Chips led a broad rebound: the S&P 500 rose 2.35% and the Nasdaq 100 gained 3.40% as AMD jumped 13.26% on an Oppenheimer upgrade. Nvidia fell 4.27% as its board probes whether CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by foreign intelligence. Brent slid 6.21% after Trump called new Iran strikes “highly unlikely.” Bonds balked: 2-year yields rose 5.4 bps and December hike odds climbed to about 84% before Tuesday’s CPI. Washington and Beijing extended their trade truce to January 10, 2027.
MIB Daily: Stocks Priced Relief, Bonds Priced a Hike, as AMD Jumped 13.26% and Nvidia Fell 4.27% on Its CEO Probe, With December Hike Odds at 84% and Households Strained Before Tuesday’s CPI
MIB Daily: Short-Covering Chip Bounce Lifts AMD 11% as 165,000 Jobs Push December Hike Odds to 78%, Microsoft Cools on Oracle Compute and Brent Has Its Biggest Weekly Drop Since 2020, Leaving AI Hardware Exposed to CPI
Chips led a narrow rebound from Thursday’s AI rout: AMD jumped 11.04% and the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.35%; the Dow fell 0.46%. October payrolls rose 165,000, far above forecasts, lifting CME December hike odds to 78% as 2-year yields rose 4.8 bps. Fed’s Daly expects policy will have to tighten further. Brent headed for its largest weekly drop since 2020 on US-Iran talks. Microsoft is reportedly winding down Oracle compute rentals. Tesla (+4.23%) will wind down Cybertruck output for Cybercab.
MIB Weekly: The AI Bill Came Due as Intel Fell 28.58% and Alphabet 12.64%, Healthcare and Treasuries Won While Gold Failed as a Haven, Can a Split Fed Still Hike in December?
Intel’s 28.58% one-day collapse and Alphabet’s worst session since listing ended a week that began with an AI rally, leaving the Nasdaq 100 down 1.98% while the Russell 2000 gained 1.29%. Meta’s $37.5 billion equity sale, Microsoft’s $25 billion-plus bond deal and Amazon’s $42.4 billion free-cash outflow made AI funding the market’s central question. The Fed held with two dissents for a hike, yet the 10-year yield fell 7.1 bps.
MIB Daily: Free Cash Flow Is the New AI Scorecard and Alphabet Failed It, Erasing $500 Billion as Healthcare and Real Estate Led, the 10-Year Fell Below 5% on a 3.4% GDP Beat and Crude Held Above $100 on Iran Risk
Alphabet’s worst day since its 2004 listing (-12.64%) on negative free cash flow erased roughly $500 billion and dragged the Nasdaq 100 down 1.38%, yet four in five S&P 500 stocks rose. Q3 GDP beat at 3.4% and PCE inflation matched at 3.6%; the 10-year fell 11.7 bps to 4.934%. Microsoft launched a $25 billion-plus bond sale. DoorDash (+5.61%) agreed to buy Instacart for $17 billion. CENTCOM briefed Trump on Iran military options; crude ended flat above $100.
MIB Daily: Two Fed Votes for a Hike and the 2-Year Rallied Anyway, SK Hynix’s Sold-Out 2029 Lifts Chipmakers as Oracle Jumps 10.73%, and With WTI at $101.95 Thursday’s PCE Decides December
The Fed held at 3.75%-4.00%, but Governor Cook and Cleveland’s Hammack dissented for a hike and Warsh refused forward guidance; the 2-year still fell 4.1 bps. SK Hynix says DRAM and HBM are sold out through 2029, lifting Micron 5.86% and Lam 5.39%. Oracle jumped 10.73% after capping new AI fundraising at $20 billion. WTI rose 2.05% to $101.95 on Yemen fighting and Iran strike fears. GDPNow ends Q3 at 3.3%, setting up Thursday’s GDP and PCE.
MIB Weekly: The AI Trade Hit Its Credit Limit, Nasdaq 100 -5.49% as CoreWeave Debt Broke 15%, Treasuries Rallied Through Hot CPI, Staples and $100 Oil Led, Can Meta’s Capex Stop the Unwind?
An AI-financing scare split the market this week: CoreWeave’s bonds topped a 15% yield, the chip index fell eight straight sessions and the Nasdaq 100 dropped 5.49% while the Dow rose 0.67%. Dell (-22.92%) led the losers as money rotated into Walmart, Coca-Cola and Eli Lilly. Gulf attacks sent WTI up 11.08% to $101.64, and hot CPI and PPI did not stop the 10-year yield falling 15.4 bps.
MIB Daily: The 29K Jobs Miss Moved the Date, Not the Destination, as the Nasdaq 100 Hit a Record, a 5.28% 10-Year Kept Duration Exposed and G7 Diesel Barrels Met a Sixth Hormuz Strike
September payrolls rose 29,000 against roughly 90,000 expected, unemployment hit 4.2% and October hike odds sank to about 23%. Stocks cheered: S&P 500 +0.73%, Nasdaq 100 at a record. Bonds didn’t, with the 2-year up 4.0 bps after Dallas Fed’s Logan called for 50 bps or more of further hikes. The G7 agreed a 100 million-barrel reserve release and WTI fell 1.9%, but a sixth vessel since Sunday was struck in Hormuz. TSLA rose 4.65% on a delivery beat.
MIB Daily: The Bond Market Is Doing the Fed’s Job, the 10-Year Hits 5.225% and the 7-Year Clears at a 1993 High as Brent Tops $107, and Only Meta Holds the Line While Utilities and Housing Pay
The 10-year jumped 10.9 bps to 5.225%, its highest since 2007, and the 7-year auction cleared at the highest yield since 1993. Brent surged 4.25% to $107.46 on an Iranian threat to widen the war and Houthi missiles aimed at Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu terminal. The Fed’s Williams called another hike by year-end “reasonable.” META +4.50% held the S&P 500 flat as eight of 11 sectors fell. Anthropic committed $11.6B to Akamai’s cloud. ORCL -3.47% on a Project Jupiter force-majeure notice.
MIB Daily: A VIX at 14.92 Says Nobody Is Paying for the Hormuz Tail, WTI +3.50% and Utilities Uncapped With PG&E -18%, While the Two-Year Refused to Confirm a 72% Hike Bet and AI Became the Hiding Place
US strikes near the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s overnight retaliation sent WTI up 3.50% to $86.32 and European gas to its highest since January 2023. Nine of eleven sectors closed red. California’s wildfire bill omitted the liability cap: PG&E -18%, Edison -23%. The FTC and 22 states sued Amazon over a $20bn ad-auction scheme; AMZN -2.50%. Warsh went hawkish at the G20 but the two-year refused to confirm. Aon bought USI for $17bn, all debt-funded.
MIB Weekly: The S&P Rose 0.49% and Told You Nothing, Warsh Sent the 2Y Up 12.2bp and Hike Odds to 68%, Chicago PMI Hit 47.1, Gold and Semicap Took the Hit, Marvell Paid 10.28% for 90bp of Margin
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh used his first Jackson Hole keynote to say the central bank has “more work to do” on inflation, and the two-year Treasury yield ended the week 12.2 basis points higher at 4.354% — September is now a live hike meeting, with Polymarket’s 2026 hike contract up twelve points to 68%. The damage landed on gold (−3.50%) and the Russell 2000 (−1.51%), not the S&P 500 (+0.49%). Friday’s rate move then took semiconductor equipment down 4–5%.
MIB Daily: September Prices a 38% Hike, Not a Cut, With the 2-Year at 4.209% and the 10-Year Up 1bp on 3.7% PCE, a 4.6% Atlanta Fed Nowcast Splits a 1.5% Q2, and Record $4 Gas Lands With Crude Lower Before Warsh
Markets barely moved on a hot headline PCE — but futures now price a September rate HIKE near 38%, not a cut. Meta paid $16.7bn and accepted a decade-long two-hour daily cap on teen accounts. America is heading for its first $4 Labor Day on record, and it’s a refining story, not a crude one. Boston Scientific’s cyberattack has stopped it shipping orders worldwide. Atlanta Fed’s Q3 nowcast turned back up to 4.6%. Warsh’s first Jackson Hole keynote lands Friday.
MIB Daily: The Debt Manager Rescued the Long End, Not the Fed, as Chips Fell 5.6% With 30 of 30 Down and Nebius -9.87% Repriced AI’s Funding End, Leaving Healthcare +3.37% and Metals +3.62% Hostage to Rates
Treasury doubled its long-bond buybacks and the tape turned: 10-year -6.8 bps, dollar -0.86%, gold +3.60%. Not a Fed trade: the July minutes showed several members ready to hike, nobody for a cut, and the market shrugged. Chips fell 5.6% a second day, all 30 down. Merck +12.60% on the first Phase 3 win for a cancer vaccine. Marvell handed Google a $12.2bn warrant; Broadcom paid -4.61%. Canada’s 50% tariffs pause three days; Bitcoin +6.25% on an SEC framework.
MIB Daily: One Analysis, No New Demand Data, 5.4% Off the Chips, Software Still Green, GDPNow Cut to 4.03%, and a 56% No-Landing Book That Argues for Rotating Within Risk Assets Rather Than Adding
A Wall Street Journal tally of $3 trillion in off-balance-sheet AI commitments gutted the memory complex — SNDK -9%, MU -7%, chips -5.4% — and dragged the Nasdaq 100 down 1.68%. Trump says no Iran talks; a bulk carrier was struck inside Hormuz and crude rose a third session. Housing starts collapsed 12.4%. Section 338 tariffs on Canada bite at midnight. GDPNow’s Q3 estimate has lost a third in a fortnight. Gold fell 1.79% anyway — the hedge failed.
MIB Weekly: The Market Outvoted Five Fed Hawks and Bought a Record on a 23K Job Loss — AI Now Pays for Capital Discipline, Not Growth, and a Beat Buys Nothing; Wednesday’s CPI Can Undo All of It
The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,757.46, up 3.57% on the week, after July payrolls contracted 23,000 against an +83,000 consensus and priced a September rate hike out of the front end — over the objections of five Fed officials who spent four sessions arguing for one. Crude round-tripped 8.8% lower on the Hormuz reopening trade, leaving Energy down 3.66% with the strait still shut. Palantir surged 39.78%; AMD beat on every line and fell 7% on its capex.
MIB Daily: Dow’s Record Close Hid an AI Reckoning — NVIDIA +3.43% Outguns Alphabet’s Retreat as Soft ADP Data Puts Friday’s Payrolls on Recession Watch
The Dow closed at a record 54,349 — and almost nothing else did. Private payrolls added just 44,000, ISM services employment fell into contraction, and September hike odds slid to 57% even as Kashkari and Cook publicly pushed for tightening. Alphabet dropped 4.03% after losing its chief scientist and DeepMind CEO in one day. Gold surged 3.71% to $4,306. Tower REITs fell 6% each as SpaceX aimed Starlink at the carriers. AI infrastructure sold off on no news; NVIDIA rose 3.43%.
MIB Daily: Oil Did the Fed’s Job Today — WTI’s 5.52% Crash Funds a Record Dow and a $3T Amazon, But Chips and Transports Aren’t Buying the Truce
Trump called off strikes on Iran and crude cratered — WTI -5.52% to $80 — but Tehran denies talking to Washington and Hormuz stays shut. The Dow closed at a record 53,178.41, and this time breadth came along: 8 of 11 sectors green, Russell +1.72%. ISM manufacturing hit a post-2022 high and GDPNow leapt to 6.2%; bonds rallied anyway. Williams says the Fed hikes if inflation stalls. AstraZeneca-Bristol Myers weighed a $400bn merger; AZN fell 9%. Amazon topped $3 trillion.
MIB Daily: Wall Street Sold the Fear, Not the Risk — Chips Reload on AI Capex as Defensives Fund the Trade and GDP’s 6.3% Price Index Keeps the Question Open
Wall Street erased Wednesday’s Fed-day rout: Nasdaq 100 +3.36%, S&P 500 +1.67%, VIX -17.33%. Microsoft surged 15.5% on 43% Azure growth; Meta sank 7.95%. Semis went vertical — Micron +18%, Lam +18%, AMAT +15%, AMD +13%. But Q2 GDP undershot at 1.5% with the price index spiking to 6.3%, and Dow Transports fell 1.74%. June core PCE cooled to 3.3%; jobless claims held at 197K. US strikes hit Iran overnight, yet crude closed lower and the dollar broke below 100.
MIB Daily: Chips Crack and Oil Spikes on Hormuz Attacks — A Hawkish-Dovish Fed Split Meets Hot Inflation Data as Capital Rotates Into Energy and Healthcare
Chip stocks cratered despite Samsung’s blowout profit — Intel -9.66%, Nasdaq 100 -1.77% — as Reuters reported DeepSeek is building its own AI chip. NY Fed inflation expectations hit 3.7%, highest since 2023, lifting the 10-year 7bps and exposing a Hammack-hawkish, Williams-dovish Fed split before the July 28-29 FOMC. Oil spiked 5.3% after Iran struck tankers near Hormuz and Washington revoked Tehran’s export license. Healthcare’s rotation rally extended; Rivian sank 18% on a $1.5B raise, SpaceX slid 6.34% in its Nasdaq-100 debut.
MIB Weekly: The Disinflation That Wasn’t — Iran Sent WTI to $69, Micron Proved AI Demand Is Real, and the Fed Went Unanimously Hawkish; Rotate Healthcare, Watch the July 1 Warsh Speech
Iran’s Hormuz normalization sent WTI down 8.6% to $70 and gold below $4,000 — extracting months of war-risk premium in five sessions — while the FOMC reached unanimous hawk consensus as Core PCE hit a 3-year high of 3.4% and Kashkari abandoned his rate-cut projection for a hike. Micron’s $41.5B revenue quarter proved AI memory demand is real and HBM is booked through 2027; the OpenAI IPO delay on Friday questioned whether AI monetization can sustain the infrastructure being built.
MIB Daily: AI Capex Cracks, FOMC Unanimously Hawkish — Enterprise Software Long, Memory Short, Iran Oil Binary at $69 Unresolved
OpenAI may delay its IPO to 2027 — WDC -13%, STX -12%, Nasdaq -1.09% — as markets rotated into enterprise software (MSFT +5.71%, PLTR +5.28%). Kashkari flipped to a 2026 hike, completing a unanimous FOMC hawk chorus; the trade deficit exploded to $105.8B vs. $85B, lifting September cut odds to 55%. LLY +7.13% on EU leukemia approval drove healthcare to a record weekly outperformance. Iran struck a Hormuz vessel but oil fell -2.73%. Trump threatened 100% tariffs on DST nations.
