Market Recap (11/26/23)

Written By Jayden Kahn

Market Recap of the week of November 20, 2023 - November 24, 2023

Source: Apple Stocks Application

Overall Market Trends:

This past week was a short week as markets were closed on Thursday due to Thanksgiving and major U.S. stock exchanges closed early at 1:00 pm on Friday. Despite this short week, the stock market still steadily rose, with all four major indexes showing weekly gains. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) rose 191 points (1.21%). The Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 posted their fourth consecutive week of gains, rebounding to prices seen in the height of August. The Dow Jones increased 422 points (1.21%), the NASDAQ Composite increased 77 points (0.54%), and the S&P 500 rose 42 points (0.92%).

With inflation continuing to slow, investors now believe that there will be no more interest rate hikes which boosted the market this week. Investors are now shifting their focus from whether there will be more hikes to when there will be interest rate cuts. However, stocks fell on Tuesday partly because of the Fed minutes from the Oct 31-Nov 1 meeting which suggested that they are worried about a strong U.S. economy re-accelerating inflation but left investors still believing that the next change in rates would be a cut.

Additionally, treasury yields are at a recent low, with the 10-year sitting at around 4.4% as opposed to the >5% yields before entering November. This is also supporting the market’s recent increase as stock prices go up when yields drop.

Microsoft, OpenAI, and Sam Altman:

OpenAI, a major artificial intelligence firm, is commonly known for its developments in the AI industry and its widespread AI Chatbot ChatGPT.

On Friday, November 17, the world was left confused and in shock when OpenAI fired its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sam Altman for a then-unknown reason. The abrupt firing, as MarketWatch stated, “sent a shock-wave through Silicon Valley”. It was later found out that the firing was due to a power struggle in which Altman and the board wanted to take the company in different directions.

Shortly after the firing, then-president, Greg Brockman, announced that he was quitting in response to the firing in a tweeted statement:

OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati was placed as interim CEO. Then, on Monday, November 20, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said he accepted an offer to become the interim CEO of the company in a tweeted statement:

Earlier that morning, the board at OpenAI received a letter stating that nearly 500 of the 770 OpenAI employees were threatening to leave the AI powerhouse unless Brockman and Altman had their jobs reinstated and the board resigned. Additionally, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft, one of the leading investors in OpenAI, had hired Altman alongside Brockman to lead a new AI-based research division at Microsoft:

The employees later said that they may join Altman and Brockman at Microsoft. Later that day, Nadella also indicated that he would not be opposed to Altman rejoining OpenAI provided changes were made to the company's governance.

Later that week, on Wednesday, November 22, OpenAI announced that they had agreed to an agreement in principle to bring back Sam Altman as CEO as well as instating a new board:

Brockman also announced on the platform X that he too was rejoining OpenAI:

With all this being resolved, Microsoft’s market capitalization had increased nearly $63 billion over the course of the dilemma.

Past Earning Reports:

Looking Towards the Future

Future Earning Reports:

Jayden Kahn
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