Stock Market News: Fed's bank stress tests, FTC vs Amazon, Ford layoff numbers

Traders on the floor of the NYSE. REUTERS

Wall Street drifted to a mixed close on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1%, but held on to a gain for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.

General Mills had one of the larger drops after the maker of cereals and other foods reported weaker revenue than expected.

That helped drag down stocks of several other food companies. Cruise operators continued to steam higher. They've been strong this year on hopes for strong demand by passengers looking for vacations. Trading was relatively quiet in markets elsewhere.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, at the Old Post Office in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

President Joe Biden had a tough sell Wednesday, trying to convince voters that the U.S. economy is flourishing.

The president showcased on what he now touts as “Bidenomics” in a speech in Chicago. But a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that just 34% of U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership.

That figure is slightly lower than his overall approval rating of 41%. And many of the Democrats Biden needs to marshal in 2024 are comparatively unenthusiastic about his economic record.

Seventy-two percent within his own party say they approve of his handling of his job overall but just 60% say they approve of his handling of the economy.

POLITICS

Biden touts 'Bidenomics' despite terrible poll numbers on the economy

U.S. President Joe Biden's handling of the economy is among the least popular parts of his administration, and he's now trying to rebrand with “Bidenomics."

A microchip being manufactured. REUTERS.

The U.S. is reportedly mulling new restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence chips to China.

The Commerce Department could move to stop the exporting of chips made by Nvidia and other companies to customers in China as early as July, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

The potential restrictions would be an extension of the export control measures the U.S. announced in October that required companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to obtain licenses to deliver powerful AI chips to China.

MARKETS

US weighs new restrictions on AI chip exports to China: Report

The U.S. is reportedly considering restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence chips made by companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to China.

An illustration of the FTX logo with cryptocurrency tokens. REUTERS

Bankrupt FTX is moving ahead with efforts to revive its flagship international cryptocurrency exchange, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing CEO John Ray.

The company "has begun the process of soliciting interested parties to the reboot of the FTX.com exchange," Ray said, according to the Journal's report.

The failed crypto company has been holding talks with investors about backing a potential restart of the FTX.com exchange through structures such as a joint venture, the report added citing people familiar with the discussions.

In November, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States following its spectacular collapse that sent shivers through the digital assets industry.

Virgin Galactic's Unity 25 in May 2023. (Courtesy of Virgin Galactic)

A three-man crew from Italy is set on Thursday to board a passenger rocket plane operated by Virgin Galactic, the venture British billionaire Richard Branson founded in 2004, for the company's first commercial flight to the edge of space.

The two Italian air force officers and an aerospace engineer from the National Research Council of Italy were to join their Virgin Galactic instructor and the spaceplane's two pilots on a suborbital ride taking them about 50 miles (80 km) above the New Mexico desert.

The flight, dubbed Galactic 01, comes two years after Branson himself rode along with five other Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc personnel for the company's first fully crewed test spaceflight of its rocket plane, VSS Unity.

Back then, Virgin Galactic officials said they expected to begin regular commercial operations in 2022 following additional test flights. But completion of the test campaign took longer than anticipated after federal regulators grounded the rocket plane for 11 weeks while the company was under investigation for deviating from its assigned airspace on ascent during the July 2021 flight. A final crewed test flight to space was conducted successfully but with less fanfare five weeks ago.

MARKETS

Virgin Galactic looks to the stars with first commercial flight as space wars heat up

Virgin Galactic's suborbital flight will feature three crew members from Italy and is expected to launch on Thursday morning. The company completed its final test flight last month.

Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. REUTERS

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated Wednesday that more rate rises likely lie ahead for the central bank, and did not rule out a boost in the cost of borrowing at a policy meeting scheduled for the end of July.

"We've come a long way" with rate rises, Powell said at a European Central Bank conference held in Sintra, Portugal, noting that holding off on a rate rise earlier this month was a move to take stock of how the rate hike campaign is affecting the economy.

Powell said future policy actions will be driven by how the economy is performing, noting "the only thing we decided was not to raise rates at the June meeting."

Powell said "I wouldn't take, you know, moving at consecutive meetings off the table at all," noting "the committee clearly believes that there's more work to do, that there are more rate hikes that are likely to be appropriate" at some point over the course of the year.

A truck drives past brine evaporation ponds at Albemarle Corp.'s Silver Peak lithium facility, on Oct. 6, 2022, in Silver Peak, Nev. Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure "white gold" in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile. AP Photo/John Locher, File

Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure “white gold” in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.

General Motors Co. and the parent company of China’s BYD Auto Ltd. are going straight to the source and buying stakes in lithium miners, a rare step in an industry that relies on outside vendors for copper and other raw materials.

Others are investing in lithium refiners or recycling technology. A shortfall in supplies would be an obstacle for government and industry plans to ramp up sales to tens of millions of electric vehicles a year.

Andy Fang, DoorDash’s co-founder and chief technology officer, picks up and delivers food orders to customers in downtown San Francisco on Saturday, June 15, 2023. Fang is one of a growing number of executives who work shifts on the front lines of the companies they run. All DoorDash salaried employees are required to make deliveries or work directly with customers or merchants several times a year. AP Photo/Terry Chea

When DoorDash began, its three co-founders did all the deliveries themselves. A decade later, they're still at it.

DoorDash Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Andy Fang makes DoorDash deliveries for about an hour each month, which helps him fix problems quickly and better understand drivers and customers.

Fang says those insights are important, which is why DoorDash requires salaried employees in the U.S., Canada and Australia to do at least four deliveries a year.

Fang is one of a growing number of executives occasionally doing hourly work. Starbucks' new CEO works once a month as a barista, while the CEOs of Uber and Lyft put in ride-sharing shifts.