Morgans AM: Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets mixed ahead of the latest interest rate decision and monetary policy pronouncements from the Federal Reserve tomorrow morning AEST - Dow dipped -16-points or 0.04% to 41,606.18, snapping a four session winning streak after hitting a fresh record intra-day high (41,835.28) earlier in the session. Intel Corp rallied +2.68% to be the leading Dow component for a second session running after Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pat Gelsinger provided an update on the company's restructuring efforts, citing progress on cost-cutting and unveiling plans to turn its chipmaking arm into a separate subsidiary. The company also said it would produce chips for Amazon.com Inc’s (+1.08%) Amazon Web Services and the U.S. military. Microsoft Corp rose +0.88% after the company announced a US$60B stock buyback programme and boosted its dividend (to US$0.83c per share, up from US$0.73c previously) after the close of the previous session. Separately, BlackRock is preparing to launch a more than >US$30B artificial intelligence (AI) investment fund (via its infrastructure investment unit, Global Infrastructure Partners) with Microsoft to build data centres and energy projects to meet growing demands stemming from AI.