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Instablog9ja
26 m
9
Rapper Yung6ix has weighed in on the ongoing social media rift between music heavyweights Davido and Wizkid, cautioning fans against taking sides.
In a recent X post, Yung6ix emphasised the importance of neutrality by drawing from personal experience, noting that advising wealthy individuals can be challenging.
Yung6ix’s plea comes amid a flurry of insults directed at Davido and his team from Wizkid’s camp.
Investopedia
26 m
9
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Judging from interest rate expectations, Wall Street is more pessimistic about the U.S. economy than the Federal Reserve is, and that outlook could be put to the test by Friday's closely watched September jobs report.
Late Thursday, investors were pricing in a 56% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by at least 75 basis points before the end of the year, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, which forecasts interest rate decisions based on federal funds futures trading data. A reduction of that size would require the Fed to cuts its benchmark rate by 50 basis points, or half a percentage point, in one of its two remaining policy meetings this year, in November or December.
The Fed cut the fed funds rate by 50 basis points last month, its first rate cut in more than four years, citing progress in the fight against inflation and a deterioration in the labor market. The cut was an unusually large move for the Fed, which more commonly has carried out 25-basis-point adjustments.
The market’s bias toward another jumbo cut puts it squarely at odds with the Fed, whose September dot plot forecasted two 25-point cuts by the end of the year, and most economists, who generally see the U.S. economy on track for a soft landing. It also reflects lingering skepticism on Wall Street about the health of the economy.
According to Deutsche Bank analysts, Wall Street's aggressive rate cut expectations could end up being a boon to markets over the next few months. “From a market perspective,” analysts wrote in a recent note, the market's pessimism “suggests that investors could still price in even more good news over the months ahead if economic growth does hold up.”
Key labor market updates this week have sent mixed signals about how well the economy is holding up. The number of job openings increased in August, but the hiring rate dipped to April 2020 levels. One report indicated private hiring rebounded in September, while another suggested layoffs were unseasonably high.
Friday’s September jobs report could help clarify the relatively muddy picture painted by this week’s other data. A report that's generally in line with expectations would likely bolster the case for slow-and-steady easing, wrote Oxford Economics' Lead Economist Nancy Vanden Houten in a recent note. "If the report on balance is much weaker than expected," she wrote, "it could be enough to prompt the Federal Reserve to lower rates by another 50bps at its November meeting."
Bank of America analysts expect the market’s reaction to Friday’s report to be tempered by the fact that there’s a month’s worth of data still to be released before the Fed’s rate decision. Traders, the analysts said in a recent note, are unlikely to write off a 50-point cut until after September’s inflation data and October’s jobs report, both of which will be released the week before the Fed’s November meeting.
"We think a soft employment report is likely to generate a larger market response vs a strong labor report," the analysts wrote.
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Instablog9ja
1 h
14
The Lagos State Government has said that the ban on Single-Use Plastics, such as pet bottles, and sachet water, among others, would take effect from January 2025 across the state.
The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, announced this at an event in Ikeja on Tuesday, October 2.
“Plastic waste materials make up a significant proportion of solid wastes and litter the metropolis. It has become a highly visible part of the waste stream, PET, Styrofoam and nylon for sachet water, popularly called ‘pure water’ commonly being used for water and beverages, take away plates and cups, carrier bags, among others.
This development is posing environmental challenges ranging from ecosystem degradation, Drainage clogging and flooding, Lagoon and Ocean debris with attendant harm to humans resulting in high socio-economic impacts on the state.
It will improve the situation of the State’s drainage channels and reduce plastic pollution in the marine environment.
Investopedia
1 h
14
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OpenAI's latest fundraising round has made the ChatGPT maker one of the world's most valuable startups, and an unusually costly investment from a historical perspective.
On Wednesday, Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI completed a $6.6 billion fundraising round that valued the nonprofit startup at the center of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) craze at more than $150 billion, nearly double its valuation just a few months ago. If OpenAI were a public company in the S&P 500, it would be among the index’s 70 largest components and have a market value roughly equivalent to that of AT&T (T) and Pfizer (PFE).
But OpenAI, if it was a public company, wouldn’t be eligible for the S&P 500 because it's never been profitable. Nor have many of its major competitors like Amazon (AMZN)-backed Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, or Safe SuperIntelligence (SSI), the organization born out of the recent schism between OpenAI and its former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
The valuations of AI startups have skyrocketed this year as they’ve attracted billions of dollars in investment from tech giants and venture capital firms. Anthropic is in the midst of a fundraising round and is expected to be valued at as much as $40 billion. xAI has been valued at $24 billion and SSI is worth an estimated $5 billion just three months after its founding.
These unprofitable firms trade at a high multiple. A Deutsche Bank analysis estimates Anthropic is likely to be valued at 50 times its full-year sales, while OpenAI is valued at almost 40x sales. At the height of the dotcom bubble, Microsoft's and Oracle's (ORCL) price-to-sales ratios peaked around 30.
Their valuations also dwarf those of America's largest tech companies. Nvidia (NVDA), expected to book $90 billion in profit in the next year, trades at 30x annual sales. Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft, two of the most profitable companies in the world, trade at price-to-sales ratios in the low teens.
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit organization with a for-profit arm through which investors can stake a claim to future profits. Last month, reports emerged that the company was planning to convert to a for-profit company, and its latest fundraising reportedly made the investments conditional on its completing that conversion in the next two years.
Even so, it could be a while before the company does turn a profit. OpenAI as a whole is expected to lose $5 billion this year, according to analyses by and . The number of monthly users of its chatbot ChatGPT, OpenAI's main source of revenue, more than tripled between March and June of this year, and ChatGPT's revenue is expected to quadruple to $2.7 billion this year. But those users come at a high cost—renting the servers to run ChatGPT will cost an estimated $4 billion this year.
Growing revenue will be vital to the profitability of OpenAI, and the company has set ambitious goals for itself. According to documents reviewed by the , the company expects to grow sales from nearly $4 billion this year to $11.6 billion in 2025. It's targeting $100 billion in revenue in 2029, which would require a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 90% over the next five years. By comparison, analysts forecast Nvidia's revenue will grow at a CAGR of 33% through 2026.
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Why Vistra Stock Jumped To Another Record High On Thursday
The Gains Keep Coming For Shares Of...
Investopedia
2 hrs
12
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The gains keep coming for shares of independent power producer Vistra Corp. (VST), which jumped more than 5% on Thursday to notch one of the best performances in the S&P 500 and set a new record closing high.
The Texas-based electricity provider has ridden a wave of enthusiasm about using nuclear capacity to power energy-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) processes. These AI-driven expectations have helped Vistra surpass Nvidia (NVDA) as the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2024, up a whopping 244% year to date.
The most recent push higher for the red-hot Vistra stock came after Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), said the tech giant is exploring ways to power its data centers using electricity from nuclear plants.
Vistra shares gained 5.7% on Thursday to close at $132.45, bucking a broader downturn for U.S. stocks.
In an interview with Japan's , Pichai said Google is evaluating investments in a variety of energy technologies as it aims to achieve its ambitious goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
The CEO provided no details as to where Alphabet might source nuclear power. However, announcements this year by other big tech firms support the idea that U.S.-based nuclear generators are poised to benefit from the opportunity.
For instance, Amazon (AMZN) said in March that it would lean on nuclear generation to meet some of its power demand. Microsoft (MSFT) also reached an agreement in September with Vistra competitor Constellation Energy (CEG) to procure power from the currently shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
Analysts have expressed optimism that Microsoft's deal with Constellation Energy could set a precedent for more agreements between big tech and nuclear generators. On Thursday, analysts at RBC Capital Markets increased their price target on Vistra stock to $141 from $105.
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Instablog9ja
4 hrs
15
Former Nigerian striker, Jonathan Akpoborie, has cautioned young footballers against living lavish lifestyles.
Speaking in an interview with Elegbete TV Sports, the 55-year-old said: “I grew up in Ajegunle. I saw everywhere before I travelled from Nigeria. There is always a difference, you know, when you close your eyes. As I’m here now, in the evening, my friends might call me and I am in Ajegunle.
Sometimes, I am coming back from America, I drop my bag at home here, and I am in Ajegunle. That difference — you close your eyes and you are in Ajegunle. If you cannot learn from that, there is nothing that will be able to teach you.
The problem when you have money, it pushes you to do a lot of things. If you don’t get control, you will lose it, and when you lose it, it is a deep fall. That is why I am praying for these young ones that are playing now that they should be very wise.
I remember when I was in Stuttgart, we did so many things. Sometimes, after a game, seven or eight people would come together, and we’d take a private jet to Spain, rent a villa, stay overnight, and do whatever we wanted. The next morning, the jet would fly us back. That’s the power of money.
When I was in Stuttgart, every two weeks I’d be in Lagos, staying at the Sheraton Hotel. I’d be in the room, and by Sunday or Monday, I’d be back in Germany. My family wouldn’t know, nobody would know.
Money pushes you like that. That’s why I pray the young ones will be wise and start acting responsibly. When money pushes you, you’ll do things you won’t even believe you’re doing.”
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