For the truth to some is no longer empirical. Its no longer based on data, nor common sense, nor even common decency, said the two-time Academy Award winner during his keynote address. He invoked the Latin word for truth is veritas, Harvards motto.

Telling the truth is no longer the benchmark for public service, he said. Its no longer the salve to our fears, or the guide to our actions. Truth is now considered malleable, by opinion and by zero sum endgames.

That left the more than 9,000 graduates at Harvards 372nd commencement with a choice to make, said the Hollywood icon, who has played an astronaut, a soldier, a little boy in a mans body and even a Harvard professor in a decades-long movie career.

Its the same option for all grownups who have to decide to be one of three types of Americans: Those who embrace liberty and freedom for all; those who wont; or those who are indifferent, he said. Only the first do the work of creating a more perfect union, a nation indivisible. The others get in the way.

Near the end of the speech, he drove the point home to a group that included not just undergraduates but those who graduated from Harvards professional and extension schools.

The responsibility is yours. Ours. The effort is optional. But the truth, the truth is sacred. Unalterable. Chiseled into the stone and the foundation of our republic, he said.

Hanks, who was awarded an honorary doctor of arts degree, poked fun at his own lack of academic credentials on a stage filled with some of the worlds brightest minds and most accomplished scientists.

Its not fair, but please dont be embittered by this fact, Hanks said. Now, without having done a lick of work, without having spent any time in class, without once walking into that library in order to have anything to do with the graduating class of Harvard, its faculty, or its distinguished alumni I make a damn good living playing someone who did, he said in reference to his depiction of fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon in three movies based on Dan Browns novels The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno.

Its the way of the world, kids, he said to a chorus of laughter.

Before Hanks headed to the podium to give his speech, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow, presiding over his last commencement before stepping down, called Hanks, Wilsons bestie, Buzzs buddy, Ryans savior, Americas dad, and presented him with a Harvard volleyball, in tribute to his role in Cast Away, where to stay sane his character talks to an old volleyball.

Hanks proved to be the most popular person on stage, posing for selfies with faculty members before the ceremony and giving congratulatory fist bumps to dozens of Harvard students who graduated summa cum laude.

May goodness and mercy follow you all the days, he said, referencing a biblical verse. All the days of your lives. Godspeed.

The company removed some items from its collection for Pride Month in June, which honors lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, saying a rash of threats made workers feel unsafe. That move followed many difficult days of deliberation and decision-making, Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell said in an internal memo. 

What youve seen in recent days went well beyond discomfort, and it has been gut-wrenching to see what youve confronted in our aisles, Cornell told store employees in the memo, which was sent on Wednesday and viewed by Bloomberg. He also thanked service-center staffers for their patience and professionalism through high volumes of angry, abusive and threatening calls. 

Fueled by the US culture wars, the imbroglio has consumed Target this week, with some critics faulting the company for its Pride Month collection while others slammed it for caving in to intimidation in stores and on social media. Cornell said he tried to chart a course between recognizing Pride Month and making changes aimed at prioritizing safety.

To the LGBTQIA+ community, one of the hardest parts in all of this was trying to contemplate how the adjustments were making to alleviate these threats to our teams physical and psychological safety would impact you and your wellbeing and psychological safety, he said in the memo, which was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. 

Target didnt say which merchandise its removing, but one item that has generated controversy is a bathing suit designed for transgender people. While some posts on social media said the bathing suit was for kids, Target has said its only available in adult sizes.

Target fell 2.8% at 2:43 p.m. in New York, on track for its sixth straight decline, the worst streak in five months. 

Bank of America analysts, led by Vivek Arya, said the semiconductor giants guidance amounts to the largest raise theyve ever seen from a company and is clearly driven by the start of major data center investments in generative AI and large language models. The analysts lauded Nvidias graphics processors that are used in data centers to help power artificial intelligence applications as a long-term cash cow for the company.

Investors have been riding a wave of A.I. euphoria ever since OpenAI released its A.I. chatbot ChatGPT in November and managed to pull in 100 million users faster than any app in history. And while some on Wall Street have started to question the staying power of the recent A.I. boom, Nvidias stellar earnings helped legitimize the hype in the minds of many analysts this week.

Bank of Americas team raised its price target for Nvidia from $340 to $450 in a Thursday post-earning note, arguing the company has established itself as an A.I. leader and the market cap is set to soar to $1 trillion and beyond. The $450 price target represents a potential 17% price increase from Thursdays closing price of just over $379 per share.

Bank of Americas Vivek Arya has held Nvidia as a top pick for investors since June of last year, when he argued that semiconductor stocks were oversold by recession-wary investors. And in a research note earlier this month, Arya gave a $340 12-month price target for Nvidia stock, saying he believed the companys semiconductors make it the picks and shovels leader in the A.I. gold rush.

It hasnt always been smooth sailing for Nvidia, however. Shares of the chipmaker sank almost 70% between its previous all-time high in November 2021 and its October 2022 trough, as rising interest rates and recession fears weighed on tech and growth stocks. But since then, the A.I. boom has boosted Nvidia shares over 230%. And the latest earnings only confirmed for many investors and analysts that the stock will continue to rise. Nvidia is uniquely positioned to help transform the nearly $1 trillion of traditional data centers towards accelerated/AI driven computing, according to Bank of Americas analysts.

To their point, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on the companys earning call Wednesday that he is seeing incredible orders to retool the worlds data centers. 

The praise for Nvidias earnings and guidance from Wall Street was widespread as well. JP Morgan tech analyst Harlan Sur jacked up his price target for the chipmaker from $250 to $500, implying a potential 31% upside in the stock from its recent close, due to accelerating demand for its A.I.-dedicated data center technology. And Wedbushs tech analysts Dan Ives and Matt Bryson raised their price target from $290 to $490, arguing Nvidias guidance was jaw dropping and shows the recent A.I. hype has legs.

For any investor calling this an AI bubble we would point them to this Nvidia quarter and especially guidance which cements our bullish thesis around AI and speaks to the 4th Industrial Revolution now on the doorstep with AI, they wrote in a Thursday note.

Michael Sansoterra, chief investment officer at the asset manager Silvant Capital Management, told Fortune, that the latest batch of so-called generative A.I. tech, which includes chatbots like OpenAIs ChatGPT as well as image generators like DALL-E2, is the largest business transformation since the internet. 

Nvidias Q1 results and forward guidance demonstrate the speed and magnitude of this market disruption, he said.

Still Sansoterra warned that government intervention and oversight for A.I. tech will be more omnipresent and onerous than any other technology adoption curve and could lead to increased volatility in A.I.-linked stocks. And some analysts have noted that Nvidias recent price increase has left the firm with a lofty valuation. 

Nvidia currently trades at nearly 220 times trailing twelve month earnings. Thats almost 10 times higher than the average of the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite. The firm also trades at roughly 28 times sales, compared to an average of 4.4 times sales for the Nasdaq Composite.
Its a great company, phenomenal space. A.I. is the place to be, but the valuation is a little stretchedyou just have to be careful, Sarat Sethi, DCLA managing partner and portfolio manager, told CNBC Thursday.