Highlights for the morning: Trump's Fed nominee, Intel chief's troubles, Nebius' rise

US President Donald Trump has nominated a candidate to the Federal Reserve Board, and, according to Bloomberg, has decided on a favorite for the post of the head of the regulator. The head of Intel has disagreements not only with Trump, who has demanded his resignation, but also with some members of the company's board of directors, WSJ found out. Arkady Volozh's Nebius shares soared nearly 20% after the strong report. Pinterest's stock plummeted due to weak earnings and lower advertising budgets in the US. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of August 8.

Donald Trump has nominated chief economic adviser Stephen Miran to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors to replace outgoing Adriana Kugler, reports Yahoo Finance. His nomination still requires the approval of the Senate, which is in recess until September 9 - thus leaving just a week until the Fed's next meeting. If Miran is confirmed, his term at the Fed would run through January 31, 2026.

Miran favors lower rates and could influence monetary policy as soon as possible, according to Yahoo Finance. Analysts are calling him a "strong choice," and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has said he intends to consider the nomination as soon as possible.

Against this backdrop, there is growing interest in the next appointment - to head the Fed. Trump said he is choosing a new chairman from three candidates: Christopher Waller, who, according to Bloomberg, has become the favorite of the American president, Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett. All three criticize the Fed's current policies and favor reform. Warsh and Hassett emphasize the need to return to the leadership style of the Alan Greenspan era - with a dominant role for the chairman and broad support from the Board.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was called to resign by Trump the day before, has found himself at odds with some members of the tech giant's board of directors over the company's strategy in his first months in office, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Tan and a number of Intel directors disagree on a key issue: whether the company should stay in the manufacturing business or exit it entirely. Tan's recent attempts to raise new capital and acquire an artificial intelligence player have been blocked by some board members, the WSJ reports.

After Trump on Thursday accused the head of Intel of a conflict of interest over business ties with China, the company stood by its CEO. Its statement said she, the board and Tan himself are "deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security." In a separate statement to the WSJ, Intel emphasized that the board and management are united in the company's strategy. 

Shares of Arkady Volozh's AI startup Nebius jumped 18.6% after posting a strong quarterly report. The company, which rents out cloud servers for AI, increased revenue by 625% to $105.1 million, beating Wall Street expectations. Annualized recurring revenue (ARR) is now estimated at $900 million-$1.1 billion versus the previous forecast of $750 million-$1 billion.

Volozh noted that Nebius is actively ramping up capacity and is working to provide more than 1 GW of power for data centers and GPU clusters by the end of 2026. Despite a widening loss to $91.5 million, the company is attracting investor attention: its shares have risen more than 135% since the beginning of the year, and all five analysts tracking them recommend them for a buy.

D.A. Davidson raised its target price on Nebius securities from $65 to $75, reported Investor's Business Daily after the report. That's nearly 15% above the closing price on Aug. 7. The company's growth rate justifies its current valuation and signals to shareholders that demand for AI infrastructure isn't going anywhere anytime soon, said Seeking Alpha analyst Jack Bowman.

SoftBank shares rose 13% on Friday, August 8, hitting a record, following the release of its report. The company reported quarterly earnings that were four times what analysts expected, reports CNBC. For the April-June period, it earned 421.8 billion yen ($2.87 billion) against a forecast of 127.6 billion. This is the second consecutive quarter with a profit and a sharp reversal after losses a year ago.

The largest contributor was Vision Fund, which posted a profit of 451.4 billion yen - amid rising value of investments in companies like Grab and Swiggy. This is the highest since June 2021.

SoftBank expects new IPOs from its portfolio companies. Indian retailer Lenskart has already filed for an IPO, followed by PayPay, Klarna and travel app Klook.

Duolingo shares showed sharp swings: the stock jumped more than 30% after posting strong quarterly results, but some of the gains were offset by presentation of OpenAI's new GPT-5 AI model, wrote Yahoo Finance. It's capable of creating an app that teaches French in three minutes - that is, it replicates Duolingo's core function, which raised investor concerns. By the close of trading, the company's shares remained up 13.8%.

In the second quarter, the number of daily users of Duolingo grew by 40% to 47.7 million, and paid subscribers increased by 37%. The company's revenue increased 41% to $252.3 million and net earnings per share reached $0.91 versus $0.51 a year earlier. Duolingo raised its full-year revenue guidance to $1.01-1.019 bln, beating market expectations.

CEO Louis von Aan said the performance growth was due to lower-than-expected AI costs and a successful advertising model. He also emphasized the success of the new chess course. 

Pinterest's revenue rose 17% year-over-year to $998.2 million in the second quarter, beating analysts' estimates, but adjusted earnings came in at $0.33 per share - less than expected, reports Reuters. That caused the stock to fall 11% in the postmarket. Investors were not impressed by the growth in audience to 578 million users, nor by the strong rollout of its Performance+ advertising AI product.

Growth was driven by Gen Z users and advertisers' interest in automated campaigns. Meanwhile, Pinterest expects revenue of $1.03-1.05 billion in the third quarter, which is in line with current expectations but does not show acceleration.

- Japan's broad Topix index rose 1.6 percent to a record of 3,034.56 points, while the Nikkei 225 added 2.3 percent.

- South Korea's Kospi index fell 0.6 percent, while the Kosdaq index of small companies added 0.8 percent. 

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.2 percent.

- Futures on major U.S. indices rose about 0.2%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor