Market Calm Amid Fed Concerns and Tech Advancements: A Mixed Landscape for Investors

CNBC Daily Open: Back-to-back gains in stocks signal calm, but listen to Fed officials

But U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are being unusually open about their concerns over the potential impact of tariffs. If investors listen to them, they will perhaps find that the calm in markets is deceptive. Fed policymakers open up In recent days, multiple Fed policymakers, such as Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Boston Fed President Susan Collins, have not only noted the uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, but have also highlighted the potential impact on inflation. That's a break from Fed officials' typical stance of not commenting on fiscal policy, suggesting that tariffs could have serious effects on the U.S. economy. Second day of gains for U.S. stocks U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday for back-to-back gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.39%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.71% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.19%. Sharp drops in Google and AMD were offset by a 5.2% jump in Nvidia. Europe's Stoxx 600 index added 0.47% amid a mixed day for its regional bourses. Banco Santander topped Stoxx 600 gains, up 8.3%, after the Spanish lender reported record quarterly profit. Google Gemini 2.0 Google on Wednesday released Gemini 2.0, its latest artificial intelligence model suite, to the public. It's part of Google's strategy of investing heavily into AI agents -- which can complete complex multistep tasks on a user's behalf, rather than a user having to walk them through every individual step. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are also moving toward agentic AI as companies try to gain an edge over competitors. Qualcomm sees growth in automotives Qualcomm reported on Wednesday fiscal first-quarter revenue of $11.67 billion, beating expectations and up 18% from $9.92 billion a year ago. Net income increased 15% to $3.18 billion from $2.77 billion a year earlier. Automotives are the chipmaker's fastest-growing business -- Qualcomm reported $961 million in quarterly sales for them, growing 61% on an annual basis. However, its shares fell more than 4.6% in extended trading. Investors were concerned that revenue from Qualcomm's licensing business would remain flat, Reuters said. Disney+ loses subscribers Disney posted fiscal first-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat on the top and bottom lines. The entertainment conglomerate's net income jumped nearly 23% to $2.64 billion from $2.15 billion during the same quarter last year, while revenue rose 4.8% from a year earlier. Disney+, the company's streaming platform, was profitable during the quarter, but experienced a 1% drop in subscribers. Shares fell 2.4%. [PRO] Palantir's valuation unrealistic? Palantir shares surged 24% on Tuesday to a record high after reporting stronger-than-expected fourth quarter results and guidance. Even though the stock gave up some of those gains on Wednesday, the software company's valuation appears way out of market fundamentals. CNBC Pro's John Melloy and Christopher Hayes explain why.

CNBC Daily Open: Consecutive stock gains signal calm, but heed Fed officials

But U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are being unusually open about their concerns over the potential impact of tariffs. If investors listen to them, they will perhaps find that the calm in markets is deceptive. Fed policymakers open up In recent days, multiple Fed policymakers, such as Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Boston Fed President Susan Collins, have not only noted the uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, but have also highlighted the potential impact on inflation. That's a break from Fed officials' typical stance of not commenting on fiscal policy, suggesting that tariffs could have serious effects on the U.S. economy. Stocks are up amid week's turmoil U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday for back-to-back gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.39%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.71% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.19%. Sharp drops in Google and AMD were offset by a 5.2% jump in Nvidia. Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Thursday. India's Nifty 50 index, however, dipped around 0.4% ahead of the central bank's interest rate decision on Friday, when it's expected to cut rates. Google Gemini 2.0 Google on Wednesday released Gemini 2.0, its latest artificial intelligence model suite, to the public. It's part of Google's strategy of investing heavily into AI agents -- which can complete complex multistep tasks on a user's behalf, rather than a user having to walk them through every individual step. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are also moving toward agentic AI as companies try to gain an edge over competitors. Huawei's jump in annual revenue Huawei's revenue came in at more than 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) for 2024, Chairman Howard Liang said Wednesday, according to local state media. That's a 22% year-on-year jump from 2023 and the fastest growth since 2016, according to CNBC calculations of public numbers. Huawei's smartphone shipments in mainland China surged by 37% last year, superseding Apple in market share, according to Canalys data. Qualcomm sees growth in automotives Qualcomm reported on Wednesday fiscal first-quarter revenue of $11.67 billion, beating expectations and up 18% from $9.92 billion a year ago. Net income increased 15% to $3.18 billion from $2.77 billion a year earlier. However, its shares fell more than 4.6% in extended trading. Investors were concerned that revenue from Qualcomm's licensing business would remain flat, Reuters said. [PRO] Palantir's valuation unrealistic? Palantir shares surged 24% on Tuesday to a record high after reporting stronger-than-expected fourth quarter results and guidance. Even though the stock gave up some of those gains on Wednesday, the software company's valuation appears way out of market fundamentals. CNBC Pro's John Melloy and Christopher Hayes explain why.