\n OpenAI’s valuation soared to $500 billion after employee stock sale.\n <\/p>\n
by\u202fAndre Janse van Vuuren and Kwaku Gyasi\u00a0<\/p>\n
Technology stocks drove global indexes to fresh highs after an OpenAI share sale\u202fcatapulted\u202fthe firm to the world\u2019s most valuable startup, bolstering optimism for artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.3%, putting the gauge on track for a fifth straight gain. Europe\u2019s Stoxx 600 rose 0.7%, led by an advance of more than 2% in technology shares. In Asia, equities rose past last month\u2019s record close as chipmakers rallied. MSCI\u2019s global index also notched a fresh high.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s\u202fvaluation\u202fsoared to $500 billion after current and former employees sold about $6.6 billion of stock, boosting the company\u2019s price tag well above its\u00a0previous\u00a0$300 billion level. The ChatGPT owner also\u202fforged agreements\u202fwith South Korean firms to supply chips for its Stargate project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AI boom has powered global stocks to successive highs, with a resumption of interest-rate cuts and resilient earnings adding to the bullish momentum. For now, investors also see limited risk from the\u202fpolitical impasse\u202fin Washington, which has triggered the first government shutdown in\u00a0nearly seven\u00a0years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tech sector is so large and it\u2019s doing so well,\u201d said Marija\u00a0Veitmane, senior multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets. \u201cThe reason the market is prepared to pay those high valuations for the tech sector is really because we don\u2019t see good growth opportunities outside tech.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Treasuries mostly held Wednesday\u2019s gains, with the yield on 10-year notes steady at 4.09%. After Fed rate-cut expectations pulled yields down from January\u2019s high near 4.80%, traders are now contending with a temporary blackout in economic data amid the government shutdown.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 nonfarm payrolls data on Friday will\u00a0likely be\u00a0delayed, as well as the usual weekly\u00a0initial\u00a0jobless claims figures due later today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Money markets are\u00a0almost fully\u00a0pricing a quarter-point Fed cut at the end of the month and see an 80% chance of another in December to support a cooling\u00a0labor\u00a0market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you really dig into the\u00a0labor\u00a0market data, it\u2019s not just an AI structural story, it\u2019s not just a lower immigration story, you are seeing that cyclical demand weakness,\u201d Kim Crawford, global rates portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Bloomberg TV. \u201cThe clearest part to this puzzle is wage growth, there is a lack of wage growth in the US.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dollar fell for a fifth day, while\u202fgold\u202fextended a record-breaking rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strategists noted that past shutdowns have typically had little macroeconomic impact. At a White House press conference on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said he\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0anticipate\u00a0a long shutdown, adding that layoffs will come if it lasts for days or weeks.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all very much a storm in a teacup,\u201d wrote Michael Brown, a senior market strategist at\u00a0Pepperstone. \u201cThe government has shut down 20 times in the\u00a0past, and\u00a0reopened 20 times as well \u2013 this time will not be different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBanca Monte\u00a0dei\u00a0Paschi di Siena\u00a0SpA\u2019s\u202fpurchase of rival Mediobanca\u00a0SpA\u00a0could mark the start of a new wave of consolidation for Italy\u2019s banking sector, according to the executive who pulled off the deal.\u00a0
\n\tBASF SE\u202fmay start a buyback of at least \u20ac4 billion ($4.7 billion) in shares earlier than planned.\u00a0
\n\tTesco Plc\u202fraised its profit forecast for this fiscal year as the supermarket won over more shoppers than\u00a0anticipated\u00a0with its competitive pricing and range of store brand products.\u00a0
\n\tStellantis NV\u202fis mulling a potential sale of its car-sharing business Free2move as Chief Executive Officer Antonio Filosa looks to turn around the ailing automaker\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Some of the main moves in markets:\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.7% as of 10:33 a.m. London time\u00a0
\n\tS&P 500 futures rose 0.1%\u00a0
\n\tNasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3%\u00a0
\n\tFutures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed\u00a0
\n\tThe MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1%\u00a0
\n\tThe MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 1.3%\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Currencies\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%\u00a0
\n\tThe euro rose 0.2% to $1.1756\u00a0
\n\tThe Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 146.66 per dollar\u00a0
\n\tThe offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1287 per dollar\u00a0
\n\tThe British pound rose 0.2% to $1.3504\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Cryptocurrencies\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBitcoin rose 1% to $118,714.45\u00a0
\n\tEther rose 1.1% to $4,386.62\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Bonds\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.09%\u00a0
\n\tGermany\u2019s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 2.70%\u00a0
\n\tBritain\u2019s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.70%\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Commodities\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBrent crude fell 0.4% to $65.10 a barrel\u00a0
\n\tSpot gold rose 0.3% to $3,876.11 an ounce\u00a0
<\/p>\n
This story was produced with the\u00a0assistance\u00a0of Bloomberg Automation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u202f2025\u202fBloomberg L.P.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI’s valuation soared to $500 billion after employee stock sale. by\u202fAndre Janse van Vuuren and Kwaku Gyasi\u00a0 Technology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[28,112],"class_list":["post-197056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-business","tag-markets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}