CNBC Daily Open: Trouble in AI paradise

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Winning week
U.S. stocks capped off a winning week Friday, with all major indexes inching up slightly. Meanwhile, Treasury yields briefly dropped to their lowest level since September before bouncing up. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index added 1.01%. Rolls-Royce shares hit a 52-week high of 248 pence (308 cents) during trading, shooting up around 190% in just a year.

Ouster at OpenAI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stepped down from his role and will be replaced on an interim basis by technology chief Mira Murati, announced the company’s board of directors Friday. (Here are the people on OpenAI’s six-person board.) But just one day after Altman was ousted, OpenAI investors — such as Microsoft, Tiger Global and Thrive Capital — pushed to bring Altman back as CEO.

Musk’s ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’
Apple, Disney and other companies have joined IBM in suspending their advertising campaigns on X, formerly known as Twitter. Their move was triggered by a report by Media Matters for America highlighting how corporate ads were displayed next to antisemitic content on X. In response, Musk threatened to file “a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters.”  

Potential hostage deal
A deal between Israel and Hamas to release some hostages could be materializing in the days ahead, according to several U.S. officials. Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog said on ABC’s “This Week” that “a significant number of hostages” could be free “in the coming days.” Hamas is currently holding around 240 hostages, many of whom are from foreign countries.

[PRO] Nvidia earnings in focus
After the flurry of inflation reports last week, this week looks comparatively quiet in terms of economic data releases. Moreover, U.S. markets will close on Thursday for Thanksgiving. But there’s one marquee event: Nvidia reports earnings Tuesday. Here’s what to expect.

The positive vibrations from last week’s cool inflation reports are dissipating — but you can still feel them, if you focus.

It was in U.S. Treasurys that the positive sentiment was most palpable still. The 10-year yield, which tracks the market’s expectations of where interest rates will end up in the long run, briefly traded at 4.379%. That’s the lowest since Sept. 20, signaling downward pressure on yields.

Stocks had a more muted Friday. It almost seemed like markets refused to close the week on a bad note, so major indexes managed to eke out the most marginal gains. The S&P 500 added 0.13%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average squeezed out a 0.01% increase and the Nasdaq Composite notched a 0.08% gain.

But when viewed on a weekly basis, movements of the indexes are much more impressive. The S&P grew 2.2% and the Dow advanced 1.9% for their first three-win streak since July. The Nasdaq increased 2.4%, its first three-week positive streak since June.

And things are looking good for the rest of the year.

“I think the story for the rest [of] this year isn’t ‘are we going to finish with a bit of a rally,’ because it does appear likely that we’re going to finish with a bit of a rally,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.

Of course, there’s the turmoil currently plaguing OpenAI — what with Sam Altman’s sudden ouster. But my sense is it’s a matter of internal politics (et tu, Ilya?) rather than a fundamental problem with the technology.

“This story has elements of corporate and ideological discord, but not even a whiff of diminished promise,” as Zachary Lipton, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of machine learning and operations research, said.

Even if it were the latter, OpenAI is “not the only game in town,” as industry analyst Patrick Moorhead put it. In other words, there will be other companies — like Anthropic or Google — more than ready to assume AI leadership.

And Nvidia’s report, out Tuesday, will in all probability reassure investors shaken by the cracks in the gilded world of generative AI.