Markets
Tech
Speculative Impending Tech Bubble Burst
Thursday brought a downward market slide with the S&P 500, Dow, and NASDAQ plummeting sharply. With $730 billion disappearing from the NASDAQ in merely a few hours, there are obvious concerns of an impending tech bubble burst. The market correction of overvalued tech stocks was instrumental in the sharp drop in the U.S. stock indexes, resulting in large drops in market cap for many of the tech giants. Similar to the dot-com bubble that burst around 2001, many of today’s analysts are focused on aspects of businesses unrelated to the valuation or the cash flow. Nonetheless, it can be seen that Amazon effectively survived the dot-com bubble and is once again expertly positioned to survive another potential tech bubble. Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent fell nearly directly after the fall for U.S. tech stocks. The general consensus regarding the tech bubble simplifies to the necessity of market corrections which are likely on their way in the coming months.
Gaming
Nvidia announces 8K resolution graphics card
Nvidia recently promised the delivery of an 8K resolution graphics card made from proprietary Ampere silicon architecture. Additional improvements that came with the card include advances in ray-tracing technology which will now allow users to see virtual games in an even more realistic light. Equally promising news includes that even more games that are coming out in the near future have announced that they will support ray-tracing, providing even more incentive to current gamers to update their graphics card. With Nvidia outperforming its rivals Sony and Microsoft with its GPUs, it’s perfectly positioned for a surge in its stock price in the coming months. Nvidia has even made price cuts on their new 30-series graphics card dropping the cost to around $500 despite the card being more powerful than the top product of the previous generation which sold for around $1000. Essentially, it has become obsolete to dish out the money for the 10 or 20 series with this announcement.
Politics
RNC and DNC Didn’t Make a Dent in Polling Numbers
The polling gap between Biden and Trump has been holding relatively steady with Biden polling roughly eight percentage points ahead of Trump despite the national conventions for both parties having occurred. The lead in key swing states is still being held by the democratic candidate, but margins are tightening in states like North Carolina and Wisconsin. Democratic advisors are pushing the dialogue towards President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, a general strategy concerning the recent protests regarding racial equality, and trying to increase their military support in light of Trump’s alleged comments regarding those who have served this country in the armed forces. The GOP seems to be doubling down on their law and order message.
COVID-19
Permanent Job Losses Loom with Increasing U.S. Cases
Coupled with the long lasting economic fallout from the pandemic and the reinvention of many regulatory business operations, many companies will likely reduce their employees, resulting in the permanent job loss that President Trump has been heavily adamant is only temporary. There are going to be two more job reports between now and election day, and if they reaffirm the permanency of the job losses due to the pandemic, it will be incredibly difficult for the Trump campaign to continue their emphasis on temporary layoffs.
Exxon and Salesforce Switch Out
Oil and Gas Downfall While Cloud Computing Thrives
After nearly 100 years on the index, Exxon Mobil (XOM) has now been replaced on the Dow by Salesforce. Many claim this marks the ushering in of a new era in which we will see the fall of oil and gas companies and the continued rise of big data corporations. Though this switch in the index was exacerbated by the economic effects of the pandemic relating to the increased need for CRM alongside the increase in remote work, the rise in international energy consumption on average may give Exxon the market space they need while they push for a slow switch towards renewable energy sources.
Written By: Sanjana Shah
Works Cited
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Garrett, Ural. “Forget PS5 and Xbox Series X: Nvidia's RTX 3070 Could Be All You Need.” Tom's Guide, Tom's Guide, 5 Sept. 2020, www.tomsguide.com/news/forget-ps5-and-xbox-series-x-nvidias-rtx-3070-could-be-all-you-need.
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