Good morning! US stocks gained on Wednesday as a climb in oil prices stalled and a Fed official raised doubts of a rate hike in September.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) both rose by roughly 0.5%, and the Dow (^DJI) climbed by 0.6%.

What we're watching Thursday: We'll get more insight into the impacts of AI on the software business, with Zscaler (ZS) and DocuSign (DOCU) reporting. And two retailers with vastly different performances this year are on deck: a blazing Victoria's Secret (VSXY), and a struggling Lululemon Athletica (LULU). 

Yahoo Finance Morning Brief is written by Ethan Wolff-Mann and Hamza Shaban. 

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the G20 Innovation Ministerial on September 2, 2026 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

As Nvidia's chip competition increases from its impatient customers and other chipmakers alike, the company is using one of America's most textbook strategies: letting its money do the work.

In the early stages of the AI infrastructure build-out, chips are compute — which means they are the currency of the AI realm. Nvidia's excellence has put it in pole position not only as a chipmaker but as the most valuable company in the AI space.

And in the entire world.

This could, of course, change as the build-out progresses and the product of Nvidia's labor (chips) loses value for some other AI derivative that may be dominated by a different company.

This lens helps explain Nvidia's controversial strategic approach of making investments that run the gamut of the AI ecosystem. Deals with Lambda and MediaTek, a specialized cloud provider and a custom chipmaker, were just two splashy investments this week, and as we noted yesterday, the company sees its growing portfolio as preferred "once-in-a-lifetime" investments.

But as our Jared Blikre notes, Nvidia doesn't just have the access to these investments but also the ability to shape them through its workforce.

Its investments may grow. But they are also allowing Nvidia to shape the entire AI environment to its needs.

The logo and trading information for Chevron is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid//File Photo

Chevron will invest more than $7 billion through its Venezuela joint ventures to double oil production over the next five years in the South American country, ‌the US oil company announced on Wednesday.

The expansion comes on the heels of President Trump unveiling what he described as the “the biggest oil deal in world history,” in which about $100 billion in capital investment will go toward restoring Venezuela's energy infrastructure. The US will get a 35% equity stake as part of the deal, as well as the right to buy 20% of the eventual crude oil output "at production cost."

Chevron’s move isn’t officially part of Trump’s venture, but it plays into the president’s efforts to expand oil production in Venezuela and strengthen business ties between the two nations.  

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s plans will attract other oil majors to get in on the action.

Chevron’s peers ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left Venezuela in 2007, after their assets were nationalized under former President Hugo Chavez. Unlike Chevron, they have not sustained operations there.

Venezuela has the world's largest oil ‌reserves. With a major foothold, and a changing geopolitical climate, Chevron now stands to benefit from an expansion of operations.

Google logo is displayed at Google's headquarters in New York City, U.S., July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Aleksandra Michalska/File Photo/File Photo

In a major legal victory for the tech giant, a federal judge ruled that Google won't have to spin off its ad tech business, dealing another blow to antitrust regulators that have sought to dismantle the nation's largest technology companies.    

After ruling last year that Google monopolized online-ad markets that deliver ads on websites, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema opted for a lighter touch to curtail the company's behavior. 

The Justice Department had requested that Google sell off parts of its business to lessen the company’s power. But instead of ordering a breakup, Judge Brinkema mandated that Google change its business practices to benefit competitors.

The ruling marks the third consecutive time a judge has rejected arguments by US antitrust lawyers to break up Big Tech. And it underscored the mixed record of using legal avenues to limit the industry's power.

Despite multiple cases finding that tech giants abused their market power, calls for large-scale structural changes advocated by tech opponents have not prevailed.  

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People working on a construction site. March 3, 2026. REUTERS/Cesar Olmedo

Three in five Americans think they're members of the "working class," according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

Though it should come as no surprise that those without a college degree mostly identify as working class, Pew found that half of college graduates and upper-income adults also identify as working class.

At first glance, it's almost a matter of stolen valor that those with higher education and higher income don't recognize their elevated station. 

But the loose definition of what the term means has created a certain flexibility.

Political feelings, money problems, and stress about money (not the same thing) have swirled together as the cost of living rises to increase the amount of people who self-identify. Many Americans with objectively lush finances — no unpaid bills and an emergency fund — think they are now "working class," perhaps driven by the unchecked inflation, stagnant labor market, and populist anti-elite messaging from both the left and right.

Something that will doubtless play a role in the coming elections.