- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cast doubt on the Federal Reserve as an institution.
- Investors continued monitoring earnings from companies like Coca-Cola.
- Southwest Airlines will start selling tickets with seat assignments next week.
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It’s a good day to check on your investments. The
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
kicked off the trading week by touching
new all-time highs
on Monday, boosted by gains in major tech names such as
Apple
,
Alphabet
and
Meta
. To be sure, the rising tide didn’t lift all boats:
Retail investor favorites
Palantir
and
Nvidia
both took a leg down in the session. U.S. stock futures are little changed on Tuesday morning — you can
follow live market updates here
.
Two well-known companies reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings Tuesday morning.
General Motors
beat expectations
for the second quarter and reaffirmed previously cut guidance for the full year, with the automaker saying it is working to reduce its exposure to tariffs.
Coca-Cola
also delivered
higher second-quarter numbers
for adjusted earnings per share and revenue than Wall Street penciled in. However, the results didn’t necessarily leave a good taste in investors’ mouths. Shares of Coca-Cola were slightly lower in Tuesday’s premarket, white GM shares dropped around 3%.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the
Federal Reserve
should undergo an review that’s
existential in scope.
Bessent said the central bank’s ability to achieve its mission needs to be looked at with a critical eye, adding that an organization like the Federal Aviation Administration would face scrutiny if it performed similarly to how the Fed has. Bessent later clarified on
social media
that he would like to see the Fed internally review its “non-monetary policy operations.” Still, his comments come as President
Donald Trump
and his team have
ramped up criticism
of Fed Chair
Jerome Powell
over the bank’s decision to keep interest rates steady in recent months. Bessent also discussed tariffs in his on-air interview with CNBC, saying that the Aug. 1 deadline will
“put more pressure”
on trading partners to ink deals.
Move over,
GameStop
. Real-estate ecommerce platform
Opendoor Technologies
appears to be the next big meme stock. The beaten-down penny stock surged more than 42% in Monday’s session, bringing its one-month rally above 500%. (No, those aren’t typos.) Bespoke Investment Group called Opendoor a “poster-child” for the recent wave of options market optimism in a note to clients. This rally can be attributed in large part to online hype from hedge fund manager Eric Jackson, who CNBC’s Ari Levy
profiled
last week. Jackson has high hopes, to say the least: He thinks the stock could reach $82 a share, which means it would need to climb more than 2,450%. But 22% of Opendoor shares are sold short, according to FactSet, meaning this run could be fueled by short-sellers running to cover their losses and creating artificial buying demand. When that runs out, it could get ugly for those chasing this stock, just like it did during the original meme run.
Loyal
Southwest
fliers will soon notice substantial changes when they book flights. As of next week, the airline said it will
start selling tickets with seat assignment
for flights beginning Jan. 27. While this is routine on most other airlines, it’s the latest step in a
major overhaul
for Southwest, which has had an open-seating policy for more than half of a century. A spokesman also said about a quarter of Southwest’s fleet has been reconfigured to include seats with extra legroom.
Money Report
Bessent says Aug. 12 China tariff deadline likely to be extended, talks planned in Stockholm
How much a $1,000 investment in Coca-Cola 10 years ago would be worth now
—
CNBC’s Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Ali McCadden, Amelia Lucas, Jeff Cox, Erin Doherty, Ari Levy, John Melloy and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
Also on CNBC
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5 things to know before the stock market opens on Monday
-
5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday
-
5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday
