My top 10 things to watch Monday, August 19
1. Wall Street is headed for a muted open Monday after S&P 500 registered its best week of the year. The economic calendar is light this week. The Federal Reserve’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole on Friday is all anyone is going talk about.
2. Club name Advanced Micro Devices announced a $4.9 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of server maker ZT Systems. The deal should help the chipmaker in its battle with fellow Club holding Nvidia because server-scale solutions are increasingly important in the age of AI computing.
3. Estee Lauder‘s longtime CEO, Fabrizio Freda, is set to retire next year. The cosmetics maker announced the move on the same day it issued disappointing fiscal 2025 guidance. In my Sunday column for Investing Club members, I wrote that it was time for a change at the top given Estee Lauder’s prolonged struggles.