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Wall Street Brunch: Inflation Expected To Rise
AAPLApple(AAPL) Seeking Alpha· Seeking Alpha·2025-06-08 19:20

Economic Indicators - The May headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expected to rise by 0.2% month-over-month, with the annual rate increasing to 2.5%. The core CPI is forecasted to rise by 0.3%, leading to an annual rate of 2.9% [3] - Wells Fargo economists suggest that the May CPI report will indicate whether April's signs of tariffs were early indicators of inflation or typical monthly fluctuations. They anticipate inflation to increase in the second half of the year due to higher tariff rates [3] - T.S. Lombard notes that the Federal Reserve is facing a conflict as employment and inflation are moving in opposite directions, complicating policy decisions [4] Apple Inc. - Apple is set to host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, with expectations for a focus on design improvements and AI integration rather than major announcements [5][6] - Analysts predict that the next version of iOS will include features like public Wi-Fi access syncing and AI-powered battery optimization, but the overall event is expected to be low-key with minor updates [7] GameStop Corp. - GameStop is expected to report an earnings per share (EPS) of 0.04,asignificantimprovementfroma0.04, a significant improvement from a 0.12 loss in the same quarter last year, attributed to aggressive cost-cutting rather than revenue growth [8] - The company has purchased 4,710 bitcoins, valued at approximately 513million,whichconstitutesabout10513 million, which constitutes about 10% of its 4.7 billion cash reserve [8] - Analysts express caution regarding GameStop's strategic direction, noting declining sales and ongoing store closures, while maintaining a Hold rating [9] Meta Platforms Inc. - Meta is in advanced discussions to invest over 10billionintoartificialintelligencestartupScaleAI,whichcouldrankamongthelargestprivatefundingroundsinhistory[10][11]ScaleAI,valuedatapproximately10 billion into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, which could rank among the largest private funding rounds in history [10][11] - Scale AI, valued at approximately 14 billion in its most recent funding round, provides data-labeling services essential for training machine learning systems [11][12] Microsoft Corp. - Microsoft plans to introduce a ranking system for AI models based on safety performance, which will be available to its cloud customers [12][13]