced the goal on its May earnings call.

Haas said demand for Arm’s products has “never been stronger,” and said the main constraint on its ability to grow revenue will be its ability to secure supply in the crowded AI chip market.

Arm has long made most of its money from designing chips used in smartphones and for other tech companies, including Nvidia (NVDA) and Alphabet (GOOGL). Amid a weakening smartphone market, the company announced plans back in March to start selling its own AI chip. At the time, the company said the new chip could drive $15 billion in sales by 2031.

With Thursday’s rally, Arm’s U.S.-listed shares have gained 140% this year. Still, they are down more than 40% since hitting an all-time high of $452.70 on June 18, as worries about the sustainability of spending on artificial intelligence have weighed on AI-tied stocks.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 16, 2026.
Credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023, signaling a commitment to reducing inflation to 2%.
• Bond markets responded positively to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s hawkish tone, with inflation expectations and Treasury yields stabilizing.
• High energy prices and global debt levels remain key risks that could influence the market.

If bond markets gave report cards, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh would get high marks for Wednesday’s meeting, where the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2023. 

It wasn’t a smooth path to get there. Bond investors have been lukewarm on Warsh in the early days of his tenure, a worry that ultimately costs households and businesses by raising mortgage rates and other borrowing costs.

Bond investors see inflation as an enemy, since rising prices eat at the fixed interest payments they collect on bonds. And they’ve had trouble taking Warsh at his word that he, too, dislikes inflation enough to raise rates and return it to 2%—the latest reading pegged it at an annual rate of 3.4%.

Warsh quelled those doubts on Wednesday. He gave a “confident, pound-the-podium press conference argument that the FOMC would achieve the 2% inflation target,” wrote James Egelhof, chief U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

“We believe the outcome of the September FOMC meeting was about as aggressive an initial effort to address credibility concerns as could have been reasonably expected,” Egelhof wrote.

Why This Matters

Bond investors’ confidence in the Fed can influence longer-term yields and, in turn, borrowing costs. The Fed’s new hiking cycle could keep rates elevated for homebuyers, businesses, and investors.

Fed officials voted unanimously to raise rates, and they signaled more hikes could come through their forecasts. 

Warsh, who cringes at the Fed giving rate forecasts, did not offer one up himself. But he did say the Fed won’t rest until it’s confident inflation is moving back to 2% “clearly and at sufficient speed.”

“The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Warsh said in his opening statement.

Bond markets gave Warsh a stamp of approval. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was at risk of shooting higher if they didn’t believe Warsh’s message. Instead, it was essentially flat on Wednesday and Thursday fell below the 5% benchmark it’d been testing this week.

One gauge of bond markets’ views of inflation over the next 10 years fell to 2.33%, down from 2.38% a day earlier—signaling less concern that the Fed will let inflation get out of hand. That figure topped 3% in 2022, when post-pandemic inflation and the Ukraine war led to the highest inflation in decades.

More Hikes Coming

Some in financial markets thought the Fed may signal its expected hike would be a one-and-done—countering market expectations of more hikes ahead.

But Wednesday’s meeting was “unambiguously hawkish,” wrote Aditya Bhave, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America. 

The central bank signaled that there’s “no more excuses,” Bhave wrote, by removing a line in the prior Fed statement stating that inflation was high due to a shock in energy prices. Warsh also emphasized the economy’s strength as a sign that the Fed’s interest rate policies weren’t holding the economy back—giving the Fed leeway to hike rates without triggering economic pain.

“Our takeaway is that today’s move was not a one-and-done,” Bhave wrote. “Markets viewed it the same way.”

Indeed, markets are debating whether the Fed will raise rates at its remaining two meetings of the year, or only once. And they see a couple of more hikes coming in 2027, even if Fed officials’ forecasts didn’t go that far.

“The history is clear that once the Fed begins raising rates, they do it multiple times,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, said in written commentary, adding that Warsh “threaded the needle very well” in his messaging.

Cold Comfort

Sending a hawkish message is “easier said than done when diesel is hitting daily record highs,” wrote Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank. 

High diesel prices tend to bleed over into the rest of the economy, since it’s needed to ship goods to consumers. They were high even before renewed flare-ups in the Iran war drove up oil prices—and are even higher today.

“The higher gas and diesel go, and the longer they stay up, the more the Fed will hike,” Adams wrote, citing energy prices as the “biggest known-unknown for policy at the next few Fed decisions.”

And even though the bond market approved of Warsh’s hawkish tone, Fed policy is far from the only driver of the 10-year yield.

Bond markets have been skittish over rising global debt levels—from U.S. federal debt to governments in France and Japan—and charging them more to borrow from financial markets. They’ve worried over the inflationary risks from the Iran war. They’ve been digesting the billions of dollars that tech firms are suddenly borrowing from bond markets, as the data center buildout continues. 

And they’ve been grappling with big-picture questions such as whether AI will lift economic growth in the decades ahead, potentially justifying higher interest rates.

Those structural reasons haven’t changed, which could keep the 10-year yield elevated, according to Neel Mukherjee, chief investment officer at TIAA Wealth Management. That would keep borrowing costs high for those hoping to buy a home or businesses that want to borrow to fund a new expansion.

But at least one of the bond market’s worries—the Fed reacting slowly to inflation—eased on Wednesday. 

It did so in Warsh’s “less-is-more” communications style, Mukherjee said in emailed commentary, with the Fed statement clocking in at just 130 words compared to the five-year average of 300 before Warsh’s tenure. But it did so nonetheless.

“He communicated clearly to the market and the public that the Fed stands ready to defend its inflation target and raise rates more to do so,” Mukherjee said.

Dollars and Science: What The Latest Research Shows About Money And Its Role In Our Lives

Credit: Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• The Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare, saved lives by extending health insurance to people who previously didn’t have it, a new study shows.
• Mortality fell by somewhere between 23% and 45% among middle-aged people who lacked health insurance at the time of its introduction.

One of the major life-saving innovations in Medicine in the early 2010s wasn’t a new medicine or procedure, but a healthcare law.

The landmark Affordable Care Act healthcare legislation, signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2010, reduced mortality by 23% and 45%, depending on the group studied, Researchers at the University of Chicago found in a working paper published Monday at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The study tracked people aged 40 through 58 who were surveyed between 2010 and 2013 and examined whether they had died by 2019. The study found that people who were uninsured at the time the law went into effect in 2014 were far less likely to die than they would have been otherwise, largely due to becoming insured and gaining access to health care.

The law was most effective at reducing causes of death that can be prevented by regular healthcare, such as heart diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes, and other ailments that doctors can treat.

What This Means For The Economy

The research sheds light on the effectiveness of government-subsidized health insurance programs, potentially affecting future debates about health care policy.

If the findings hold up to scrutiny, they would attest to the legislation’s success in its intended purpose of providing health care to people who had previously been uninsured. The legislation established publicly subsidized healthcare exchanges that allowed people to purchase policies from private companies at discounted premiums, and forbade insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

Interestingly, the study found the ACA reduced mortality, but the expansion of Medicaid, the government’s health care program for people with low incomes, had no effect.

Before the latest findings, data showed the ACA was effective at reducing the percentage of people who went without health insurance, which has nearly halved since 2010, when 17.8% of people under 64 were uninsured. However, recent changes to the ACA have significantly reduced the number of people who benefit from the program.

Enrollment in ACA plans fell by 2.9 million in 2026 to 19.2 million, its lowest since 2023, after Congress allowed a pandemic-era subsidy to expire, causing premiums to rise for many enrollees. The Trump administration said the decrease was due to stricter fraud controls, but some health care experts say it’s more likely because many people could no longer afford their plans.

With Thursday’s rally, Generac shares are up more than 60% since the start of the year.
Credit: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Generac shares jumped Thursday after the company announced an $8 billion deal with Amazon.
• The deal will see Generac’s generators provide backup power for Amazon’s growing network of data centers.

Shares of Generac are surging after the energy hardware maker announced a multi-billion dollar deal with Amazon.

Generac (GNRC) shares were up over 25% in recent trading after the company said that it has agreed to sell Amazon (AMZN) up to $8 billion worth of generators. The generators will provide backup power for Amazon’s growing network of data centers, with $2.4 billion of the generators expected to be delivered over the next two years. Amazon shares rose about 2%. 

The deal also includes a warrant for Amazon to purchase up to 1.69 million shares of Generac at just over $200, a premium of about 15% to Generac’s Wednesday close of $175 and worth about $340 million in total. Just under 308,000 of the warrant’s shares became exercisable upon signing, with the rest unlocking in stages over the next seven years contingent on payments for the generators.

“This is a massive win for Generac and provides clarity regarding the demand underpinning management’s recently announced plan to triple manufacturing capacity for large-format generators by August 2027,” William Blair analysts wrote following the announcement.

With Thursday’s gains, Generac shares are up more than 60% since the year began. Amazon shares have added 9% in 2026 so far.

News of the day for Sept. 17, 2026

Stocks fell Wednesday after the Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark interest rate hike for the first time in three years.
Credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Stock futures are pointing to a higher open Thursday after three straight days of declines for major indexes; Treasury yields are falling as investors digest the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates yesterday; diesel fuel prices hit a new record high; Generac stock is soaring on a deal to sell up to $8 billion of generators to Amazon’s data centers; and Canada is open to the E.U.’s offer to join as a first-ever “associate member.” Here’s what you need to know today.

Stocks Rally as Oil, Bond Yields Pull Back

Stock futures are higher this morning as the market looks to rebound from its recent slump. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up 0.9% recently, while Nasdaq futures climbed 1.2%. The major indexes ended yesterday in the red as investors assessed the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s comments about inflation (more on that below). The stock market’s recent weakness has coincided with steep increases in oil prices and government bond yields, but both were declining this morning. WTI crude oil futures were down 2% at $100 per barrel recently, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped below 5%. Gold futures were holding steady at $4,390 an ounce, while bitcoin traded at $76,100, up from yesterday’s low around $75,000.

10-Year Treasury Yield Falls Below 5%

Government bond yields are moving lower this morning, one day after hitting new multi-year highs following the Fed’s widely expected decision to raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in three years. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects interest rates on all sorts of consumer loans, was at 4.96% recently, down from yesterday’s close of 5.02%, which was its highest level since mid-2007. Treasury yields have soared recently amid concerns about inflation and rising government debt. The Fed’s policy committee voted unanimously to raise rates yesterday, and Chair Kevin Warsh said after the meeting that inflation has been “too high... for too long.” Market participants are pricing in the likelihood of at least one more rate hike before the end of the year. Meanwhile, President Trump criticized the decision to raise rates in a social media post Wednesday afternoon, writing that they should be 1% or lower rather than their new level of 3.75% to 4%.

Gas Prices Rise, Diesel Sets New Record High

A big increase in fuel prices owing to the Iran war has been a primary reason for high inflation, and those prices continue to rise. The average price of gas sits at about $4.44 per gallon today, per the American Automobile Association, while diesel has climbed to another new record high of nearly $6.40. Regular gas prices have risen 28 cents over the past month, and more than $1.20 in the last year. Shipping companies are already warning that record-high diesel prices will eat into their profit margins this year if they remain at their current levels, while high gas prices and other rising costs could also have a significant impact on how voters feel about the economy heading into November’s midterm elections.

Generac Stock Soars on Amazon Deal

Shares of Generac (GNRC) are soaring Thursday after the energy hardware maker announced a deal with Amazon (AMZN). Generac said in a regulatory filing that it has agreed to supply Amazon with up to $8 billion worth of generators for Amazon’s growing network of data centers, with $2.4 billion of those generators expected to be delivered over the next two years. The deal also includes a warrant for Amazon to purchase up to 1.69 million shares of Generac at just over $200, a premium of about 15% to Generac’s Wednesday close of $175. The full amount of shares included in the warrant would be worth about $340.3 million. Generac shares were up 30% ahead of the opening bell, while Amazon shares gained 2%.

Carney Welcomes Idea of Canada Becoming EU Associate Member

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday told the European Parliament that he was open to the idea of Canada becoming the European Union’s first “associate member,” an idea that the bloc’s president announced in an annual speech yesterday. Carney said Canada would “welcome this ambition,” with his office saying that he met with several European officials on Wednesday to discuss “work underway to deepen the Canada-European Union (EU) partnership in key areas.” Trump attacked the idea in comments to reporters yesterday, and said the U.S. could interpret the offer as a “hostile act” and levy additional tariffs against Europe, or cut off trade entirely.

Meta shares have added just 2% since the start of the year.
Credit: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Citi analysts said they believe Meta’s developers conference next week could spark some fresh enthusiasm for the stock.
• The analysts said they believe Meta could give significant updates on its AI strategy at the event. 

Meta’s upcoming developers conference could fuel some fresh enthusiasm for the stock, according to one Wall Street bull. 

Analysts at Citi said they view the Meta Connect event next week as a near-term catalyst for price gains in a note to clients Wednesday, anticipating the company could give significant updates on its AI strategy. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to give a keynote address at 7 p.m. ET next Wednesday (which will stream live here), with developer-focused events on Thursday.

The Citi analysts called Meta one of their favorite names to own across the internet sector, citing Meta’s recent model and product releases. They said they were impressed by the early download numbers and new AI use cases created by Meta’s Muse personal AI agent announced last week.

Citi has a “buy” rating and $800 price target for the shares, a bit above the $774 consensus of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. The stock, which climbed less than 1% to close at $673 Wednesday, has added just 2% since the start of the year.