On Tuesday afternoon, stocks were struggling to gain momentum as economists predicted that tomorrow’s Consumer Price Index report would show a 3.4% annual inflation rate, up from 3.2% in February. Investors have been hoping for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates due to the low unemployment rate, but the current situation is making them anxious.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered a bit by afternoon but still was in the red, falling about 0.3%, or more than 140 points, to 38,740 in mid-afternoon trading. The benchmark S&P 500 fell about 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite decreased 0.15%.
Google releases AI chip, Nvidia down
Google said Tuesday that its Cloud TPU v5p, one of the few alternatives to Nvidia’s AI chips, is now available to developers. The AI chip was first announced in December, the same day as its chatbot, Gemini.
Google also announced an Arm-based central processing unit called Google Axion to rival the CPUs of Microsoft and Amazon. The British tech company Arm licenses its design for chips’ infrastructure for actual chip manufacturers to build upon. Google’s new chip marks the first time it has licensed Arm’s chip infrastructure for a CPU.
Following the news, Alphabet Class A and Alphabet Class C jumped 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.
Separately, AI stocks declined on Tuesday. AI chipmaker Nvidia was down nearly 3% to $845 per share, and Super Micro Computer stock shed 3% to $900.
Boeing airplane deliveries fall
Boeing delivered the fewest planes in almost three years last quarter. The company said Tuesday that only 83 of its jetliners made their way to customers from January through March — the lowest number since 2021, when production was still recovering from a pandemic-induced slowdown.
In the last three months of 2023, Boeing delivered 157 planes. The shortfall came just as the company was trying to ramp up production to retake its lead over French rival Airbus.
The stocks dropped nearly 2%, trading around $177 in the afternoon.
BlackBerry bets on robotic systems
BlackBerry stocks jumped nearly 7% on Tuesday afternoon when the company announced a collaboration with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices on robotic systems, which is meant for the industrial and healthcare industries.
Moderna and Pfizer gained traction
Biotech company Moderna announced Wednesday that three experimental vaccines had shown positive clinical trial results. They are not related to the company’s covid-19 vaccine, and Moderna is moving the shots to the final stage of testing.
The news boosted Moderna stock, which has fallen in the post-pandemic era. Moderna stock jumped more than 7%, hovering around $112 per share in afternoon trading.
In separate news, Pfizer said plans to seek regulatory approval to expand the allowed use of its RSV vaccine, Abrysvo, for adults 18-59, following positive results from a last-stage clinical trial. There is currently no approved vaccine for adults under 59 years old who have an increased risk for the respiratory virus. The stocks were up 0.7% at $26 in the afternoon.
-Bruce Gil, Laura Bratton, and Melvin Backman contributed to this article.