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Cerebras Systems, an artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker looking to compete with the biggest tech firms in the industry like Nvidia (NVDA), filed for an initial public offering (IPO) Monday, with the goal of listing on the Nasdaq under the "CBRS" stock ticker.

The company, founded in 2016, has spent the last several years designing chips specifically for AI technology. In its prospectus filed Monday, Cerebras said it has worked to answer the question of how it would design chips if it were starting the design process from scratch.

The company says that its design process has led it to create a chip substantially larger than those created by competitors, to avoid the complex process of connecting them and to provide greater on-chip memory and bandwidth.

In its prospectus, Cerebras reported a $66.6 million net loss for the first six months of 2024 on $136.4 million in total revenue, compared with a wider $77.8 million net loss and $8.7 million in revenue in the first half of 2023, as it said associated costs rose substantially year-over-year with increased production.

It listed its competition as chipmakers including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Intel (INTC), along with Big Tech giants Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL), which have begun designing and producing their own AI chips.

Cerebras didn't disclose how many shares it intends to offer, or what its IPO price will be, but clearly the potential IPO was announced at a time when companies are looking to capitalize on the market's enthusiasm for the AI industry.

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Crude oil gained as much as 5% as reports of Iranian missiles targeted at Israel came in Tuesday, in an escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

The news jolted crude oil futures, which had held fairly steady in the past week, dipping briefly yesterday on news of Libya resuming oil production.

Brent crude futures briefly crossed $75 per barrel while the U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate Texas (WTI), traded just below $72 per barrel as oil supply disruptions concerns rose.

Iran is a member of OPEC—a trade bloc of oil producing nations—and was the world's ninth-largest oil producer in 2023.

Israel said Iran launched missiles towards it, in what is being construed as a direct attack. "A short while ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, reported.

Tensions in the middle east have been rising over the past few days after Israel launched strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon, likely prompting today's action.

"The deeper the conflict intensifies, oil could indeed surge higher as risk rises that the military response veers into the oil producing area around Iran," said LPL Financial Chief Global Strategist Quincy Krosby in a commentary.

The gains for both Brent and WTI moderated to about 2.5% in mid-afternoon U.S. trading. Despite the sharp increases Tuesday, Brent is still about 20% below its high for the year of more than $90 a barrel.

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United Natural Foods (UNFI) shares soared 25% Tuesday afternoon as the grocery wholesaler posted a surprising adjusted profit on increased volumes and prices as sales surged from its biggest customer, Amazon (AMZN)-owned Whole Foods Market.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.01, while analysts polled by Visible Alpha were expecting a per-share loss of $0.07. Revenue was up 10.0% year-over-year to $8.16 billion, also exceeding estimates. 

UNFI said it benefited from improving unit volumes, which turned positive toward the end of the quarter. In addition, sales were boosted by inflation.

Revenue from its Whole Foods-related Supernatural division jumped 18.6% to $1.84 billion. Chains revenue was up 9.0% to $3.43 billion.

The company added that its cost-saving efforts resulted in a decline in operating expenses to 13.2% of sales from 13.5% last year.

After today's surge, shares of United Natural Foods are up nearly 30% this year.

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McCormick & Co. (MKC) shares rose Tuesday as the spice maker posted better-than-expected results on its product offerings and cost-cutting.

The company reported third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $0.83, well above the $0.67 average of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Revenue slipped 0.3% to $1.68 billion, but was also ahead of forecasts.

Consumer segment sales were virtually unchanged from a year ago at $937.4 million. Gains in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (+2.9%) were offset by declines in the Americas (-0.4%) and the Asia-Pacific region (-0.9%).

Sales at the Flavor Solutions segment declined 0.7% to $742.4 million as the company sold off a small canning business.

Adjusted operating income increased 14.7% from 2023 to $288 million, driven mainly by gross margin expansion in addition to lower selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brendan Foley said McCormick is confident in its future growth because of "our proven track record, our broad and advantaged global portfolio, our alignment with consumer trends, as well as our differentiated heat platform." Foley added the company would be "sharing the strategic roadmap and building blocks that support our long-term objectives" at its investor day on Oct. 22.

The company sees full-year adjusted EPS of $2.85 to $2.90, with sales to range from down 1% to up 1% from 2023 levels. 

Shares of McCormick & Company rose about 1.5% to $83.45 by midday Tuesday and are up more than 20% year-to-date.

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The fall calendar doesn't just warn us of impending cold temperatures: It also points toward seasonal upticks in cases of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), COVID, and influenza. These respiratory viruses were dubbed a "tripledemic" last year. After they collided to overload health care systems across the country, hospitalizations rose in tandem for all three illnesses over the fall and winter months.

Warding off severe cases — which may lead to hospitalization or death — should be top of mind, especially for those who are most vulnerable, a Harvard expert says. And updated versions of all three vaccines are now available to help protect us.

Why do cases of flu, RSV, and COVID typically rise in fall?

"This is typically the time of year we start to see viral infections increase, which has a lot to do with kids going back to school," says Dr. John Ross, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who is board-certified in infectious diseases.

"Also, we're starting now to have weather that's more favorable for viral transmission, particularly lower humidity. Viruses survive better in dry air. And drier air also affects our airways and makes them more vulnerable to being infected."

Who is eligible for each shot?

Eligibility recommendations vary by age and vulnerability to serious illnesses. Additionally, some shots are designed to help protect specific groups against serious illness.

The CDC recommends these shots for the following groups.

RSV

COVID

Flu

Who is likely to benefit most?

Getting the right vaccines can help people avoid missed work or school days and running the risk of making others sick. And the protection offered by these shots is especially important for certain groups.

For all three viruses, the people most vulnerable to severe illness are similar, Dr. Ross says, including

"Certainly with COVID and flu, pregnancy outcomes are worse with those infections," Dr. Ross says. "I'm not saying that RSV isn't a risk for pregnant mothers, but there's not much data. The reason pregnant women are offered RSV vaccination is so the maternal antibodies they produce protect the newborns, because they're at very high risk for RSV with very bad outcomes."

Additionally, an even wider range of people are more prone to complications from the flu, according to the CDC. This includes

What else should you know about flu, COVID, and RSV shots?

Beyond broad guidance determining who's eligible for each type of vaccine, Dr. Ross offers other useful insight that may guide your choices.

When is the best time to get a flu shot?

The CDC recommends getting a flu shot in September or October, and Dr. Ross agrees. "These are usually the months the flu vaccine becomes available and vaccine clinics are easiest to find," he says. "My personal approach is just to get the vaccine when it's available, so you don't forget."

Will the updated COVID vaccines protect against newer strains of the virus?

The latest mRNA shots by drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna are monovalent, meaning they protect against one variant — XBB.1.5, the most recent to descend from Omicron earlier in 2023. Though that strain is no longer dominant, the boosters should still guard against closely related subvariants that are now circulating, Dr. Ross says. "People can feel comfortable about their protection regardless," he says.

What else should I know about RSV shots?

The version meant for infants, Beyfortus, isn't a vaccine at all. It's a monoclonal antibody product that directly delivers antibodies that protect babies for the duration of a single fall-winter RSV season. These antibodies can prevent RSV or lessen its severity.

Dr. Ross says adults over 60 considering RSV vaccination should be aware of the potential for two rare but potentially serious side effects of the nervous system: the autoimmune conditions Guillain-Barre syndrome and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM. Guillain-Barre can lead to bodywide paralysis, while ADEM can cause weakness and seizures. The risk of these side effects after RSV vaccination in adults is about one in 7,000 — far higher than occurs after flu vaccination, Dr. Ross notes.

"If you're a totally healthy 60-year-old, I'm not sure it makes sense to get the RSV vaccine," he says. "It's a conversation you should have with your doctor."

How should I schedule shots if I'm getting several vaccines?

Research suggests that it's safe to get both flu and COVID vaccines at the same time. Reactions (such as muscle aches, fatigue, and headache) are slightly higher when flu vaccine and an mRNA COVID vaccine are combined, according to one study, though these reactions usually are mild and disappear quickly.

"Because RSV vaccines are newer, I don't think we know much about combining these shots with other vaccines," says Dr. Ross. Scheduling this vaccine separately is a good idea, although you should talk to your doctor about potential risks and benefits for your situation.

Source: Harvard Health Publishing

Inflation is moving lower, the economy is cooling and the Federal Reserve has begun cutting interest rates. But can the central bank stick the landing?

Economists have said the Fed is on the verge of achieving an elusive “soft landing” in which the central bank is able to bring down inflation without sending the economy into a recession. It’s rarely been done, but some say the Fed is almost there.

“The U.S. economy is clearly not in a recession, nor is it likely to head into a recession in the home stretch of 2024,” said Jack Kleinhenz, National Retail Federation chief economist. “Instead, it appears that the economy is on the cusp of nailing a long-awaited soft landing with a simultaneous cooling of growth and inflation.”

Recent reports showed inflation was down to 2.2% over the year ending August, well off the highs from the summer of 2022 and closer to the Federal Reserve’s annual target.

After holding interest rates at decades-high levels to relieve price pressures, the Fed is now responding to slowing inflation by cutting interest rates. Central bankers voted to cut the influential fed funds rate by half a percentage point in its September meeting and forecast more cuts are on the way.

Those next steps in the cutting cycle could be crucial in determining whether the economy levels off sustainably or veers into a recession, economists said. 

“Current economic conditions can be best described as ‘goldilocks.’ Not too hot, and not too cold," wrote Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo. "The risk with cutting interest rates too much too quickly is that the economy becomes too hot again."

Goldman Sachs estimates there is only a 20% chance of recession in the next year. The investment bank noted that the recent weakening in the labor market wasn’t likely to slow economic growth significantly.

Employers created fewer jobs than analysts expected in August, but the unemployment rate also dipped back down to 4.2%. Economists expect those numbers will be similar when September's unemployment numbers are released on Friday. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDP Now model, the economy is expected to have grown 3.1% despite elevated unemployment.

“The increase in U.S. unemployment since April 2023 mostly reflects strong labor supply and continued expansion, not weak labor demand and a high risk of recession,” wrote Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman.

Wells Fargo wrote that the Federal Reserve is dealing with a tricky situation. While weakness in the jobs market calls for an interest rate cut, strength in retail sales and other economic indicators call for moving more slowly when lowering borrowing costs.

“That divergence perfectly describes why this easing cycle is different and so hard to predict. Historically, when the Fed starts to cut rates, the economy is already in serious trouble,” wrote Wells Fargo economists Tim Quinlan and Shannon Seery Grein.

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