Finance

Paul Atkins, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said his agency will propose a rule change following President Donald Trump’s call to switch quarterly earnings reports to a semiannual schedule.
“I welcome that posting by the president, and I have talked to him about it,” Atkins said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday. “In principle, I think to propose change in what our rules are now, I think would be a good way forward, and then we’ll consider that and move forward after that.”

Atkins said if the rule change is approved, it will be left to companies to decide whether they switch to semiannual or stay with quarterly.
“For the sake of shareholders and public companies, the market can decide what the proper cadence is,” he said.
Current regulations require publicly-traded companies to report earnings on a quarterly basis, though providing forecasts is voluntary. Earlier this week, Trump advocated switching to a semi-annual schedule, saying it would “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.” The rules can be changed by just a majority vote on the SEC, where Republicans currently hold a 3-1 voting majority, with one open seat. 
The issue has come under heated debate as opponents of less frequent reporting argue the lack of transparency would be a detriment to investors, especially retail investors who don’t have as ample resources as Wall Street institutions. Supporters say a six-month reporting schedule would free up companies to focus their businesses on the longer term basis.
Atkins noted that foreign private issuers already adhere to semi-annual reporting. Earlier this year, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund proposed switching to semiannual reporting, reasoning that lengthening the time frame would allow companies to focus on the longer term. The Long-Term Stock Exchange trading platform also has supported less frequent reporting.
“You have to realize that right now, semi-annual reporting is no stranger to our markets, foreign private issuers do it right now,” Atkins said. “There’s been a lot of discussion of the past few years about how this quarterly reporting kind of emphasizes a short term type of thinking.” More

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Friday that he expects tariffs to expert minimum long-term pressure on inflation, leaving room for multiple interest rate reductions ahead.
Kashkari said a weakening labor market combined with the muted impact of the duties give him reason to advocate for at least a bit easier policy.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Friday that he expects President Donald Trump’s tariffs to expert minimum long-term pressure on inflation, leaving room for multiple interest rate reductions ahead.
In a CNBC interview, the central banker detailed reasons why he would like the Fed to lower its benchmark borrowing level at each of the remaining two meetings this year in addition to the one the Federal Open Market Committee approved Wednesday. The three total cuts is one more than he had advocated in the prior version of the committee’s “dot plot.”

The more dovish view of rates comes even with inflation running ahead of the central bank’s 2% target. However, Kashkari said a weakening labor market combined with the muted impact of Trump’s tariffs give him reason to advocate for at least a bit easier policy. The fed funds rate is now targeted in a range between 4%-4.25%.
“So it really comes down to, do you believe tariffs are a one-time effect or something more persistent?” he said during the “Squawk Box” interview. “I’m getting more confident that it’s likely a one-time effect, but it’s going to take a couple years for it to play out.”
Kashkari does not get a vote this year on the FOMC but will in 2026.
The committee approved the quarter percentage point cut by an 11-1 margin, larger than some Wall Street observers had predicted given a seemingly wide range of views among officials. This also was the first meeting to include new Governor Stephen Miran, a President Donald Trump appointee who has been harsh in criticism of Chair Jerome Powell and the Fed in general.
However, Kashkari gave no indication there was rancor in the meeting room.

“What was remarkable about this meeting is how unremarkable it was,” he said.
Kashkari detailed his reasoning for switching to three total cuts this year in a piece on the Minneapolis Fed webiste.
In the essay, he noted that inflation expectations remain contained despite worries that the tariffs would cause another spike in prices. At the same time, he sees housing inflation and wage growth both easing.
Still, the consumer price index for August put annual core inflation at 3.1%, well ahead of the Fed’s goal and giving rise to questions over whether central bankers are content with the higher level.
“We’re not okay with 3% inflation,” Kashkari said. More

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, US, on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. 
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Grayscale Investments has brought a new twist to crypto investing, rolling out the first multi-token exchange-traded product available in the U.S.
The Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF begins trading Friday on NYSE under the ticker GDLC. The fund bundles together the five largest and most liquid digital assets — bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano. These five tokens capture more than 90% of the market capitalization of the digital-asset class, according to Grayscale.

“We are ushering in the age of crypto index investing,” Peter Mintzberg, CEO of Grayscale, told CNBC. “We are typically in the first mover position. Grayscale will continue innovating at scale for investors to access the fastest growing asset class of the last 10 years.”
The long-awaited launch followed an approval Wednesday evening from the Securities and Exchange Commission that allowed Grayscale to convert its Digital Large Cap Fund into an ETF and allocate to multiple digital coins.
The move underlines the growing appetite among institutional and retail investors for diversified crypto exposure. The asset class is becoming more mainstream under the Trump administration after the White House’s move to open retirement plans to alternative assets including cryptocurrencies. 
The fund allocates about 70% to bitcoin and 20% to ether. The product has existed in other forms since 2018, most recently trading over the counter.
GDLC has gained more than 40% in 2025 as many cryptocurrencies hit record highs. GDLC has outpaced bitcoin by nearly 11% since June, as all four other assets in the fund outperformed the largest digital token.

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NBA superstar Kevin Durant can’t find the password to his Coinbase account, which holds bitcoin that he began buying in earnest when he was playing for the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
Durant’s predicament has “only benefited” the hoopster, his agent Rich Kleiman said.
“We’ve yet to be able to track down his Coinbase account info, so we’ve never sold anything, and this bitcoin is just through the roof,” Kleiman said Tuesday at CNBC’s Game Plan conference in Los Angeles.

Kevin Durant #35 of the Phoenix Suns looks on during the second half against the Houston Rockets at PHX Arena on March 30, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Chris Coduto | Getty Images

NBA superstar Kevin Durant can’t find the password to his Coinbase account, which holds bitcoin that he began buying in earnest when he was playing for the Golden State Warriors in 2016. His agent couldn’t be happier.
Durant’s predicament has “only benefited” the hoopster, agent Rich Kleiman said.

“We’ve yet to be able to track down his Coinbase account info, so we’ve never sold anything, and this bitcoin is just through the roof,” Kleiman said Tuesday at CNBC’s Game Plan conference in Los Angeles.”It’s just a process we haven’t been able to figure out, but Bitcoin keeps going up … so, I mean, it’s only benefited us,” he said.
Durant, who will play for the Houston Rockets this upcoming season, began snapping up bitcoin around 2016, after the U.S. Olympic team legend and Kleiman attended a dinner in which his then-teammates kept discussing the cryptocurrency.
“I just heard the word ‘bitcoin’ 25 times this evening, and the next day, we started investing in bitcoin,” Kleiman said. The agent did not say how much bitcoin Durant bought.
Bitcoin sold for between about $360 and $1,000 back in 2016, according to CoinGecko. The leading cryptocurrency is now trading at almost $116,000, or more than 11,000% above its highest price the year Durant was buying.

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Bitcoin since 2020

Durant has been unable to access his Coinbase account for “a few years” due to a “user error on our end,” Kleiman told CNBC on Wednesday.

“We’ve already been working directly with the Coinbase team on Kevin’s account recovery, which is why it was easy for me to make a joke about it on stage,” Kleiman said.
Kleiman said he and Durant are also investors in Coinbase Global, and that the company “has been a valuable resource in growing our business.” In 2021, the duo’s Thirty Five Ventures struck a multiyear deal with Coinbase to promote the trading platform, which includes creating content about digital assets for Durant’s sports and entertainment website, Boardroom.
Coinbase, in a statement to CNBC, said its users can reset their passwords using self-service tools within the trading platform’s app. The platform for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrencies also has an around-the-clock support team fielding account recovery requests and other inquiries, according to a spokesman.

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Hedge fund billionaire David Tepper said the Federal Reserve could cut rates a bit more, but then risks more inflation and other dangers to the economy and markets if the central bank goes further than that.
In other words, be careful what you wish for.

“If they go too much more on interest rates, depending what happens with the economy … it gets into the danger territory,” Tepper said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Thursday.
His comments come after the central bank lowered interest rates by a quarter point Wednesday, the first cut this year, while signaling two more reductions are coming this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell characterized the cut as “risk management” rather than something more directed at shoring up a weak economy. President Donald Trump has been pressuring the chief to slash the fed funds rate quickly and aggressively.
Tepper feared that if the Fed cuts rates while inflation hasn’t been fully tamed, demand can pick up faster than supply, reigniting price pressures. Meanwhile, too-easy monetary policy could potentially create asset bubbles as investors keep flocking into riskier corners of the markets.
“My view has been that one easing or two easings or even three easings don’t matter because we’re still in a little restrictive territory with a little bit too high inflation, even without the tariff induced inflation. So they should be a little bit restrictive,” Tepper said. “Beyond that, you’re really risking a lot of things, a weaker dollar, more inflation and those sort of things.”
The founder and president of Appaloosa Management noted valuations are high, but he wouldn’t bet against stocks yet while the Fed is still in easing mode.

“I don’t love the multiples, but how do I not own it?” Tepper said. “I’m not ever fighting this Fed especially when the markets tell me… one and three quarter more cuts before the end of the year, so that’s a tough thing not to own.”
The S&P 500 is trading at almost 23 times forward earnings, near the highest level since April 2021, according to FactSet. Valuations for some of the megacap tech names have become sky-high. Nvidia’s price-to-earnings ratio is at 30 times, while Microsoft trades at nearly 32 times forward earnings.
“I’m constructive because of the easing right now, but I’m also miserable because of the levels,” he said. “Nothing’s cheap anymore.” More

American Express on Thursday unveiled updates to its flagship credit card amid heightened competition over the country’s high spenders.
The company said that consumer and business versions of its refreshed Platinum card now carry an $895 annual fee, about 29% higher than the current fee of $695.
But consumers can now tap $3,500 in annual benefits, according to American Express, mostly in the form of credits offsetting purchases made on the card, more than twice the previous level.

American Express platinum business card.
Courtesy: American Express

American Express on Thursday unveiled updates to its flagship credit card amid heightened industry competition over the country’s high spenders.
The company said consumer and business versions of its refreshed Platinum card now carry an $895 annual fee, about 29% higher than the current fee of $695.

But consumers can now tap $3,500 in annual benefits, according to American Express, mostly in the form of credits offsetting purchases made on the card, more than twice the previous level.
The perks include credits at Uber, Lululemon, Oura, the restaurant booking platform Resy, and enhanced hotel and streaming benefits, the card issuer said. Business card users will also see $3,500 in annual benefits, including new hotel credits and offsets for purchases at Dell Technologies and Adobe.
Those are on top of the card’s existing benefits, none of which have been rolled back, said Howard Grosfield, president for U.S. consumer services at American Express.
American Express’ announcement highlights an arms race of sorts when it comes to catering to wealthy U.S. consumers. In recent months, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup released updated or new premium cards, products laden with benefits for those who spend, travel and dine enough to make them worthwhile.
Notably, American Express and JPMorgan each made announcements within a day of the unveiling of their rival’s updated premium cards. American Express touted its biggest ever investment in a card refresh back in June just before JPMorgan released its latest Sapphire Reserve card, while JPMorgan announced improvements to that card’s hotel perks Wednesday.

Card issuers are banking on the fact that wealthy Americans are driving an ever-growing share of the country’s overall spending. Consumers with top 10% incomes accounted for roughly half of total spending in the second quarter, the highest level in more than three decades, according to Moody’s Analytics.

Unlocking perks

But the rising cost of card membership has led some users to downgrade to lower-tier versions or explore more affordable offerings from Capital One or Citigroup, senior Bankrate analyst Ted Rossman told CNBC in June.
Some customers in online forums including Reddit bemoaned what they called the “coupon book” approach that requires users to diligently use their cards to maximize benefits.
While the Platinum card’s perks, like a $400 dining credit through Resy or $300 Lululemon credit, do require online enrollment, American Express said a new app feature for Platinum users would make setting up and using benefits straightforward.
“We spent an enormous amount of time around, how do we make this as easy as it can be for card members to understand, access and, most importantly, unlock all these great benefits,” Grosfield told CNBC in an interview.
Existing customers with the consumer Platinum card will incur the new, higher annual fee on renewal dates starting Jan. 2 and onward, the company said.

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Huawei is ramping up its AI computing systems just as U.S. chipmaker Nvidia is running into challenges in the mainland.
The Chinese tech giant claimed that the new supernodes would be the world’s most powerful by computing power for several years.
While an analyst cautioned that Huawei might exaggerate its technical capabilities, he pointed out that its ambition to be a world AI leader “cannot be underestimated.”

A person walks past a display of an Atlas 900 AI cluster at the Huawei stand during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference at the Shanghai World Expo and Convention Center in Shanghai on July 28, 2025.
Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei announced Thursday new computing systems for powering artificial intelligence with its in-house Ascend chips, as it steps up pressure on U.S. rival Nvidia.
The company said it plans to launch its new “Atlas 950 SuperCluster” as soon as next year.

The U.S. has sought to cut China off from the most advanced semiconductors for training AI models. To cope, Chinese companies have turned more to grouping large numbers of less efficient, often homegrown, chips together to achieve similar computing capabilities.
Huawei announced it would roll out three new versions of its Ascend chips through the end of 2028, with the aim to “double compute” capabilities with each year’s release.
The chips form the basis of Huawei’s AI computing infrastructure, in which a supercluster is connected to multiple superpods, which, in turn, are built from multiple supernodes. Supernodes, which form the base, are built on Ascend chips, using system design to overcome technical limitations imposed by U.S. sanctions.
Huawei said its new Atlas 950 supernode would support 8,192 Ascend chips, and that the Atlas 950 SuperCluster would use more than 500,000 chips.
A more advanced Atlas 960 version, slated for launch in 2027, would support 15,488 Ascend chips per node. The full supercluster would have more than 1 million Ascend chips, according to Huawei.

It was not immediately clear how the systems compared with those powered by Nvidia chips. Huawei claimed in a press release that the new supernodes would be the world’s most powerful by computing power for several years.
In a speech Thursday, Eric Xu, vice chairman and rotating chairman of Huawei, claimed that its forthcoming Atlas 950 supernode would deliver 6.7 times more computing power than Nvidia’s NVL144 system, also planned for launch next year.
Xu even predicted that Huawei’s product would “be ahead on all fronts” compared with another Nvidia system planned for launch in 2027 — and claimed the Atlas 950 supercluster would have 1.3 times the computing power of Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus supercomputer.
“Huawei’s announcement on its computing breakthrough is well timed with recent increasing emphasis by the Chinese government on self-reliance on China’s own chip technologies,” said George Chen, partner and co-chair, digital practice, The Asia Group.
While he cautioned that Huawei might exaggerate its technical capabilities, Chen pointed out that the Chinese company’s ambition to be a world AI leader “cannot be underestimated.”

Research firm SemiAnalysis found in April that Huawei’s self-developed CloudMatrix system was able to perform better than Nvidia’s — despite each Ascend chip delivering only about one-third the performance of an Nvidia processor. Huawei built its advantage by having five times as many chips.
“Computing power has and will continue to be the key for AI,” Rotating Chairman Xu said Thursday in a statement, translated by CNBC. He was speaking at the opening of the company’s annual Huawei Connect event in Shanghai. The event runs through Saturday.
Two years ago at the same event, Huawei announced its Atlas 900 SuperCluster. The company currently sells a “Atlas 900 AI Cluster” with “thousands” of Ascend chips.
Huawei said Thursday it had deployed more than 300 of its Atlas 900 A3 supernodes to more than 20 customers in telecoms, manufacturing and other industries.

Rising pressure on Nvidia

Huawei’s announcement comes as China promotes homegrown alternatives to Nvidia. Earlier this week, the two countries wrapped up trade talks in Spain that included a path toward resolving the long-contested U.S. operations of social media app TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance.
In another aggressive signal, China on Monday announced it was extending a probe into Nvidia over alleged monopolistic practices.
Pressure has only risen since on the U.S. chipmaker. Its shares fell more than 2% Wednesday after the Financial Times, citing sources, said China has ordered local tech giants to stop tests and orders of the Nvidia RTX Pro 6000D chip.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters he was “disappointed” to hear the news of the reported ban. He’s previously described Huawei as a “formidable” competitor.

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U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell walks away at the end of a press conference, following the issuance of the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement on interest rate policy, in Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 17, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday delivered on a widely anticipated quarter percentage point interest rate cut that will take its benchmark down to a target range of 4%-4.25%, its lowest in nearly three years. In addition, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee provided signals of what’s down the road.
Here are five key takeaways from the meeting along with Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference:

While the rate reduction was no surprise, there was plenty of intrigue over what the “dot plot” of individual members’ expectations would show for the future. The upshot: Two more cuts this year, another in 2026 and one more in 2027, all of which would take the funds rate down to around 3%, which the median forecast of the committee sees as “neutral.”
Markets weren’t sure what to make of it all. An initial rally on the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a little steam but the blue-chip index still closed up 260 points. However, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both posted losses. In the Treasury market, yields were lower on the short end but higher for longer maturities, a potential problem for the Fed as it tries to avoid stagflation.
At least some of the confusion may have come from Powell characterizing the rate move as a “risk management” cut. On top of that, while the FOMC indicated a rapid pace of cutting this year, with moves at the two remaining meetings in October and December, it anticipates just one reduction in each of the next two years and no cuts in 2028. The mix between dovishness and hawkishness left markets queasy.
The meeting began with a strong whiff of politics as new Governor Stephen Miran attended his first meeting after being sworn in Tuesday. However, Powell gave little indication of tension in the air. “The only way for any voter to really move things around is to be incredibly persuasive, and the only way to do that in the context in which we work is to make really strong arguments based on the data and understanding of the economy. That’s really all that matters, and that’s how it’s going to work,” the chair said.
While Miran was the only member to cast a vote against the cut, in favor of a larger half-point move, the dot plot showed a wide disparity among officials’ views, underscoring a challenging policy path ahead. Those wanting just one more cut this year lost narrowly, by a 10-9 margin, against those looking for two. Future years also showed a wide distribution of potential outcomes.

What they’re saying:

“Maybe they circled the wagons a little bit saying, ‘You know, this new guy Miran’s coming in, it’s obvious what his agenda is. Let’s pull together here and make sure he knows what we’re about and we’re all about the same thing.'” — Dan North, senior economist, Allianz Trade North America, on there only being one dissent, following expectations from some quarters that there would be multiple “no” votes
“We think that over the next few years the Fed’s primary challenge with their dual mandate of full employment and price stability will in fact be full employment. Again, we are witnessing an economy that is operating well today, companies that are operating very well, but the hiring environment for people is becoming considerably less healthy, and thus, we think this will be the new challenge for the Fed to help solve in the coming months, quarters and years.” — Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock and potential successor to Jerome Powell as Fed chair
“Given the coming changes to Federal Reserve personnel next year, we urge all to take this forecast with more than a grain of salt and would strongly suggest that the Federal Reserve is moving in a direction where it will tolerate inflation well above target.” —Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM

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