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Snowflake has had a good 24 hours. On Wednesday, August 27, the cloud-based data storage company announced its second-quarter earnings and reported $1.1 billion in revenuea 32% jump year-over-year (YOY). The companys second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2026 also saw a net revenue retention rate of 125%. Plus, it grew from 606 to 654 customers with more than $1 million in trailing 12-month product revenue. Perhaps most notably, Snowflake has now increased its expected product revenue for FY 2026 to $4.4 billion from $4.3 billion. If met, this figure would signify a 27% growth YOY and beat analysts predictions, according to consensus estimates cited by Reuters. Investors responded positively to the news, with Snowflakes stock price (NYSE: SNOW) jumping about 14% after-hours and into premarket trading on Thursday. What is fueling Snowflakes success? In an earnings call, Snowflakes CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy attributed a great deal of the companys success to AI. Snowflake remains laser focused on our mission to empower every enterprise to achieve its full potential through data and AI, Ramaswamy stated. Were delivering our more than 12,000 customers tremendous value throughout their entire data life cycle with an AI data cloud thats designed to enable faster innovation and remove friction from business operations. Ramaswamy added that Snowflake delivered on our product strategy, introducing incredible new innovations to drive value at each stage of our customers data journey.” “Of course, AI is front and center,” he added. “We are continuing to advance our leadership in enterprise AI with Snowflake Intelligence now in public preview. This platform enables every user to talk to their enterprise data, turning structured and unstructured data into actionable insights through natural language. Shares of Snowflake are up 27% year to date and almost 80% over the last 12 months as of Wednesdays close. Mixed week for AI-adjacent tech However, the AI boom wasnt strong enough to propel every company. Wednesday also saw Nvidia announce its second-quarter earnings for FY 2026, and even a 56% boost in revenue YOYto $46.7 billionwasnt enough to lift its shares. The chip manufacturers stock initially fell 3.5%, though it has almost fully rebounded in premarket trading. The lack of excitement came in part due to Nvidias $41.1 billion in data center revenue. Despite also being up 56% YOY, it failed to meet Wall Streets predicted $41.34 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Nvidia is also facing continued uncertainty about selling its H20 chips to China, despite giving the Trump administration a 15% cut of sales for the go-ahead. The company sold no H20 chips to China during quarter two, and reports indicate that Nvidia has halted production of the chips.
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World shares were mixed Thursday after modest gains on Wall Street lifted the S&P 500 to another all-time high ahead of computer chipmaker Nvidia’s highly anticipated earnings report.The future for S&P 500 rose 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. Meanwhile, oil prices declined.In early European trading, Germany’s DAX climbed 0.4% to 24,144.65 while Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% to 9,240.75. In Paris, the CAC 40 jumped 1.1% to 7,825.28.In China, shares in computer chipmaker Cambricon Technologies soared 15.7% to 1,587.91 yuan ($222), becoming the priciest stock on Shanghai’s exchange as it surpassed Kweichou Moutai’s stock, which slipped to 1,446 yuan ($202) a share. Cambricon’s shares have jumped after it reported its revenue and profit expanded many fold in the first half of the year, helped by the Chinese government’s support for domestic semiconductor makers.The Shanghai Composite index surged 1.1% to 3,843.60. It has been trading near decade-high levels on heavy buying by institutional investors.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.8% to 24,998.82, led by losses for technology companies like food delivery company Meituan. Its shares dropped 10.3% while e-commerce giant JD.com declined 5%. Such companies have seen demand sag as Chinese consumers cut back on spending.Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.7% to 42,828.79. It has been trading near record levels, despite friction with Washington over a preliminary trade agreement that has yet to be finalized. Top trade envoy Ryohei Akazawa abruptly postponed a trip to the U.S. capital planned for Thursday in the latest sign of trouble over the deal setting tariffs on Japanese exports at 15%, a policy that has yet to come into effect.South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.3% to 3,196.32 after the Bank of Korea kept its policy rate unchanged at 2.5% for the second review in a row.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher to 8,980.00. India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.9%, reopening following a public holiday after higher U.S. tariffs on the country’s exports took effect on Wednesday.Taiwan’s TAIEX shed 1.2%.On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, nudging past the record high it set two weeks ago to close at 6,481.40.The Dow industrials rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% higher at 21,590.14.Technology companies led the way higher, outweighing declines in communication services and other sectors.After the market closed, Nvidia’s quarterly report showed its earnings and revenue topped Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated. The stock fell 3.2% in after-hours trading after having slipped 0.1% during the regular session.Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market.In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude dropped 48 cents to $63.67 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 47 cents to $66.97 per barrel.The dollar fell to 147.24 Japanese yen, down from 147.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1639 from $1.1640. Teresa Cerojano, Associated Press
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The director of the nation’s top public health agency has been fired after less than one month in the job, and several top agency leaders have resigned.Susan Monarez isn’t “aligned with” President Donald Trump’s agenda and refused to resign, so the White House terminated her, spokesman Kush Desai said Wednesday night.Her lawyers said she was targeted for standing up for science.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had announced her departure in a brief social media post late Wednesday afternoon. Her lawyers responded with a statement saying Monarez had neither resigned nor been told she was fired.“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell wrote in a statement.“This is not about one official. It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science. The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within,” they said.Her departure coincided with the resignations this week of at least four top CDC officials. The list includes Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s deputy director; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, head of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Dr. Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.In an email seen by the Associated Press, Houry lamented the crippling effects on the agency from planned budget cuts, reorganization, and firings.“I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency,” she wrote.She also noted the rise of misinformation about vaccines during the current Trump administration, and alluded to new limits on CDC communications.“For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations,” she wrote.Daskalakis worked closely with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remade the committee by firing everyone and replacing them with a group that included several vaccine skepticsone of whom was put in charge of a COVID-19 vaccines workgroup.In his resignation letter, Daskalakis lamented that the changes put “people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy.” He described Monarez as “hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader.” He added: “Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults.”He also wrote: “I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality.”HHS officials did not immediately respond to questions about the resignations.Some public health experts decried the loss of so many of CDC’s scientific leaders.“The CDC is being decapitated. This is an absolute disaster for public health,” said Public Citizen’s Dr. Robert Steinbrook.Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease researcher, said the departures were “a serious loss for America.”“The loss of experienced, world-class infectious disease experts at CDC is directly related to the failed leadership of extremists currently in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services,” he said. “They make our country less safe and less prepared for public health emergencies.”Monarez, 50, was the agency’s 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.She was sworn in on July 31less than a month ago, making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the history of the 79-year-old agency.Her short time at CDC was tumultuous. On August 8, at the end of her first full week on the job, a Georgia man opened fire from a spot at a pharmacy across the street from CDC’s main entrance. The 30-year-old man blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal. He killed a police officer and fired more than 180 shots into CDC buildings before killing himself.No one at CDC was injured, but it shell-shocked a staff that already had low morale from other recent changes.Monarez had scheduled an “all hands meeting” meeting for the CDC staffseen as an important step in addressing concerns among staff since the shootingfor Monday this week. But HHS officials meddled with that, too, canceling it and calling Monarez to Washington, D.C., said a CDC official who was not authorized to talk about it and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.The Atlanta-based federal agency was initially founded to prevent the spread of malaria in the U.S. Its mission was later expanded, and it gradually became a global leader on infectious and chronic diseases and a go-to source of health information.This year it’s been hit by widespread staff cuts, resignations of key officials, and heated controversy over long-standing CDC vaccine policies upended by KennedyDuring her Senate confirmation process, Monarez told senators that she values vaccines, public health interventions, and rigorous scientific evidence. But she largely dodged questions about whether those positions put her at odds with Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who has criticized and sought to dismantle some of the agency’s previous protocols and decisions.Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, praised Monarez for standing up to Kennedy and called for him to be fired.“We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground,” she said in a statement Wednesday night.The Washington Post first reported Monarez was ousted. AP reporter Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer
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