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Jamie Dimon warns of ‘too much exuberance’ in markets. (00:14) Streamlining push: Walmart (WMT) said to cut or relocate 1,000 corporate workers. (01:51) Samsung (SSNLF) recovers from $66B intraday loss after Seoul moves to ease strike fears. (02:19)
This is an abridged transcript.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday cautioned investors that markets (SPY) (DIA) (QQQ) may be getting ahead of themselves, warning of “a little bit too much exuberance out there.”
During a Bloomberg interview in Paris, Dimon expressed skepticism that current valuations are fully justified. “The stock market is in the top 15%, credit spreads are very low. The general assumption is that these things are all going to resolve. And I’m kind of a skeptic,” he told Bloomberg in an interview.
Dimon pointed to a confluence of factors driving current market performance, including strong corporate profits, as well as continued government spending and the effects of the “one big beautiful bill” providing fiscal stimulus. He noted that deregulation efforts have also contributed to positive sentiment.
However, the veteran banker emphasized that multiple risks remain on the horizon. Beyond Middle East tensions, he cited ongoing concerns about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, U.S.-China relations and persistent inflation pressures, noting that recent inflation data “wasn’t so good.”
When asked about consumer health, Dimon offered a mixed assessment. While the top 50% of consumers are doing well—benefiting from rising wages, home prices and stock gains—he acknowledged the bottom 30% is “struggling a little bit,” though not experiencing a massive downturn.
“I hope they do resolve,” Dimon said of the various geopolitical challenges facing markets, “but I don’t know that they will.”
Walmart (WMT) will lay off or relocate around 1,000 corporate employees as it streamlines its global technology and product teams.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that many of the affected staff have been asked to relocate to the company’s Bentonville or Northern California offices.
The staffing changes are related to organizational structure and alignment, and not handing over more tasks to AI, a Walmart (WMT) spokesperson said.
Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) lost as much as 99.07T won ($66.18B) in market value on Wednesday after it failed to reach a wage agreement with its labor union.
Shares of Samsung later reversed those losses and turned positive after a post on X from the Finance Minister and remarks by Prime Minister Kim Min Seok.
This represented an intraday drop of as much as 6.09% in its share price from yesterday’s close and comes as its labor union threatened an 18-day strike starting May 21 if its demands were not met.
More than 41,000 workers are expected to take part in the walkout, which was first announced at a rally on April 23.
The demands center on Samsung’s (SSNLF) performance-based bonus system. The union is reportedly demanding that the company allocate 15% of its operating profit to workers as performance bonuses, get rid of caps on bonus payouts, and formalize the bonus structure.
Samsung’s management offered to allocate 10% of operating profit to bonuses and provide a one-time special compensation package, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The union said its rally on April 23, which drew 40,000 workers, caused a 58% drop in foundry production and an 18% fall in memory production for Samsung on that day, according to a CNBC report. It added that an 18-day strike could cost Samsung 30T won, or about $20B.
In a post on X, South Korea’s Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said the government “deeply regrets” the failure to reach a resolution and warned that “strikes must never happen under any circumstances.”
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Notable events include Intel’s (INTC) annual meeting, Masco’s (MAS) Investor Day, the Needham Technology & Media Conference, and the J.P. Morgan Fast Moving Consumer & Wellness Forum.
On Wall Street, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in mixed territory.
Crude oil is down 0.8% at $101. Bitcoin is up 0.9% at $81,000. Gold is down 0.5% at $4,690.
The FTSE 100 is up 0.3% and the DAX is up 0.2%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Nextracker (NXT) +14% – Shares surged after delivering stronger-than-expected Q4 results and raising its FY2027 revenue outlook.
Economic calendar:
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