AM Markets Need to Know: Trump’s ratings slide, Broadcom flags AI costs, and more

Stock index futures were higher on Monday as investors geared up for a week of big bank earnings and key inflation reports.

Here are the five news items investors should watch:

Trump’s economic approval remains weak: A Financial Times-Focaldata poll found that just 25% of registered voters approved of President Donald Trump’s handling of jobs and the economy, while roughly one-fifth approved of his approach to inflation. More than two-thirds said the U.S. economy was heading in the wrong direction. The online survey of 2,275 registered voters was conducted Oct. 2-4, with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, ahead of the November midterm elections.

Broadcom CEO flags AI funding constraints: Broadcom AVGO CEO Hock Tan said capital availability could become a bigger obstacle to AI expansion than chip supply as infrastructure investment accelerates. According to media reports, the company is overcoming shortages of wafers and memory, shifting attention toward financing requirements. Tan also pointed to revenue opportunities for frontier AI developers OpenAI OPENAI and Anthropic ANTHROPIC, whose latest models are being used in AI personal assistants.

Musk signals potential in-house chip ambitions: Elon Musk said his companies could eventually develop advanced chips by applying their expertise in specialized equipment and manufacturing processes. Speaking via livestream at Tesla’s TSLA X Takeover event in Austin, Texas, he acknowledged that his businesses lacked current chipmaking know-how but said they could develop it. The comments point to a potential longer-term expansion into semiconductor manufacturing, although Musk did not provide a timeline or a concrete plan.

AI investment supports global growth outlook: IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said AI infrastructure spending is helping sustain global growth near 3% despite an energy supply shock. Speaking at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, she said the investment boom could add 0.5 to 1 percentage point to growth in advanced Asian economies and 0.2 to 0.8 percentage point in emerging Asian economies. The outlook highlights the growing contribution of AI-related hardware demand to regional economic activity.

Amazon reportedly explores Decart acquisition: AI startup Decart has attracted interest from major technology companies, with Amazon AMZN reportedly in talks to acquire the business. Founded in 2023 by three Israeli engineers, the San Francisco-based company develops real-time video generation and simulated environments, as well as software that helps developers run AI models across different processors. Its Decart Optimization Stack product targets the complexity of adapting AI models to varied chip architectures, positioning the company within the expanding AI infrastructure market.