Tag Archives | Neel Kashkari

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.

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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%.

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MIB Daily: The Fed Put Just Got Cheaper — 19-Year Bond Yields and a Trillion-Dollar Chip Wipeout Leave Thursday’s Core PCE to Decide Stagflation, Favoring Macro Hedges Over Tech and Industrials

The Fed held at 3.50%-3.75% but three members dissented for a hike — the first three-way hawkish split since 2016 — and the Dow fell 2.18%, its worst day since April 2025. The 30-year hit a 19-year high at 5.21%. Iran struck a US base in Jordan and rejected Oman’s Hormuz plan; WTI jumped 6.74%. SK Hynix’s miss tipped the Nasdaq 100 into correction, erasing $1 trillion of global chip value. Caterpillar sank 6.91% on data-centre permitting risk.

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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.

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MIB Daily: Micron’s AI Windfall Is Apple’s Cost Crisis — PCE 3.4% Signals a Hike as RUT Hits All-Time High

Micron (MU +15.74%) posted $41.5B in Q3 revenue — quadruple year-over-year — lifting semiconductors while Apple (-6.12%) and Microsoft (-3.46%) fell on AI memory-driven hardware price hikes. Core PCE hit 3.4% YoY, highest since Oct 2023; Williams and Goolsbee hawkish, September hike window rising. Q1 GDP revised to 2.1% but consumer spending +0.5%, weakest since 2022; GDPNow cut Q2 to 2.5%. Russell 2000 closed at an all-time record as capital fled mega-cap tech. Bitcoin breached $60K, now 50% off its 2026 peak.

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MIB: Summit Override — S&P and Nasdaq ATH Despite PPI 6.0%, Warsh Confirmed, 30-Year Clears 5%

S&P 500 hit a fresh all-time high (7,444) as the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing drove AI and semiconductor stocks to records — Nvidia reached $5.5T market cap and Trump confirmed discussing Blackwell chip exports with Xi — even as April PPI printed +6.0% YoY, the hottest since December 2022. Kevin Warsh was confirmed as Fed Chair 54-45, inheriting a policy trap. The 30-year Treasury crossed 5.046% at auction. The IEA warned of the largest oil supply deficit in history at 8.5 mb/day.

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MIB: Stagflation Trap — Fed Splits 8-4, WTI +8%, GDPNow 1.2%, Mag-4 Beats Fail to Lift the Tape

Fed holds 3.50–3.75% in historic 8-4 split as hawkish dissenters signal removal of easing bias; Trump locks in months-long Iran blockade as WTI surges 8.3% to $108/bbl and US gas hits 4-year high of $4.23/gal; UAE quits OPEC effective May 1; Atlanta Fed finalizes Q1 GDPNow at 1.2%, 110 bps below 2.3% consensus ahead of Thursday’s advance GDP + Core PCE release.

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MIB: Hormuz Crisis Day 3 — Oil +15%, Stagflation Signal Flashes, Fed Pulls Back on Rate Cuts

US-Iran war enters Day 3 — gold hit $5,417 record Monday, oil +15% this week. S&P 500 -0.94%, trimmed from intraday -2.5% loss after Trump’s Navy escort announcement. Fed’s Williams and Kashkari pull back from 2026 cut forecasts as 10Y yields rise on stagflation fears. UAL -4.09%, DAL -5% on fuel shock. Target (TGT) +7.5% on earnings beat. CrowdStrike beats after the bell.

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