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U.S. stocks ended lower Wednesday, with losses led by the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite, after investors digested remarks from several Federal Reserve officials. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished around 200 points lower, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 shed 1.1% and the Nasdaq sank 1.7%, according to preliminary data from FactSet. Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said in a speech Wednesday at an agribusiness conference at Arkansas State University that he's "prepared for a longer fight to get inflation down" and interest rates need to remain high for "some time." New York Fed president John Williams said Wednesday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the Fed has more work to do to lower inflation to 2%.
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Microsoft Corp. MSFTwas headed for a $2 trillion market capitalization Wednesday, which would make it only the second U.S. equity at that level, along with Apple Inc. AAPLMicrosoft last ended a trading session worth more than $2 trillion on Aug. 25, 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data, but a rapid downfall for tech stocks in the second half of last year brought it out of that stratosphere. Microsoft has gained in six of the past nine trading sessions to near the mark again, as excitement builds around the company's use of OpenAI's technology in its products, especially the Bing search engine, as it could beef up Microsoft's rival to Alphabet Inc.'sGOOGLGOOGdominant search engine, Google. After displaying updates to Bing on Tuesday, Google held its own AI event Wednesday, but Google shares declined strongly after the event as Microsoft's increased. Microsoft and Apple are the only two publicly-traded U.S. equities to close a session with a $2 trillion valuation — Alphabet has hit the level in intraday trading, but never made it to the end of a session. Microsoft needs to close with a share price of $268.68 or above to hit the $2 trillion mark; after hitting a high of $276.76, shares were trading for $268.58 as of 2 p.m. Eastern time.
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Bing's app sees a 10x jump in downloads after Microsoft's AI news TechCrunchMicrosoft, ChatGPT won't save Bing from Google - but there is one thing that could TechRadarCan Bing and OpenAI Challenge Google? Microsoft's Satya Nadella Weighs In (Exclusive) | WSJ Wall Street JournalCan Microsoft make Bing cool with ChatGPT? There's so much upside that it may not have to. MarketWatchMicrosoft announces new Bing and Edge browser powered by upgraded ChatGPT AI
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said in a news release Wednesday that he and all Democratic members of his committee have invited Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz to testify before their panel about the company's labor practices. Sanders, a Vermont independent who typically votes with Democrats, also said he has sent three letters to Schultz in the last year calling on him to end what the lawmaker described as "the egregious union-busting campaign the company has deployed against its own workers."
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Shares of Alphabet Inc.'s Google GOOGLGOOG dropped more than 7% Wednesday following news about its new AI chatbot, Bard — a day after Microsoft Corp. MSFT held its own event to demonstrate new AI technologies in its competing search engine, Bing. Some analysts suggested the decline in Google's stock indicated investors had hoped for more substantive news.
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An earlier version of this report misstated Uber's adjusted Ebitda guidance. It has been corrected.Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. UBER were heading 7% higher in premarket trading Wednesday after the ride-hailing company delivered an upbeat outlook for the current quarter. The company generated fourth-quarter net income of $595 million, or 29 cents a share, whereas it posted net income of $892 million, or 44 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. The FactSet consensus was for a 15-cent loss per share on a GAAP basis. Uber's net income figure included a $756 million net pre-tax benefit largely due to unrealized gains from the revaluation of equity investments. Uber also reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) of $665 million, whereas analysts were expecting $624 million. Revenue increased to $8.6 billion from $5.8 billion, while analysts had been modeling $8.5 billion. Gross bookings rose $19% to $30.7 billion, matching the FactSet consensus. "We ended 2022 with our strongest quarter ever, with robust demand and record margins," Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a release. For the first quarter, Uber executives anticipate gross bookings of $31.0 billion to $32.0 billion, along with $660 million to $700 million in adjusted Ebitda. Analysts were looking for $31.3 billion in gross bookings and $612 million of adjusted Ebitda.
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Shares of U.K. soccer club Manchester United surged in premarket trade after a report of an imminent Qatari bid for the high-profile team.
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U.S. oil futures finished at their highest in a week on bets for strength in energy demand from China and oil-supply concerns in the Middle East following a massive earthquake on Monday. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery CLH23 rose $3.03, or 4.1%, to settle at $77.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month contract prices settled at their highest since Jan. 31, FactSet data show.
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