Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

• Morgan Stanley downgraded computer hardware makers because of the impact of soaring memory chip prices.
• The analysts said there's a "supercycle" of prices for NAND and DRAM semiconductors, putting a drag on hardware maker earnings.
• Dell shares were the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 in afternoon trading Monday.

The artificial intelligence boom that’s sent memory chip prices soaring is hurting computer hardware makers, according to a report from Morgan Stanley, which downgraded some of the biggest names in the sector.

Shares of Dell Technologies (DELL) were down nearly 10% in afternoon trading Monday, leading decliners in the S&P 500. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) shares were down 8% recently, while HP (HPQ) slid roughly 7%.

Memory chip makers such as Micron are benefiting from surging AI-driven demand, but Morgan Stanley analysts warn that the spike in memory prices is squeezing computer hardware makers such as Dell, HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Though hardware valuations remain near record highs, rising costs for components could apply pressure to profit margins.

Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to clients that a pricing "supercycle" for NAND flash memory and dynamic-random access memory (DRAM) semiconductors “increasingly poses a downside risk to Hardware OEM earnings heading into 2026.” 

They added that with hardware original equipment manufacturer (OEM) valuations already near all-time highs, “we believe it's time to de-risk exposure" to global hardware original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers "where memory is a significant input cost.”

Morgan Stanley made a two-step reduction in its rating on Dell stock from “overweight” to “underweight.” It cut HP from “equal-weight” to “underweight," and Hewlett Packard Enterprise from “overweight” to “equal-weight.” The analysts lowered ratings for several other companies as well but maintained their bullish outlook on some IT hardware firms, including Seagate Technology (STX) and Western Digital (WDC).

Just last week, Morgan Stanley referenced the skyrocketing prices of memory chips in making Micron Technology (MU) a “Top Pick,” which followed similar comments from Mizuho Securities.

• Jeffrey Gundlach, a bond market veteran, predicted private credit would be the cause of the next financial crisis during a recent podcast appearance.
• Private credit markets have ballooned since banks tightened lending standards in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

A credit market veteran known as the "Bond King" has a warning for Wall Street.

“The next big crisis in the financial markets is going to be private credit,” said Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, on an episode of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast released Monday. “It has the same trappings as subprime mortgage repackaging had back in 2006,” he said. 

The U.S. private credit market—in which investors loan money to businesses in return for interest payments—has exploded in recent years, growing from $46 billion in 2000 to about $1 trillion in 2023. Morgan Stanley estimates the market was about $3 trillion at the start of 2025. Over the past 10 years, private credit’s risk-adjusted returns have significantly outpaced the rest of the bond market, according to Morgan Stanley. 

Several financial industry insiders have recently expressed concern about private credit, which they say poses risks to financial stability because of its opaque lending standards, illiquidity, and excess leverage. A spate of recent corporate bankruptcies have made their warnings more urgent.

Concerns about the health of the market have been heard before. In September, two corporate bankruptcies wiped out billions of dollars from bank balance sheets and raised questions about non-bank lending standards.

“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned at the time. Months earlier, Dimon had cautioned that private credit's risks—the opacity of its credit ratings, its leverage, its illiquidity—were a "recipe for a financial crisis."

There's no way to know when a private credit crisis will erupt, said Gundlach. "It’s impossible to be both right on the direction and correct on the timing" of financial trends, he said. He notes he became sceptical of mortgage lending in 2004, three years before the subprime crisis began. "So these things take forever, and it goes on much longer than you’d think."

JPMorgan estimates that private credit accounts for less than 10% of corporate debt, a substantial share but which it believes insufficient to cause widespread economic damage. The firm also notes that the banking system's direct exposure to private credit is small enough that private market distress "is unlikely to trigger a ripple effect that would destabilize the banking system and create systemic risk."

According to Gundlach, private credit’s outperformance and its low volatility have been the space’s main selling points. But, he argues, those benefits have been underpinned by the market’s opacity, not its fundamental strength. 

The recent bankruptcy of Renovo, a private equity owned home improvement contractor, is illustrative, he said. The value of investment firm BlackRock's loan to Renovo dropped from $150 million to $0 when the company earlier this month filed for bankruptcy with just $50,000 in assets.

"It's like there's only two prices for private credit, it appears: 100 and zero," said Gundlach.

Renovo's debt, he said, should have been repriced well before it declared bankruptcy. But unlike public debt, which is regularly repriced because it's actively traded, the holders of private debt don't need to adjust prices, setting the stage for wipeouts.

The Renovo example also calls private credit's outperformance into question, according to Gundlach. "Obviously, with bonds going from 100 to zero in a matter of weeks, the public market has been performing better than the private market," he said.

• Sealed Air agreed to a $6.2 billion buyout by private equity firm CD&R.
• The deal pays investors in the maker of bubble wrap $42.15 per share, below Friday's closing price of $43.28.

Sealed Air (SEE) shares slid about 3% Monday afternoon, after the maker of bubble wrap agreed to be taken private by private equity firm CD&R in a $6.2 billion deal.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said the all-cash purchase would pay investors $42.15 per share, 2.6% below its closing price Friday. However, that was still some 16% above last Wednesday’s closing price of $36.38, before reports emerged that CD&R was near a deal.

Private equity firms have been active buyers in the packaging and industrials sector as companies face higher costs and uneven demand. Transactions like this one to take the companies private illustrate the trend of investors looking to restructure longtime manufacturers outside of public markets where they would face higher disclosure requirements and scrutiny.

Sealed Air Chair Henry Keizer said that after looking at strategic alternatives for the company over the past year, “the Board is confident that this transaction delivers significant value and is in the best interests of our stockholders and the Company." 

Under terms of the agreement, Sealed Air has the option to seek out other suitors in a “go-shop” period of 30 days after signing, with an additional 15 days to ink a definitive agreement with another party.

The transaction, with an enterprise value of $10.3 billion, is expected to close in the middle of next year.

Despite today’s decline, shares of Sealed Air are up about 24% year-to-date. 

• Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, is funding and leading a startup focused on applying AI to the manufacturing and engineering fields, The New York Times reported.
• His latest venture—Project Prometheus—has $6.2 billion in funding and about 100 employees, the Times said.

It's back to the future for Jeff Bezos.

The 61-year-old Amazon (AMZN) founder is once again leading a team that aims to develop the technology of tomorrow. Bezos will be co-CEO of Project Prometheus, an AI startup focused on manufacturing and engineering, in fields including computers, cars and aerospace,The New York Times reported Monday.

Project Prometheus—named for a Greek Titan who stole fire from the gods and shared it with humans—has $6.2 billion in funding, including a contribution from Bezos, and about 100 staffers, the Times said. Bezos, the world's third-richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, hasn't been officially responsible for a company's operations since he gave up the CEO post at Amazon in 2021.

Bezos is one of the world's richest people, with a record as one of the biggest business builders of his era. The news that he's co-founding another company signals his intent to be among the business leaders of the coming decades, too.

Not much is widely known about Project Prometheus. What appears to be its LinkedIn page includes little beyond the tagline "AI for the physical economy." Its co-founder and co-CEO, Vik Bajaj, helped fund a life sciences lab at Alphabet (GOOG), worked on health and therapeutic endeavors and, most recently, led an AI and data science incubator, according to his LinkedIn profile.

A la Elon Musk, Bezos has his hands in a number of other projects. Bezos as lately refocused the opinion section at The Washington Post, which he purchased a dozen years ago; and sent an all-female crew into space at Blue Origin, the aerospace company he founded. (Bezos also steers environmental and early education philanthropic groups.)

Project Prometheus may build on Bezos' interest in space. Bezos argued at a tech conference that factories, data centers and other industrial operations should move to the moon or orbital facilities to mitigate pollution on earth.

"The moon is a gift from the universe," Bezos said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Another tech titan, Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is also eyeing a Prometheus project—a 1 gigawatt AI "supercluster" with a more down-to-earth location: New Albany, Ohio, according to Inc., an entrepreneur-focused news outlet.

Episode 269 of the Investopedia Express podcast with Caleb Silver (Nov. 17, 2025)

Subscribe Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / PlayerFM

The cold winds of volatility have been blowing through the markets, leaving many to question the durability of this bull market. Is this just good old-fashioned sector rotation, or the beginning of the unwinding of the risk trade that has propelled the stock market to multiple record highs this year?

Keith Lerner of Truist Wealth helps us navigate these recent shockwaves and identifies new opportunities for investors seeking stability. Plus, don’t call it a comeback, but bonds are having their best run in over a decade. And, all eyes will be on Nvidia this week as the chip giant reports its quarterly results, carrying the weight of investor expectations on its back, yet again.

Link for Show Notes:

• https://www.truist.com/wealth/insights/advisory-group/keith-lerner

Major U.S. equities indexes were mixed and little changed at midday Monday ahead of a slew of earnings reports from big retailers and tech companies expected later this week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were slightly higher, while the Dow edged lower.

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) shares surged after Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) revealed a stake in the owner of Google and YouTube. Separately, YouTube TV on Friday struck a deal with Disney.

E.W. Scripps (SSP) shares also took off after rival Sinclair (SGBI) disclosed an 8.2% stake in the owner of television stations and newspapers, in a step toward trying to purchase its broadcasting rival. Sinclair shares gained as well.

Shares of Dell Technologies (DELL), HP (HPQ), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) fell in the wake of downgrades from Morgan Stanley, which sees computer hardware earnings being hurt by soaring memory chip prices.

Sealed Air (SEE) shares slid as the maker of bubble wrap agreed to be taken private by investment firm CD&R.

Aramark (ARMK) shares dropped after the provider of food services to sports stadiums posted weaker-than-expected results and guidance on concerns about macroeconomic conditions a potential pullback in consumer spending.

Oil and gold futures fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slid. The U.S. dollar was up on the euro and yen, but lost ground to the pound. Trading in major cryptocurrencies was mixed.

• Shares of Google parent Alphabet surged Monday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new stake in the tech giant.
• The investment firm bought nearly 18 million shares of the Google parent in the third quarter, a a regulatory filing Friday showed.

Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) surged Monday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) revealed a new stake in the tech giant.

Shares of Alphabet were up over 5% in recent trading, at a time when the broader tech sector lost ground. (Read our daily markets coverage here.) 

Berkshire bought about 17.8 million shares of Alphabet in the third quarter, a 13F filing Friday showed. That stake would have been worth about $4.33 billion at the end of the quarter.

While 13F filings provide a slightly outdated view of an investment firm's holdings, many investors look to Berkshire's quarterly reports for insights into Warren Buffett's thoughts on the market and where to invest.

Buffett has long been cautious about tech stocks, though with the "Oracle of Omaha" set to step down from his role as CEO at the end of the year, it's possible someone else at Berkshire made the call to invest in Alphabet.

Berkshire also moved to trim its stakes in Apple (AAPL) and Bank of America (BAC) in the third quarter, though they remained two of Berkshire's largest holdings.

In another development that could boost sentiment surrounding Alphabet's stock, the company's YouTube TV on Friday ended a prolonged carriage dispute with Disney (DIS) that had taken the entertainment giant's networks like ESPN and ABC off the streaming service for weeks. Included in the deal is a commitment to provide ESPN's new streaming service for free to YouTube TV subscribers, and the ability to bundle Disney's other streaming services, Disney+ and Hulu, with a YouTube TV subscription.

With Monday's gains, shares of Alphabet are up more than 50% for 2025.

News of the day for Nov. 17, 2025

Stock futures are little changed to start the week after several days of volatile trading last week; bitcoin is rebounding after hitting a fresh six-month low over the weekend; flights are set to return to their full schedules across the country in the coming days; Nvidia is due to report earnings along with several major retailers this week; and Alphabet shares are rising following news Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has taken a stake in the company. Here's what you need to know today.

Stock futures are hovering near unchanged Monday morning after closing last week on a mixed note. Futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which has lost ground for two consecutive weeks amid concerns about the possibility of an AI bubble, were up 0.1% recently, while futures tied to the benchmark S&P 500 rose fractionally. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1% following two straight days of declines, after the blue-chip index hit record highs last week. Gold futures were down 0.3% at $4,080 an ounce, losing ground for the third straight day, while crude oil futures also fell slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of consumer loans, was at 4.12%, down from 4.15% at Friday's close.

Bitcoin rose above $95,000 Monday, after slipping below $93,000 on Sunday to its lowest level since early May. The cryptocurrency fell sharply last week as investor appetite for risky assets waned, though Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, reaffirmed its commitment to the asset. Strategy shares were up slightly in premarket trading, Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and bitcoin miner Mara Holdings (MARA) were also higher this morning.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday night that it was lifting its order that temporarily limited flights due to the shortage of air traffic controllers caused by the government shutdown. The agency said Sunday that as of 6 a.m. Monday, the order would be lifted and all airports could return to operating at their full schedule. Flight traffic at the 40 busiest U.S. airports was ordered to be reduced by 10% earlier this month in response to the shutdown, cutting the number of air travel-related federal employees available as some opted not to work while not being paid. Airlines have said that it will likely take days for flight crews to be in the right locations to resume their full schedule, per The Wall Street Journal. Shares of American Airlines (AAL), United Airlines (UAL), Southwest (LUV) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) all ticked higher ahead of the opening bell.

In a crowded week of earnings reports, artificial intelligence heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) will be the center of investors' focus when it reports after the bell on Wednesday. The chipmaker is expected to once again post strong gains in revenue and profits, and some analysts have lifted their price targets and provide other bullish commentary ahead of the report. Investors will also get a look into the health of the American consumer this week, with earnings reports scheduled from a number of retailers including Home Depot (HD), Lowe's (LOW), Target (TGT), TJX Companies (TJX), Ross Stores (ROST), BJ's Wholesale (BJ), Gap (GAP) and Walmart (WMT), which announced a CEO succession plan last week.

Alphabet (GOOGL) shares are surging in premarket trading after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) disclosed in a regulatory filing that it bought more than 17 million shares of the Google parent in the third quarter, a stake valued at $4.3 billion at quarter's end. Buffett has traditionally been cautious about tech stocks, leaving some to speculate whether the "Oracle of Omaha" is responsible for the bet, as Buffett is set to retire as CEO at the end of the year. Also over the weekend, Alphabet's YouTube TV ended a prolonged carriage dispute with Disney (DIS) that had taken the entertainment giant's networks like ESPN and ABC off the streaming service for weeks. Alphabet shares were up 4% in recent trading.

Earnings from artificial intelligence giant Nvidia and retail leaders Walmart, Target, and Home Depot highlight this week’s calendar. Investors will also watch for impacts from the reopening of the government after a 43-day work stoppage, the longest in U.S. history.

The shutdown’s end will likely mean a resumption of government economic reports, which have been on hold due to the furlough of workers needed to collect the data. The reports are critical for investors and officials, who use the data to evaluate the direction of the economy.

While it's unclear whether government agencies will return to their normal data-release schedule this week, only a few reports could still be impacted by the shutdown.

Read to the bottom for our calendar of key events—and one more thing.

All eyes—or, at least, all investor eyes—will be on Nvidia this week as the world’s most valuable company reports its quarterly earnings on Wednesday. The AI trade has driven recent market volatility over worries about corporate valuations in that sector. Nvidia posted earnings that narrowly exceeded expectations in its most recent report as the chipmaker reassured investors that demand for AI technology remained strong. 

Reports from large retailers are on the schedule, led by Walmart’s on Thursday—just days after announcing that John Furner will take over as CEO on Feb. 1, replacing Doug McMillon. The world’s largest retailer's share price hit an all-time high in October.

Other key retailers reporting this week include Target, which announced a change in leadership when it last posted quarterly earnings. Home Depot’s report on Tuesday comes as the hardware giant raised its outlook on rising demand for home improvement projects. Competitor Lowe’s Cos. is slated to release its quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Discount retailers TJX Cos., the parent company of TJ Maxx, and Ross Stores, are also on this week’s calendar.

While it's unclear when government economic data will resume, investors will still have several noteworthy reports to monitor.

Several are to do with the housing market. Existing-home sales data for October comes Wednesday amid a freeze in the housing market that has kept sales near decades-low levels for more than two years. Housing starts, which measures new home construction, is also scheduled to be released this week, but it's unclear if the shutdown will continue to see delays in that government data. 

The minutes of the October meeting of the Federal Open Markets Committee will provide market watchers with more insight into deliberations behind where to set interest rates, which has some officials divided. Investors will also be watching for the final November report on consumer sentiment, which earlier this month showed that the government shutdown was beginning to make some consumers more nervous about the state of the economy. 

Quick Links: Recap Last Week’s Trading | Read Investopedia’s Latest News

Monday, Nov. 17

• Empire State manufacturing survey (October)
• Federal Reserve Officials Speaking: New York Fed President John Williams 
• Key Earnings: XPeng (XPEV), Aramark (ARMK)

Tuesday, Nov. 18

• Homebuilder confidence index (November)
• More Data to Watch: Industrial production/capacity utilization (October)
• Data Release Potentially Impacted by Shutdown: Import price index (October)
• Key Earnings: Home Depot (HD), Medtronic (MDT), Baidu (BIDU), PDD Holdings (PDD), Klarna Group (KLAR)

Wednesday, Nov. 19

• Existing home sales (October)
• Data Release Potentially Impacted by Shutdown: Housing starts (October)
• Minutes of October FOMC meeting
• Fed Officials Speaking: New York Fed President John Williams
• Key Earnings: Nvidia (NVDA), TJX Companies (TJX), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Lowe’s Companies (LOW), Target (TGT), Viking Holdings (VIK), Williams-Sonoma (WSM)

Thursday, Nov. 20

• Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey (November)
• More Data to Watch: U.S. leading economic indicators (October)
• Data Release Potentially Impacted by Shutdown: Initial jobless claims (Week ending Nov. 15)
• Fed Officials Speaking: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee
• Key Earnings: Walmart (WMT), Intuit (INTU), Ross Stores (ROST), Gap (GAP)

Friday, Nov. 21

• Consumer sentiment - final (November)
• More Data to Watch: S&P Flash Purchasing Managers Index (November)
• Key Earnings: BJ’s Wholesale (BJ)

Looking to earn a six-figure salary? Where you live can have a big effect on how much you get paid. Investopedia’s Sara Clarke lays out some of the top U.S. cities where you have the best shot at making $100,000 a year or more. 

• Support from the Fed, the Trump administration, and dip-buyers is likely to keep stocks rising well into next year, according to a recent research note from Bank of America.
• BofA's Michael Hartnett expects the signs of a sustained risk-off shift in markets to come from bank stocks or widening credit spreads.

Tech stocks may be in a slump. One Wall Street strategist says now is not the time to pull out.

Michael Hartnett, Chief Investment Strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, sees stocks maintaining their momentum into the spring, with support from the Fed, the Trump administration, and dip-buyers, according to a Friday note. 

Hartnett argues that a “bubble in expectations”—not an actual financial bubble—lies behind the market’s recent weakness. As examples, he cites the government backstopping markets on what are said to be national security grounds; optimism about quantitative easing by the Fed; and a tailwind from tax cuts and tariff dividend checks as dynamics that have supported markets. 

Artificial intelligence may dominate the headlines, but there are many factors that influence the outlook for the stock market, including interest rate expectations and liquidity. Easing financial conditions, a byproduct of rate cuts or fiscal stimulus like tax cuts, usually support stock markets.

But he sees three reasons to be optimistic that stocks will regain their momentum.

• First is the “Fed put,” which refers to the belief that the Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy to support financial markets, which are increasingly important to consumer spending.
• Then there’s the “Trump put,” referring to the White House’s wish to have the economy and stock market roaring heading into next year’s midterm elections.
• Finally, there’s the "Gen Z put,” or the retail investors whose fear-of-missing-out mentality has made them reliable dip-buyers.

These factors—plus a “goldilocks” economic set-up defined by declining interest rates, steady profit growth, and AI-driven productivity gains that moderate inflation—should keep the market chugging along, he wrote.

Hartnett expects the sign to sell will come from bank stocks or credit spreads, both of which would reflect investors’ unease with rising debt levels as the Fed slows the pace at which it eases monetary policy. According to Hartnett, those risk-off signals aren’t likely to flash before May.

Granted, the economic outlook has been highly uncertain for most of the year. The fog only grew thicker during the government shutdown, which delayed the release of inflation and labor market data that policymakers will want to consider when setting interest rates next month. It's also not a given that AI will boost productivity and slow inflation in the near term.

Recap Investopedia's coverage of last week's trading here.