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Fed Members Barkin and Miran Have Conflicting Views on Interest Rates
Tuesday, January 6th, 2026
Pre-market futures are flattish to start a new session today, with no economic reports ahead of the open — “Jobs Week” begins tomorrow morning — and coming off a record-high close in the blue-chip Dow index. Currently, the Dow is -60 points, the S&P 500 -1 point, the Nasdaq +37 and the small-cap Russell 2000 — which outperformed the field yesterday — right now -7 points.
Hyperscaling Gets Realer, Says Jensen Huang
In yesterday’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote address and subsequent interviews afterward, NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the latest advancements in AI development —characteristically in the “game-changer” mode, this time on two distinct levels: a new foundation model simulator and a new system of AI chips.
The Cosmos World Foundation Model is presented as a new simulator platform which will allow AI to not only generate content but physically act in space, by way of robotics and other automation. The new Vera Rubin chip platform is said to integrate six new data center chips across all aspects of the backend AI environment: CPUs, GPUs, Networking and Switches — both scaling-up and scaling-out.
Huang indicates that this innovative system of the Vera Rubin platform will increase token throughput of AI factory output by 10x what is currently possible. It is also said to reduce overall costs per token. In short, hyperscaling in the AI space just got realer.
NVIDIA shares are up relatively modestly on this news, but we see companies like Microchip Technology (MCHP - Free Report) up +6% this morning. Based on this new configuration of the AI space, we may expect NVIDIA shares — which currently have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) — to be sitting pretty right here. After all, even though the company’s market cap is already higher than $4.5 trillion, its P/E is just 40x forward earnings. That’s lower than Costco (COST - Free Report) .
A Tale of Two Fed Voters
Richmond, VA Fed President Tom Barkin, now in the eighth year of service as a member of the Federal Reserve, is out with comments today on how he thinks about the U.S. economy as 2026 begins. As a sturdy supporter of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Barkin has dutifully remained with the dual mandate perspective: “Both sides of our mandate” — inflation under control and full employment — “bear watching.”
Barkin says overall unemployment remains low historically, but has ticked up. Meanwhile, inflation (most notably the CPI Inflation Rate) has come down, but remains above the target +2%. He considers the current Fed funds rate, between 3.50-3.75%, to be “now within range” of a neutral rate. Barkin also slightly lamented the lack of data from the government shutdown for impeding the Fed’s vision on decision-making going forward.
Contrast this cautious approach to interest-rate levels with that of Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who has also come out with comments today. Miran, who placed himself on leave as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers to work at the Fed, said the Fed funds rate will need to come down more than 100 basis points this year, which would put the range somewhere in the low-to-mid 2%s — or decidedly below the neutral rate, at least according to Powell, Barkin and others.
Image: Bigstock
NVIDIA CEO Announces New AI Paradigm Shifts
Key Takeaways
Tuesday, January 6th, 2026
Pre-market futures are flattish to start a new session today, with no economic reports ahead of the open — “Jobs Week” begins tomorrow morning — and coming off a record-high close in the blue-chip Dow index. Currently, the Dow is -60 points, the S&P 500 -1 point, the Nasdaq +37 and the small-cap Russell 2000 — which outperformed the field yesterday — right now -7 points.
Hyperscaling Gets Realer, Says Jensen Huang
In yesterday’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote address and subsequent interviews afterward, NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the latest advancements in AI development —characteristically in the “game-changer” mode, this time on two distinct levels: a new foundation model simulator and a new system of AI chips.
The Cosmos World Foundation Model is presented as a new simulator platform which will allow AI to not only generate content but physically act in space, by way of robotics and other automation. The new Vera Rubin chip platform is said to integrate six new data center chips across all aspects of the backend AI environment: CPUs, GPUs, Networking and Switches — both scaling-up and scaling-out.
Huang indicates that this innovative system of the Vera Rubin platform will increase token throughput of AI factory output by 10x what is currently possible. It is also said to reduce overall costs per token. In short, hyperscaling in the AI space just got realer.
NVIDIA shares are up relatively modestly on this news, but we see companies like Microchip Technology (MCHP - Free Report) up +6% this morning. Based on this new configuration of the AI space, we may expect NVIDIA shares — which currently have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) — to be sitting pretty right here. After all, even though the company’s market cap is already higher than $4.5 trillion, its P/E is just 40x forward earnings. That’s lower than Costco (COST - Free Report) .
A Tale of Two Fed Voters
Richmond, VA Fed President Tom Barkin, now in the eighth year of service as a member of the Federal Reserve, is out with comments today on how he thinks about the U.S. economy as 2026 begins. As a sturdy supporter of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Barkin has dutifully remained with the dual mandate perspective: “Both sides of our mandate” — inflation under control and full employment — “bear watching.”
Barkin says overall unemployment remains low historically, but has ticked up. Meanwhile, inflation (most notably the CPI Inflation Rate) has come down, but remains above the target +2%. He considers the current Fed funds rate, between 3.50-3.75%, to be “now within range” of a neutral rate. Barkin also slightly lamented the lack of data from the government shutdown for impeding the Fed’s vision on decision-making going forward.
Contrast this cautious approach to interest-rate levels with that of Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who has also come out with comments today. Miran, who placed himself on leave as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers to work at the Fed, said the Fed funds rate will need to come down more than 100 basis points this year, which would put the range somewhere in the low-to-mid 2%s — or decidedly below the neutral rate, at least according to Powell, Barkin and others.
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