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European and Asian shares mostly gained on Tuesday after U.S. stocks rallied on hopes the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon.The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% lower to 23,216.76 and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.1% to 7,965.77. Britain’s FTSE 100 likewise gained 0.1%, to 9,542.55.In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 picked up 0.1% to 48,659.52 as a plunge in technology giant SoftBank’s shares weighed on the market. It fell 10.3% on concerns that returns from its heavy investments in OpenAI may be threatened by the next generation Gemini artificial intelligence model that Google launched last week.In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.3% to 3,857.78. Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 1.5%.Chinese markets also advanced. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng climbed 0.7% to 25,894.55, while the Shanghai Composite index jumped 0.9% to 3,870.02.E-commerce giant Alibaba, which was due to report its earnings late Tuesday, gained 2.1% in Hong Kong.Australia’s S&P/ASX rebounded to edge 0.1% higher, closing at 8,537.00.U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. A day later, it’s on to the rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.The U.S. stock market rallied on Monday, at the start of a week with shortened trading because of the Thanksgiving holiday.The S&P 500 climbed 1.5% in one of its best days since the summer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.7%.Stocks got a lift from rising hopes that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in December, a move that could boost the economy and investment prices.The market also benefited from strength for stocks caught up in the artificial-intelligence frenzy. Alphabet, which has been getting praise for its Gemini AI model, rallied 6.3% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. Nvidia rose 2.1%.Monday’s gains followed sharp swings in recent weeks, not just day to day but also hour to hour, caused by uncertainty about what the Fed will do with interest rates and whether too much money is pouring into AI and creating a bubble. All the worries are creating the biggest test for investors since an April sell-off, when President Donald Trump shocked the world with his “Liberation Day” tariffs.Despite all the recent fear, the S&P 500 remains within 2.7% of its record set last month.Several tests for the market lie ahead this week. One of the biggest will arrive Tuesday when the U.S. government will deliver data on inflation at the wholesale level in September.Economists expect it to show a 2.6% rise in prices from a year earlier, the same as in August. A higher-than-expected reading could deter the Fed from cutting its main interest rate in December for a third time this year, because lower rates can worsen inflation. Some Fed officials have already argued against a December cut in part because inflation has stubbornly remained above their 2% target.Traders are nevertheless betting on a nearly 85% probability that the Fed will cut rates next month, up from 71% on Friday and from less than a coin flip’s chance seen a week ago, according to data from CME Group.In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 47 cents to $58.37 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 49 cents to $62.23 per barrel.The dollar fell to 156.30 Japanese yen from 156.91 yen. The euro rose to $1.1534 from $1.1521.Bitcoin rose 1.6% to $86,836. It was near $125,000 last month. Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
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Shares in Alphabet Inc (Nasdaq: GOOG), the company better known as Google, are rising again in premarket trading today. The stock is currently up by more than 4% following yesterday’s rise of 6.2%. If those gains hold, Google could be set to become the worlds next company with a $4 trillion market cap today. Heres what you need to know. Why are GOOG shares rising? Shares in Alphabet have had a stellar run as of late. Yesterday, they rose more than 6.2%. Over the past five days, they have been up more than 11.5%. Over the past month, they have jumped more than 22%. And over the past six months, they have been up more than 87%. And thats before todays further 4% gain in premarket trading. So why is Alphabet’s share price jumping recently, particularly over the past week? Theres one big reason: artificial intelligence. But the companys boost from AI is the result of two different factors. The first: Last week, Google released Gemini 3, its proprietary AI chatbot and LLM. Industry watchers and consumers have widely praised the model for its speed, performance, and capabilities, which, in many tests, have outperformed OpenAIs ChatGPT-5. Gemini 3s capabilities and Googles decision to quickly integrate it into Search helped spur the stock higher last week. But that isnt the only AI boost Google that has gotten recently. On Monday, the Information reported that Facebook owner Meta is considering using Googles AI chips in its data centers in 2027a deal that could be worth billions to Google. Googles AI chips are the companys tensor processing units (TPUs). Googles TPUs have been around for nearly eight years now, but, as CNBC noted, the company has recently begun designing them to handle AI tasks with efficiency in mind. Meta is one of the largest buyers of components that go into AI infrastructure, and Nvidia is the leading provider in supplying AI chips. If Meta is considering opting for Googles TPUs over Nvidias AI chips, it suggests the company has confidence that Googles chips are more than suitable for powering its data centers. If thats the case, Google could be set to become a serious competitor to Nvidia in the AI hardware race. Indeed, Google investors seem to be celebrating that this morning. Fast Company reached out to Google and Meta for comment. Google could become the next $4 trillion company As of yesterdays market close, Alphabet had a market cap of roughly $3.84 trillion, making it the third-most valuable company after Nvidia and Apple, both of which are currently valued at more than $4 trillion. But already in premarket trading this morning, GOOG shares have risen by more than 4%. The companys share price needs to rise by just under 5% over yesterdays close to reach a market cap of $4 trillion. If it does that, Google would become just the fourth company to ever reach that milestone, following Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. (Microsofts valuation has currently sunk back below $4 trillion). Given that Googles stock price is already up around 4% in premarket this morning, it’s possible, but not guaranteed, that the search giant could cross the $4 trillion market cap before markets close today. Google is the best-performing Magnificent 7 stock of the year so far Google hasnt had just a great run as of late. When you look back at the companys stock price performance since 2025 began and compare it to the other companies in the Magnificent 7, Google is far and away the best-performing stock in the group so far this year. As of yesterdays closing price of $318.47 per share, GOOG shares were up over 87% since the year began. Heres how that compares to the other Magnificent 7 stocks: Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG): up 87.79% year to date (YTD) NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA): up 35.94% YTD Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT): up 12.46% YTD Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL): up 10.18% YTD Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META): up 4.70% YTD Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA): up 3.45% YTD Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN): up 3.14% YTD Investors will be keenly watching where Googles stock price goes from here. Its impossible to predict which direction that will be, but as of this writing, GOOG is so far the clear winner as far as stock price gains go among the Magnificent 7 in 2025.
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E-Commerce
After entrepreneur Brynn Putnam sold her smart fitness company, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million in 2020, she was looking for her next big idea. It was the middle of the pandemic, and Putnam was living with five kids ranging in age from 2 to 21. She says she often found herself dreaming of an activity that would get her whole family to sit down and connect with each other. Brynn Putnam [Photo: Board] When we played games, we were either playing board games like Candyland, so that the littlest ones could participate, or we would try to play video games, but the teenagers who’ve logged a lot of hours on sort of modern controllers would always smoke us, Putnam says. There was a missing product: one that could give you the tactile feel of physical pieces and the face-to-face interaction of sitting around a shared experience, but with the interactivity of video games. Enter Board, Putnams newest venture. Board is a 24-inch game console that looks a bit like a gigantic iPad. Its function, though, is unlike pretty much any other device on the market: Board combines the setup and feel of a traditional board game with the digital screen of a video game, allowing players to use physical pieces on top of an interactive screen. [Image: Board] The console comes with 12 exclusive games and can accommodate up to 10 players in a team setting. It debuted on October 28 for a holiday price of $499, though its standard cost is $699. While the Board team wouldn’t share sales data, they did note that the product already surpassed initial forecasts. To make Boards premise work, Putnams team designed its own custom hardware and software that can identify different kinds of touch, withstand rough play and spills, and react in real time to players movements. For Putnam, Board represents an entirely new way to use tech; rather than isolating its users, Board is built to provide a social experience. [Photo: Board] How Board built a brand-new kind of game Creating Board started with one major hurdle, says Ryan Measel, the companys chief technology officer: Most touchscreens are only built to recognize 10 fingersand theyre certainly not designed to recognize objects. Board needed to identify not only an unlimited number of fingers, but also the consoles 49 unique game pieces. Measel explains that, with commercial platforms like Android and iOS, theres a programming layer that limits how many touch pointslike taps and swipesa developer can build into an application. With Board, Measels team built a custom driver that gave them full access to the consoles sensor array, opening up essentially endless possibilities for different interactions with the screen. [Photo: Board] Specifically, the Board screen is able to determine whats touching it (and how) through an embedded AI model thats been trained on the systems sensory outputs. It knows, for instance, how to distinguish between a hand accidentally brushing the board, a finger tapping the screen, and an arm passing over the board. It can also tell the difference between all 49 of the consoles game pieces using conductive traces, or unique patterns made out of a conductive material, that are etched onto the bottom of every piece. 30 fingers on the Board during the testing process. [Image: Board] Alongside the Boards unique ability to distinguish touch, Putnam says, a top concern was the consoles durabilityespecially given that some of its games are designed to be enjoyed by players as young as six. The device comes with a spill-resistant gasket around the display and a tight internal structure to keep it safe from liquids and bumps. My littlest one is 2, so she tends to use everything as a weapon, Putnam says. We have some great photos and videos from the testing process at the factory of te Board being submerged underwater, dropped from very high heights, and scratched multiple times. [Image: Board] How Board works When users receive their Board, the device comes with 12 games made specifically for the console, as well as unique pieces tailored to each game. Seth Sivak, Boards chief creative officer and former CEO of the game studio Proletariat, led game development. He says the consoles portfolio of games was carefully crafted specifically to offer something for all different kinds of players. [Photo: Board] The options run the gamut from 60-second-long arcade-inspired games to an escape room-themed experience that can take up to 90 minutes to complete. Even within the games themselves, players of different ages and skill levels can find roles appropriate to themlike in the chef-inspired game Chop Chop, where the kind of utensil game piece chosen by each participant determines their role in the kitchen. [Image: Board] The 2 year old can be the sponge and feel a lot of joy cleaning the kitchen, but it’s very simple and intuitive for them to do, Putnam says. The grown-up can be in charge of managing the order tickets as they come in and strategizing about how to navigate the changing kitchen layout, recipes, and tickets. I think thats really hard to dothere’s not a ton of experiences that really make sure everyone has a seat at the table. Right now, Sivak and his team are working to build out Boards IP into additional games. At the same time, Putnam says the company is working on making its software development kit available to external developers in order to bring existing games into the Board universe. [Photo: Board] Board is combining the old-school nostalgia of game night with all the advantages of digital gamingand it might just be a hit for everyone in the family. I think for a lot of parents, myself included, you don’t want to pretend like technology doesn’t exist, because technology makes things betterBoard does the rule maintenance for you, it does the score keeping, it does all these things, Putnam says. But you don’t want technology to remove social interaction. It’s important that the screen brings people together. It doesn’t replace your friends or your family, it doesn’t replace your teacher, but it helps make those experiences more rich.
Category:
E-Commerce
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