In the 17th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Ro Khanna is facing a challenge from tech founder Ethan Agarwal, a fellow Democrat. Agarwal is an opponent of the ballot initiative to levy a one-time, 5% wealth tax on Californians with more than $1 billion in assets.
The markets are higher out of the gate, with technology leaders including Nvidia and Oracle leading the way. Traders and investors are looking to Nvidia's earnings report after the bell alongside comments from CEO Jensen Huang to improve market sentiment, which has taken a hit of late, with the Nasdaq Composite clocking declines of 3% over the past month.
The markets are under pressure today after Big Tech stocks spooked investors with their hefty capex agendas for 2026. Google parent Alphabet ( Nasdaq: GOOGL) Google shocked the markets by basically doubling its capital expenditures roadmap to $185 billion in 2026 compared with expectations of $120 billion in a bid to drive growth. GOOGL stock, which is a member of the Nasdaq Composite, is currently down about 3% while its market cap is hovering at $3.9 trillion.
(Bloomberg/Ryan Vlastelica) Soaring prices for memory and storage components have turned companies like Sandisk Corp., Micron Technology Inc. and Western Digital Corp. into the hottest stocks in the market over the past year. But they're causing headaches for many of their customers. Hardware companies from Apple Inc. to HP Inc. are under pressure, as their need for expensive memory components becomes an investing risk one that isn't expected to reverse anytime soon. They're in a tough position, said Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital, which has $9.1 billion in assets and runs an exchange-traded fund dedicated to AI infrastructure.
The markets are posting a dizzying performance after clinching record highs earlier this week. Technology deals and AI advancements are bullish catalysts, but that sentiment is failing to show up in the three of the major stock market indices today, which are mixed out of the gate. Most of the sectors of the economy are trading in the green today with the exception of tech stocks, which are down 1%, weighed down by the likes of Nvidia ( Nasdaq: NVDA), Apple ( Nasdaq: AAPL)
