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Wall Street pointed toward a third consecutive day of records before the opening bell Thursday ahead of new U.S. data releases on the labor market and inflation.Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.3% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq each ticked 0.2% higher.Market movement will hinge on government reports about inflation and unemployment benefits, two areas that the Federal Reserve attempts to manage as part of its dual mandate to control inflation and maintain a healthy labor market.Most economists believe the Fed will cut rates at its meeting next week after recent data revealed a labor market that’s been softening for longer than previously thought. While inflation also remains stubbornly above the U.S. central banks 2% target and is forecast to have risen again in August, Fed officials have increasingly expressed concern about a slowing U.S. job market.Recent government reports have also shown that hiring has slowed sharply in recent months and was lower than previously estimated last year, a sign that companies may be worried about future sales and are less interested in adding staff.Stocks have reached records in large part because Wall Street is expecting the economy to pull off a delicate balancing act: slowing enough to convince the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, but not so much that it causes a recession, all while inflation remains under control.Many things must go right for that to happen, and an encouraging signal came from a report Wednesday saying inflation at the U.S. wholesale level unexpectedly slowed in August.Traders were already convinced the Fed will deliver its first cut to interest rates of the year at its next meeting, but they need inflation data until then to be mild enough not to derail those expectations.In premarket trading Thursday, shares of residential home flipper Opendoor climbed 36% after the company named Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify, as its CEO. Opendoor also announced that co-founders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu are returning to serve on the board of directors, with Rabois stepping into the chairman’s role.Shares of FedEx fell 1.3% while UPS slipped 2.1% after Bank of America downgraded both package delivery companies’ stock.In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX rose 0.3%, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5% and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.9%.In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.2% to 44,372.50, with tech investment company SoftBank Group’s shares jumping 8.3% in a second straight day of gains.Data released Thursday showed Japan’s producer prices rose 2.7% year-on-year in August from a 2.5% rise the previous month, in line with market expectations. The higher cost of food, transport equipment and machinery contributed to the rise in prices.In Chinese markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 0.4% to 26,086.32 while the Shanghai Composite index rose 1.7% to 3,875.31.Shares of chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp added more than 6%, while Hua Hong Semiconductor rose 3.8%. Cambricon Technologies, often called China’s Nvidia, climbed 9%.South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% to 3,344.20 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3% to 8,805.00. India’s BSE Sensex added nearly 0.2% while Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.1%, trimming earlier gains. Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Americans are marking 24 years since the September 11, 2001, attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work, and other tributes honoring the victims.Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed will join dignitaries and politicians at commemorations Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.Others choose to mark the day at more intimate gatherings.James Lynch, who lost his father, Robert Lynch, during the World Trade Center attack, said he and his family will attend a ceremony near their hometown in New Jersey before spending the day at the beach.“It’s one of those things where any kind of grief, I don’t think it ever goes away,” Lynch said as he, his partner, and his mother joined thousands of volunteers preparing meals for the needy at a 9/11 charity event in Manhattan the day before the anniversary. “Finding the joy in that grief, I think, has been a huge part of my growth with this,” he said.The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah. The reading of names and moments of silence Kirk’s killing is expected to prompt additional security measures around the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York, authorities said.At ground zero in lower Manhattan, the names of the attack victims will be read aloud by family and loved ones in a ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance. Moments of silence will mark the exact times when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center’s iconic twin towers, as well as when the skyscrapers fell.At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 service members and civilians were killed when hijackers steered a jetliner into the headquarters of the U.S. military will be honored. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will attend the service before heading to the Bronx for a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers Thursday evening.And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony marked by moments of silence, the reading of names and the laying of wreaths, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.Like Lynch, people across the country are also marking the 9/11 anniversary with service projects and charity works as part of a national day of service. Volunteers will be taking part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other community events. Reverberations from attacks persist In all, the attacks by Al Qaeda militants killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning buildings trying to save lives.The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S. policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the “Global War on Terrorism” and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former Al Qaeda leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never received a trial.The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a national monument.In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot.__Associated Press reporters Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story. Follow Philip Marcelo Philip Marcelo, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Shares in meme stock darling Opendoor Technologies (Nasdaq: OPEN) are surging once again after the real estate sales platform announced a new CEO: Kaz Nejatian, the chief operating officer of Shopify. Heres what you need to know about Nejatian and how investors are reacting to the news. Whats happened? Yesterday, Opendoor named the chief operating officer of Shopify, Kaz Nejatian, as its new CEO. The appointment was news to many, but the fact that Opendoor was looking for a new chief executive was not. Thats because on August 15, Opendoor announced that its then-CEO, Carrie Wheeler, would be stepping down effective immediately. In her place, the companys chief technology and product officer, Shrisha Radhakrishna, stepped up as interim leader as the search for a new CEO commenced. At the time, Opendoor said, Wheeler had made the decision to step down from her role as CEO. However, as The Wall Street Journal notes, there has been pressure from retail investors to replace Wheeler, especially after the companys disappointing Q2 2025 results, which saw it purchase 63% fewer homes during the quarter than a year earlier. Opendoor makes the majority of its money by buying homes directly from homeowners, fixing them up, and then flipping them for a profit. But during its Q2 results, Opendoor also offered guidance that spooked investors. It said that during its current Q3, it expects revenue of $800 million to $875 million. That represents a 36% decline from the revenue it generated in the same quarter a year earlier. OPEN stock fell nearly 20% as a result of these announcementsseverely limiting the gains that it had made in July when it became a favorite among meme stock investors. In a press release announcing the search for a new CEO, Wheeler said she believed now is the right moment for a leadership transition, and Im confident the company is on a strong path forward. The company, in turn, stated that its new CEO search is well underway. As of yesterday, that search has ended. Who is Kaz Nejatian? Kaz Nejatian comes to Opendoor from Shopify, where he had held the role of the online shopping platforms chief operating officer since 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before becoming Shopifys COO in 2022, Nejatian was a VP of merchant services at the company and, prior to that, held the title of VP & GM of Shopify Money. Before Shopify, Nejatian worked at Facebook as a lead project manager for the companys payment platform and billing teams. Before his positions at Big Tech companies, Nejatian was the cofounder and CEO of Kash, a mobile payments technology company that catered to small businesses. Kash was founded in 2012 and acquired by one of the largest fintech companies in the U.S. in 2017, according to Opendoors press release. According to PitchBook, the acquiring firm was undisclosed. Announcing the appointment of Nejatian as the companys new CEO, Opendoors cofounder and chairman, Keith Rabois, said Nejatian is a decisive leader who has driven product innovation at scale, ruthlessly reduced general and administrative (G&A) expenses to drive profitability and deeply understands the potential for AI to radically reshape a companys entire operations. He is the right leader to unlock Opendoors unique data and assets as we build on Opendoors original mission, now enhanced as an AI-first company, he added. As for Nejatian, the new CEO said his position at Opendoor was a privilege. Few life events are as important as buying or selling a home, he added. With AI, we have the tools to make that experience radically simpler, faster, and more certain. Thats the future were building. How have Opendoor shares reacted? Shares in Opendoor have reacted very well to the appointment of Nejatian as CEO. As of the time of this writing, in premarket trading this morning, OPEN shares are currently trading up more than 35% to $7.92 per share. Yesterday, OPEN shares had closed down over 4% to $5.86 per share. The companys shares are now at their highest level since 2022. Year-to-date, OPEN shares have surged more than 266% as of yesterdays close. However, whether they can maintain their recent momentum in the long term will likely ultimately depend on the companys future fundamentals, rather than any transient meme stock hype.
Category:
E-Commerce
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