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 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
MIB Daily: The Democratic Sweep Became a Tax on the AI Trade, Micron and AMD Sank 17% and the VIX Jumped 69%, While Traders Cut Hike Odds to 64% as Fed Hawks Held Firm and Treasuries Rallied
AI stocks crashed on fears a Democratic Congress will slow the data-center buildout: the S&P 500 fell 4.36% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.36%, the worst day since April 2025. Micron (-17.46%) and AMD (-17.26%) led the Philadelphia Semiconductor index’s 12.25% plunge. The VIX jumped 69% to 28.15; the 2-year yield fell 11.7 bps. Fed hawks held their tightening line even as Polymarket odds of another 2026 hike fell to 64%. Brent rose 4.65% on fresh Hormuz tanker attacks.
MIB Daily: The AI Boom Now Pays for Itself With Stock, as Anthropic Files and Meta Raises $35 Billion While Chip Suppliers Rally, the 2-Year Prices a Hike Before Warsh, and Brazil ADRs Crash
Anthropic filed its public S-1 for a Nasdaq IPO as ANT, and the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.09% as AI hardware led. Meta (META) fell 1.88% on a roughly $35 billion stock offering to fund its AI build-out. The 2-year yield rose 3.0 bps two days before Wednesday’s Fed decision. Lula’s fourth term sank Brazilian assets, with Petrobras (PBR) down 13.99%. WTI fell 1.60% as regional envoys opened talks in Tehran. Tesla (TSLA) jumped 5.21% on a Barclays upgrade.
MIB Weekly: The War Hit Prices, Not Nerves, as Brent Ran 6.3% to $116 and Gold Fell 4%, AI’s Bill Came Due in Credit Markets, Small Caps Rose 2% and Bonds Rallied Below 5% Into a Fed That Must Choose
Houthi strikes on Saudi airports and Aramco sites pushed Brent up 6.3% to $116.62, its highest settle since April. Thursday’s AI-financing scare, set off by Lam Research’s supply-capped guidance (-11.76%) and Meta’s higher spending floor (-6.98%), handed the Nasdaq 100 its worst day since June. Treasuries took the haven bid, the 10-year closing the week below 5% as price pressure built into Wednesday’s Fed decision. CrowdStrike (+13.3%) and Palo Alto (+11.3%) led the gainers.
MIB Daily: The AI Trade’s Weak Spot Is the Bill, Lam Research -11.76% and GE Vernova -10.64% as Staples and Treasuries Rally, Brent Hits $112.88 and Trump Invokes the DPA for Oil, Six Days Before the FOMC
An AI-hardware rout sank the Nasdaq 100 2.90% and dragged the S&P 500 down 1.21%, yet two of three S&P stocks rose. Lam Research fell 11.76% and GE Vernova lost 10.64%. Treasuries caught a haven bid, cutting the 10-year yield 17.2 bps to 4.951%. Brent jumped 3.73% to $112.88, its highest close since May 4, after Houthi strikes on Saudi targets. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act for domestic oil. Moderna sank 17.57% on leaked Phase 3 melanoma data.
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: Iran’s Oil Shock Now Runs Through the 10-Year at 5.241%, Gold Fails as the Hedge, META Drops 4.79% on an OpenAI Rival, and Hot Factory Costs Make Wednesday’s PCE the October Hike Test
Trump rejected Iran’s Hormuz roadmap, and the damage ran through bonds: the 10-year closed at 5.241%, topping last week’s high, and the S&P 500 fell 0.77%. Fed Governor Cook said the labor market appears able to handle higher rates. Gold sank 4.02% and silver 5.83%. META fell 4.79% on a reported rival OpenAI agent, while NVDA rose 1.68% on a $150B buyback boost. Boeing slid about 6% as the FAA held up 737 MAX 10 certification.
MIB Weekly: The S&P Went Nowhere and Everything Under It Moved, WTI +9.22% With Energy Equities Not Following, SNDK +17.17% vs PANW -10.32%, FICO -16.68% by Directive, September Repriced Three Times, Still a Coin Flip
The September FOMC was repriced three times in five sessions and ended where it started: Barr said hike, Waller said hold, and Friday’s 162,000-payroll blowout against a 56,000 consensus flipped implied odds back to 58-60%. Underneath it, five days of US-Iran exchanges put WTI up 9.22% and took retail diesel to an all-time record $5.850, six days before the CPI on which Waller staked his vote. Technology split in half: Sandisk +17.17% against Palo Alto -10.32%.
MIB Daily: Payrolls 162K Against 56K Bought a September Hike, the President Demanded Cuts Anyway, and Memory Rallied Regardless as Record $5.850 Diesel Leaves One CPI Print Deciding the Meeting
August payrolls tripled expectations at 162,000 and flipped September back to a coin-flip hike — implied odds 58-60%. The selloff was narrow: Netflix -5.35%, Palantir -4.49%, while memory ran hard (Sandisk +11.90%, Micron +6.10%). Tesla -5.92% as NHTSA opened an audit query into how it self-certified the Cybercab. FICO -16.68% after FHFA opened VantageScore to every GSE lender. Retail diesel set a record $5.850 a gallon, +57.6% year-on-year. Novartis’s Lp(a) drug failed after the close; Amgen and Ionis fell harder.
MIB Daily: Not a Rate-Cut Rally but a Growth One, PMI 56.0 With the 2Y Charging 4.7bps, Gold $4,672 and Bitcoin $77,522 Bid on a Flat Dollar, Utilities -1.97% Into Warsh in Seven Days
Flash PMI shocked at 56.0, a 52-month high, putting Q3 growth near 3%: cyclicals bought it, the two-year charged for it. US-Canada talks collapsed; 50% duties hit $20B of Canadian goods at midnight. Gold cleared $4,672 and Bitcoin ran 6.69% to $77,522 with the dollar flat and yields higher. Tesla +5.14% on Nevada’s first paid robotaxi permits; Marvell -5.56% despite a 38% target raise. Fourteen Walmart cuts, eight Ross raises, same session. Oil rigs fell a third straight week.
MIB Weekly: Intel Beat by 100% and Fell 7.89% as Capital Intensity Repriced — Brent Over $100, a Tariff Floor on 99.4% of Imports, Hike Odds at 72%, and Breadth Still Green
Brent topped $100 for the first time in two months and closed the week up 11.39% after Houthi missiles struck two Saudi tankers. The larger repricing was in AI: Alphabet (-7.13%), Tesla (-14.52%) and Intel (-7.89% despite its best growth in fifteen years) were all punished for capital spending, while Apple (+3.53%) and IBM (+3.65%) were bid for having none. Polymarket’s 2026 hike odds jumped 21 points to 72% heading into Wednesday’s FOMC.
MIB Daily: GOOGL -7.13%, TSLA -14.52% as AI Spending Meets Its Reckoning — Brent’s Run to $100 Leaves the Fed No Room, Energy Alone Gains
Alphabet and Tesla cratered — GOOGL -7.13%, TSLA -14.52% — after both guided capex well above expectations, dragging the Nasdaq 100 down 1.87%. Brent crude topped $100/bbl as Houthi strikes hit Saudi tankers, opening a second Red Sea front alongside the Hormuz standoff. Rate markets threw a tantrum — July hike odds near 47%, September at 82% — as jobless claims hit a 1969 low leave the Fed with zero cover on oil-driven inflation. Oracle slid despite nearing a $20B Meta deal.
MIB Daily: Oil’s Surge to $86 and 5.16% Yields Hand the Fed Its Excuse — Energy Leads as Alphabet, Tesla Defend $489B in AI Debt
Oil hit six-week highs — WTI +2.73%, Brent +3.32% — as an 11th night of US strikes on Iran, a Houthi Red Sea blockade threat, and a Caspian Pipeline attack compound at once, dragging gold to $4,140 while stocks slipped (S&P -0.14%, Nasdaq 100 -0.54%). Deutsche Bank and BofA now see 2-3 more Fed hikes after a weak 20-year auction pushed yields to 5.16%. Dell +9.32%, GE Vernova -8.69%, Palantir -6.10%. Alphabet and Tesla report after the bell.
MIB Daily: SOX +3% and AMD +6.61% Confirm a Broadening AI Rally — But Can Cyclical Rotation Survive a Fed Still Split on Rate Cuts?
Broadcom’s decade-long Apple chip deal ignites a broad semiconductor rebound, driving the S&P (+0.72%) and Dow to record highs while AMD (+6.61%) and Arista (+8.31%) ride AI-infrastructure demand. June’s ISM Services report complicates the rate-cut story: hiring jumped even as growth cooled, muddying the Fed’s path into month-end’s FOMC. Tesla (+6.69%) rebounds on its first Miami robotaxi trading day. Vertex snaps up Crinetics for $10B in a biotech bet, and SK Hynix confirms a record $28B Nasdaq listing, pricing Thursday.
MIB Weekly: The Fed Talked Tough, the Jobs Data Called Its Bluff — Rotate Out of Memory Chips as Dow Hits 52,900
The S&P 500 gained 1.76% this holiday-shortened week as the Dow notched three fresh records, but a violent AI-infrastructure whipsaw defined the tape: Monday’s snapback reversed into a two-day global semiconductor rout after Meta’s AI-cloud pivot (META +8.85% then -4.90%) triggered a KOSPI circuit breaker. The bigger story was labor: June nonfarm payrolls badly missed at 57K vs. 115K consensus, forcing markets to price out a near-term Fed hike even as Fed officials talked tough on inflation days earlier.
MIB Daily: Payrolls Miss (57K vs 115K) Fuels a Record Dow as Gold and Chips Flash a Warning — Can AI Capex Survive the Rotation Into Value?
June payrolls badly missed at 57K vs. 115K est.; unemployment fell to 4.2% only as participation hit a five-year low. Dow rode Fed rate-cut hopes to a record (+1.14%) even as gold’s 1.3% jump read it as a growth warning. Semiconductors extended their rout (SanDisk -14%, KLA -11.5%) as Meta (-4.9%) admitted AI agents “hasn’t accelerated as expected.” Tesla fell 7.5% despite blowout deliveries; O’Reilly bid ~$10B for GPC’s NAPA; oil hit a 4-month low on US-Iran progress.
MIB Digest: Intel’s 1987 Moment Lifts the Tape While the Consumer Breaks
Records on a stagflation tape. S&P (+0.55% WoW) and Nasdaq 100 (+2.37%) closed at fresh highs only because Intel’s Q1 blowout (Data Center +22% YoY) detonated a Friday semi rip — INTC +23.6%, AMD +13.9%, NVDA back through $5T — while the Dow (-0.44%), NYSE Composite (-1.13%), and Healthcare (-3.51%) refused to confirm. Brent +16% above $100 on the Hormuz standoff, Cleveland Fed CPI nowcast at 3.7%, and Friday’s UMich crashing to a record-low 49.8 with 1-yr inflation expectations un-anchoring to 4.7%. Polymarket cut-odds slipped 7.5 pp.
MIB: Oil Shock Meets Software Selloff as Meta and Microsoft Fund AI With Layoffs
S&P 500 and Nasdaq reversed off intraday record highs to close -0.41% / -0.57% as ServiceNow plunged 18% on a margin cut, snapping XLK’s 16-day streak. Trump ordered the Navy to “shoot and kill” Iranian boats in Hormuz; WTI spiked +4.35% to $97 as Brent held flat — a rare $9 spread. Meta cut 8,000 jobs and Microsoft launched its first-ever buyout (MSFT -3.97%) to fund AI capex. IBM -8.25% and AXP -4.31% on beat-and-fade; UNP +8.77%, CMCSA +7.73%. Intel crushed AMC. Spirit Airlines heads to court April 30 with 90% US government ownership on the table.
MIB: Ceasefire Rally to Records, Oil Surges Past $100, GEV Confirms AI Power Boom
Trump extended the Iran ceasefire indefinitely — S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit simultaneous all-time records for the first time since the war began Feb. 28. Oil defied the peace signal, surging above $100 as Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz. GEV +13.75%: Q1 data center orders exceeded all of 2025, validating the AI power thesis. Tesla AMC: EPS beat but delivery miss and energy storage collapse cloud the outlook. CUSMA renewal “unlikely by July 1,” USTR warns.
MIB: Triple Catalyst Day — Iran Ceasefire Crashes Oil, Record Bank Earnings Lift S&P Past 7,000, Trump Threatens Fed Independence
Trump threatens to fire Powell by May if he doesn’t resign, rattling bond markets. Oil crashes 7.87% as Iran ceasefire extended — Trump says war ‘very close to over.’ Fed Beige Book warns gas at $4/gallon and hiring freezes spreading. IEA sees first global oil demand decline since COVID. S&P 500 hits record 7,022 — above 7,000 for the first time. Tesla rockets 8% on AI5 chip milestone (UBS upgrades from Sell). BAC, MS, BLK all post record/near-record Q1 earnings.
