What’s News in Markets: AI Price Tag, New Oil Rules, Short-Squeeze Payback
5/2/20266 min
Big tech is finally cashing in on AI, but who is making the biggest profits? And what does a weakened OPEC mean for oil markets? Plus, how is Avis getting an investor to hand back gains after a short squeeze? Host Imani Moise discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Imani Moise· Host0:14
[upbeat music] Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, May second. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's dive in. Markets extended a multi-week run of record highs, powered by a wave of earnings showing corporate America is still minting money, even in the face of war, higher oil prices, and more cautious consumer spending. No biggie. Both the S&P five hundred and NASDAQ finished April with their biggest monthly gain since twenty twenty, and kicked off May by hitting fresh records. All three major indexes finished the week higher. The NASDAQ was up one point one percent, the S&P rose point nine percent, and the Dow inched up point six percent. Big tech is making big money on AI, but they aren't the booming industry's biggest winners. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta all posted strong earnings this week, with AI driving growth in their cloud businesses. Amazon's cloud unit grew at its fastest pace in years, helping push overall revenue up seventeen percent. Microsoft's revenue jumped eighteen percent,