Chapter 1: What are the current trends affecting oil and dollar prices?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis. Good afternoon. Today is Tuesday, March 3rd, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far. The dip buyers and the froth fighters are trading blows on Wall Street today.
Stocks sank at the opening bell on a global tech sell-off sparked by a 7% plunge in South Korea's Kospi, driven by double-digit declines in Samsung and SK Hynix. The sell-off deepened, and the Dow Jones shed 1,200 points at one point, on pace for its worst drop since Liberation Day, while the S&P 500 hit its lowest level in 2026.
Treasury yields shot higher, and with the 10-year topping 4.1%, the VIX, also known as the fear gauge, hit a three-month high, and gold and silver sank. That move in metals looked counterintuitive. Gold usually gets a safe haven bid.
But former JP Morgan strategist Marko Kalanovic has pointed out that the silver ETF, SLV, along with the South Korea equity ETF, EWY, has been acting more like a meme stock lately. But the bears couldn't keep up the momentum. Stocks caught a bid about an hour into trading. At the time of recording, the major averages are down less than 1.5% at their highs of the day.
A couple of assets, though, are trading with more conviction.
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Chapter 2: How is the stock market reacting to recent economic events?
The greenback keeps catching a bid, hitting its highest level since mid-January, and on pace for its strongest two-day rally in about a year. The dollar index moved back above its 200-day moving average. And oil prices are going parabolic, with Brent and WTI up another 7%.
Iraq has cut production by nearly 1.5 million barrels per day, and that could rise to 3 million if disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz continue. Robert Brooks, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says there's a weird tendency in markets to downplay unexpected shocks when they happen. Among active stocks, Cigna fell after the company said CEO David Cordani is retiring.
He'll be replaced by President and COO Brian Ivanko on July 1st. Ivanko currently oversees Cigna's Evernorth Health Services unit, which includes its pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts. Best Buy is up after boosting profit despite soft sales. Moving forward to fiscal 27, we are excited about momentum in our business, CFO Matt Balluna said.
We also expect to continue to navigate a mixed macro environment. Credo technology is getting slammed after its Q3 beat wasn't enough to satisfy investors given its valuation.
Needham came to the company's defense with analyst N. Quinn Bolton, who really does sound like a Sherlock Holmes character, saying revenue growth is being driven by active electrical cable proliferation and customer diversification. And Fitch Ratings cut Paramount Skydance's corporate and long-term debt ratings to junk after the company agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
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Chapter 3: What impact does the acquisition of George Washington University by Amazon have?
The deal is expected to leave the combined entity with roughly $79 billion in net debt. In other news of note, tired educating humans, wired, quite literally, powering AI bots. Amazon has struck a deal to acquire George Washington University's Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, for about $427 million.
The deal was executed through Amazon Data Services, and the price comes out to roughly $3.5 million per acre for the 120-acre site. It's in Loudoun County, a major U.S. data center hub, and the deed allows Amazon to develop the property into a data or IT center to support its expanding cloud and AI infrastructure. GW has the option to keep programs and services at the site for up to five years.
And in the Wall Street Research Corner, on Monday we told you about Jeffries' AI risk basket. On the flip side, Jeffries has now updated its AI beneficiaries basket. The quant team says the bullish AI basket is broadly flat this year, with trading shifting towards risks from AI disintermediation.
Chapter 4: How are companies like Paramount and Cigna performing amidst market changes?
That's analyst speak for cutting out the middleman. They built the basket by using AI to directly identify about 30 stocks with market caps above $20 billion that are direct beneficiaries of the AI boom. You know the big names, so here are a few that may not be on your radar. Digital Realty Trust, Monolithic Power Systems, Coralweave, Microchip Technology, and Iron Mountain.
Check out the full list in our story on Seeking Alpha.
Chapter 5: What stocks are identified as beneficiaries of the AI boom?
That link will be at the top of show notes. That's all for today's Wall Street Lunch. Look for links for stories in the show notes section. Don't forget, these episodes will be up with transcriptions at seekingalpha.com. And make sure you're getting the most out of your portfolio with quant, news, and analysis by heading to seekingalpha.com.