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U.S. equities gained at midday after a report showed consumer inflation slowed in April, raising hopes the Fed can begin cutting interest rates. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq reached record intraday highs during the session, and the Dow advanced as well.

The inflation news helped boost shares of D.R. Horton (DHI) and other homebuilders that benefit from lower borrowing costs.

Shares of Monday.com (MNDY) skyrocketed as the maker of cloud-based workflow software beat profit and sales forecasts, reported a large gain in customers, had record free cash flow, and gave a better-than-expected outlook.

Dell Technologies (DELL) shares climbed after Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock, citing the tech firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) business momentum.

Boeing (BA) shares dropped after the Department of Justice said the plane maker violated a 2021 settlement tied to a pair of crashes of its 737 Max jets.

Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC) plunged as the meme stock craze that was revived on Monday faded and the theater chain operator announced a 23.3 million share debt-for-equity swap. Shares of meme stock darling GameStop (GME) tumbled as well.

Petrobras (PBR) American depositary receipts (ADRs) tumbled as CEO Jean Paul Prates was ousted by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva following a dispute over the payment of dividends to investors. 

Oil and gold futures rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank. The U.S. dollar declined versus the euro, pound, and yen. Prices for most major cryptocurrencies were higher.

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Reality TV Star, Chizzy has insinuated that some of his colleagues engage in gay sexual activities in order to afford their expensive lifestyle.

He took to his social media page to reveal that a colleague of his who has no endorsement deals, but is currently riding in a luxury car, as he questioned how he got the car if he wasn’t into an immoral lifestyle.

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After Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI unveiled its most capable artificial intelligence (AI) model yet called GPT-4o on Monday, analysts indicated that gains from the improved tech could benefit a number of companies including Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA).

Analysts highlighted how new audio capabilities could enhance the iPhone's Siri amid reports about a possible Apple partnership. They also noted how developments like the launch of GPT-4o could boost demand for cloud platforms, as well as drive growth for Nvidia and other chipmakers.

In the wake of reports that OpenAI and Apple are near closing an AI partnership deal, CFRA analysts suggested Apple could potentially leverage a partnership with OpenAI and enhanced voice features to "help make the iPhone a true assistant for consumers (via a massive upgrade for Siri)."

"By combining voice, text and images seamlessly, the demo captured how AI can drive incredible amounts of productivity," Bank of America analysts said in a report reiterating their "buy" rating for Apple on "benefits from GenAI at edge with gross margin upside and momentum in Services."

OpenAI's new model could also serve to boost demand for Microsoft's Azure, the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI.

UBS analysts noted in a report Tuesday that the "competitive landscape is intensifying" for large language models (LLMs) with the release of GPT-4o, which relies on the internet to connect to remote servers that run the AI workloads, and that "leading cloud platforms that host LLMs are well positioned to benefit from increased consumption and uptake" associated with running AI workloads remotely.

At the end of the launch event, OpenAI Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati thanked Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang "for bringing us the most advanced GPUs to make this demo possible," underlining Nvidia's prime position in the AI ecosystem with advancements made in the space benefiting the chipmaker.

Bank of America analysts wrote that progress in the AI race, like OpenAI's GPT-4o launch, "could be a multi-year growth driver" for Nvidia, as well as Broadcom (AVGO), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Micron Technology (MU), Arm Holdings (ARM), and AMD (AMD), among others.

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Bridgewater Associates, the hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio, more than doubled its stake in Nvidia (NVDA) during the first quarter of the year in tandem with stake increases in several other tech giants, according to the firm's 13-F form filed Tuesday.

Dalio's asset management firm increased its Nvidia position to 704,599 shares worth $636.6 million at the end of the first quarter. That compared with the 268,489 shares the fund owned in the chipmaker at the end of 2023.

Nvidia is a major player in AI because of the popularity of its hardware products, and AI is one of the biggest investment trends of the year. Dalio's firm also made big bets early in the year on other companies related to AI.

For example, Bridgewater entered a position in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), another leading chipmaker, totaling 679,454 shares, worth $122.6 million as of the end of the quarter. It also significantly boosted its position in semiconductor and nanotechnology company KLA (KLAC), adding about 96,000 shares for a total of 117,012 shares by the end of March.

Bridgewater made big bets on other tech firms that are poised to benefit from AI integration without providing AI hardware. Of these, the most notable shift was in Alphabet (GOOGL). Bridgewater bought almost 3.3 million Class A shares of Google's parent company during the first quarter, bringing its position to 5.37 million shares by the end of that period.

The fund also added about 1.84 million shares of Apple (AAPL), almost 328,000 shares of Meta Platforms (META), and 381,000 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) in the first three months of 2024.

Dalio also entered a 1.04 million-share position in Amazon.com (AMZN) worth $189 million at the end of first quarter.

The first quarter wasn't exclusively a buying spree for Bridgewater, as the firm also trimmed many of its existing positions and exited several others. Among the largest sell-offs in the first quarter were about 1.8 million shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO), roughly 1.7 million shares of Coca-Cola (KO), and 892,158 shares of PDD Holdings (PDD).

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Blogger Stella Dimimorkokus has slammed Davido for claiming that he is still in good terms with his lawyer, Bobo Ajudua who he has allegedly sacked.

According to her, Davido has been insulting Bobo on his WhatsApp status, as she also revealed that the embattled lawyer has been pleading with him, but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

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Shares in New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) jumped nearly 6% in premarket trading Wednesday after the embattled regional bank said late Tuesday that it had agreed to sell around $5 billion of mortgage warehouse loans to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in a deal aimed at shoring up its liquidity and capital as it undergoes a turnaround to return to profitability.

NYCB, which expects to complete the sale in the third quarter, anticipates the deal will add 65 basis points to its common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio, resulting in a pro-forma ratio of 10.8% as of March 31 this year, and boost its liquidity profile as the proceeds of the transaction will be reinvested into cash and securities.

The announcement of the sale comes several months after the bank disclosed it had sold $899 million of consumer loans in March and a commercial co-operative loan in late February.

“We are moving forward quickly to implement our strategic plan, which focuses on improving our capital, liquidity and loan-to-deposit metrics,” recently appointed NYCB Chief Executive Officer Joseph Otting said in the statement Tuesday.

Otting, who took the helm at the bank in April, plans on reducing NYCB’s exposure to New York’s commercial real estate sector, which has faced challenges from higher borrowing costs and lower occupancy, and turn it into a more diversified regional bank.

Cracks started appearing at the beleaguered regional bank in January, when it cut its dividend and ramped up its loan-loss provisions. Those developments, along with material weaknesses in internal controls, management changes, and a string of rating agency downgrades, prompted a group of investors led by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to inject more than $1 billion into the lender to shore up its balance sheet.

NYCB shares continued to trend sharply lower for around three months after gapping down more than 37% in late January, with trading volumes remaining above average throughout the decline. More recently, the price has staged somewhat of a recovery, reclaiming the 50-day moving average (MA). 

If the stock continues to climb higher, investors should monitor the $5.80 level, an area on the chart where the price may run into selling pressure near the March 2023 swing low. However, if the shares fail to hold above the 50-day MA, watch for a possible retest of recent lows around $2.70.

NYCB shares were up 5.9% at $4.12 at around 7:00 a.m. ET Wednesday.

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