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Zoom Video Communications (ZM) shares popped Thursday after the provider of remote video services reported better-than-expected results and provided a rosy outlook as it held on to more customers.

The company posted fiscal 2025 second-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.39, with revenue increasing 2.1% to $1.16 billion. Both exceeded estimates.

Enterprise revenue grew 3.5% to $682.8 million, while online revenue was flat at $479.7 million. However, the average monthly “churn rate” of online customers dropped 30 basis points (bps) to 2.9%, That was "its lowest ever rate,” Zoom Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Yuan said.

Zoom said that it had 3,933 customers contributing more than $100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue, a gain of about 7.1% year-over-year. Yuan said the company was able to sell high-end packages by offering advanced artificial intelligence (AI).

Zoom said it sees full-year adjusted EPS at $5.29 to $5.32 and revenue between $4.63 billion and $4.64 billion. Both are above analysts' expectations. 

The company also announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer Kelly Steckelberg.

Steckelberg, who has been with Zoom for seven years, told analysts that she would be staying on through the current quarter earnings report. Yuan said that the company “is conducting a comprehensive search” for her replacement.

Zoom shares finished 13% higher at $68.04, their highest level since March. The stock is still a far cry from its October 2020 all-time highs above $500.

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For the 47th year, economists and central bankers descend on Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Thursday as the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank hosts its annual economic symposium.

The Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium will run through Saturday. During that time, the estimated 120 international participants will discuss the theme of “Reassessing the Effectiveness and Transmission of Monetary Policy.” The topic is particularly salient for U.S. central bankers, as Federal Reserve officials are monitoring economic data to help determine their next policy steps.

The Federal Reserve has held its influential fed funds rate at a two-decade high for more than a year in an effort to discourage borrowing and, in turn, quash inflation. As inflation has moved closer to the Fed's annual goal of 2%, the labor market has weakened and fears of a recession have reignited.

As a result, central bankers have turned their attention to the jobs side of their dual mandate. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its interest rates at its next meeting in September.

Like many of his colleagues, Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid told CNBC in an interview this week, opening the symposium, that he would let the data lead his decisions and would not commit to a rate cut timeline.

"I have learned that there's a perfection of how the labor market works relative to the inflation numbers. There's a healthy friction in the two," Schmid said. "I still believe quite strongly that we really need to trend this inflation number toward 2%; it has to be sustainable. Having the labor market cool some is helping that, but there's still work to do."

Committee members' reluctance to provide a specific timing of rate cuts has only further piqued investor interest in what Fed Chair Jerome Powell will say at the event on Friday morning.

Goldman Sachs analysts said Powell's remarks from Jackson Hole have affected markets in the past. However, analysts have noted that since a rate cut has already been priced into the market, Powell's comments likely won't be as impactful this year.

Economists don't expect Powell to confirm that the central bank will cut rates in September. Rather, they expect him to largely echo his remarks delivered in a press conference following the Fed's last meeting in July with a few updates.

"We expect Powell to express a bit more confidence in the inflation outlook and to put a bit more emphasis on downside risks in the labor market than in his press conference after the July FOMC meeting," wrote Goldman analysts.

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Intel (INTC) shares sank 6.1% on Thursday following reports that the semiconductor giant's progress on constructing two new chip fabrication facilities in Germany may be stalled.

The company plans to build the wafer fabrication plants in Magdeburg, Germany, on the site it calls "Silicon Junction." In June 2023, Intel announced it was increasing its investment in the project to around $33 billion, having secured a government subsidy of around $11 billion to support the construction.

Intel expected the Magdeburg plants to be online and producing high-performance semiconductors as soon as 2027. However, according to media reports this week, the schedule now appears uncertain.

Some investors have expressed concerns that, as Intel targets significant cost reductions, the company may choose not to move forward with the plans in Germany.

Intel typically focuses its fabrication capacity on producing its own chips, but the company has been working to expand its third-party fabrication services to drive growth. Given the high costs involved in constructing fabrication facilities, it remains to be seen how the capital-intensive expansion of contract fab services will fit into Intel's restructuring and cost-cutting initiatives, according to .

Skepticism about Intel's fabrication plants in Germany follows the news that chipmaking rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) has broken ground on its own $11 billion facility in Dresden.

Following Thursday's losses, Intel shares are down about 60% so far in 2024.

The year-to-date losses distinguish Intel stock from many peers in the semiconductor industry that have been lifted by artificial intelligence (AI) expectations. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) is up more than 20% this year.

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Major U.S. equities indexes fell Thursday as the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium kicked off in Wyoming. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak just after the markets open on Friday morning, and his remarks will be under the microscope as investors gauge the timing and magnitude of potential interest rate cuts.

The S&P 500 was down 0.9%, while the Dow slipped 0.4%. Underperformance from large tech stocks weighed on the Nasdaq, which dropped 1.7% on the day.

Shares of Moderna (MRNA) lost 6.5%, marking Thursday's weakest performance in the S&P 500. The share price drop coincided with the approval of Moderna's vaccine to protect against new strains of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends an updated shot for all people over the age of 6 months, and Moderna expects the new version to be available within a few days. However, at the beginning of August, the company lowered its full-year sales forecast, citing soft vaccine demand in Europe.

Intel (INTC) shares sank 6.1% following reports questioning the semiconductor giant's progress on the construction of two new chip fabrication plants in Germany. The company received a government subsidy of around $11 billion for the construction of the facilities, with the objective of having them online and producing chips by 2027. However, that schedule now appears uncertain. Some investors have expressed concerns that, as Intel targets significant cost reductions, the company may choose not to move forward with the plans in Germany.

Tesla (TSLA) Vice President Sreela Venkataratnam announced that she would be the latest in a string of executives to step down from the company, and shares of the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer declined 5.7%. In an 11-year stint at Tesla, Venkataratnam was involved in constructing factories, accelerating vehicle production, and expanding the energy business.

Shares of investment manager Franklin Resources (BEN) added 4.6%, the best performance of any stock in the S&P 500. Thursday's gains reversed a portion of the heavy losses posted in the previous session after the firm said the co-chief investment officer (CIO) of its Western Asset Management unit was taking a leave of absence. The executive's exit came amid internal and regulatory investigations into certain past trade allocations at the division.

Nordson (NDSN), which provides coating and adhesive systems to various industries, reported better-than-expected sales and profits for its fiscal third quarter, and its shares advanced 3.3%. Momentum in the company's Industrial Precision Solutions segment, as well as sales growth in Asia-Pacific and Europe, helped drive the strong performance.

Shares of State Street (STT) ticked 2.2% higher as the financial services firm announced a partnership with the Swiss digital asset platform Taurus. The deal will help State Street provide reliable digital asset capabilities to its clients by leveraging Taurus' custody, tokenization, and node-management solutions.

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Stocks slipped on Thursday as Wall Street waited to hear what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell would say at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, which this year comes at a critical turning point for the central bank. 

Powell is scheduled to speak Friday morning, less than a month before the Fed enters a policy meeting at which it is expected to lower interest rates for the first time in more than four years.

Wall Street is all but certain the Fed will cut rates in September, and has recently upped its rate cut expectations in response to signs of a slowing economy and a shift in Fed officials' tone. 

As of Thursday, markets anticipate the Fed will cut rates by about 100 basis points (bps), or 1 percentage point, by the end of the year, according to federal funds rate futures trading data. With only three meetings left in the year, that implies at least one cut of 50bps, a likelihood officials have largely dismissed. 

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said in an interview with the on Monday that he didn’t see any reason to lower rates by more than 25bps at any meeting this year, given the relative stability of layoffs and unemployment claims.

Powell, who has repeatedly emphasized the need for the Fed’s decisions to be “data dependent,” is unlikely to offer any forecast of the timing and speed of interest rate cuts.

“He's not going to lock himself in” to any policy path, said Quincy Krosby, Chief Global Strategist at LPL Financial. 

The Fed finds itself walking the tightrope of keeping inflation on a downward trajectory without allowing the labor market to break under the pressure of tight monetary policy. Officials have, in recent commentary, acknowledged they’re becoming equally concerned about both components of their dual mandate. 

The labor market has become a focal point for Fed watchers ever since data earlier this month showed the unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.3% in July, a jump that surprised most economists. The jobs data led some to wonder whether the Fed had put itself behind the curve when it left rates unchanged just days before the report. 

The Fed elected at its July meeting to leave the benchmark fed funds rate at a 23-year high, where it has been for a year. Though minutes from that meeting, published on Wednesday, revealed officials have taken a more dovish tone. 

“Several” policymakers noted that progress on inflation and an uptick in the unemployment rate “had provided a plausible case” for cutting rates at the July meeting. 

Though the committee members were ultimately unanimous in their decision to leave rates unchanged, “the vast majority observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.”

While several economists have noted that July’s jobs report may not be the harbinger of doom it appeared to be, the labor market will likely continue to be a wild card that could shake up financial markets. 

If there is any change in “what [Powell] telegraphs that differs from what we saw in the minutes, what we've been hearing, what we've been seeing from the data, that will be extremely important for the market,” said Krosby. “Especially if anything suggests that the Fed perhaps is more worried about the labor market.”

However, Krosby pointed out, markets are attuned to both the risk of inflation sticking and the Fed’s interest in preventing that outcome. 

“They’re always on guard about inflation, particularly this Fed,” Krosby said. “They don't want a repeat of the failure of the monetary policy in the late 70s and early 80s, which was a stop and go, stop and go, policy that actually allowed stagflation to become entrenched.”

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President Bola Tinubu on Friday, August 23, swore in Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun as Chief Justice of the Federation to replace Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.

The swearing-in ceremony took place at the Council Chambers of the State House in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Justice Kekere-Ekun succeeds Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who bowed out on Thursday after clocking the retirement age of 70 years.

Justice Kekere-Ekun is the second female CJN, the first being Aloma Mariam Mukhtar GCON, who served from July 2012 to November 2014.

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