Most of us assumed that CPI and the other data releases would stay relatively tame heading into the US midterms. Instead, the numbers came in hot. September CPI rose 3.7% year over year, a five-month high and above the 3.6% the market was looking for. The bigger surprise was core CPI, which strips out food and energy: it climbed to 2.6% year over year, also ahead of expectations and up from 2.4% the month before. As things stand, the market is already pricing in another Fed hike before year-end — CME's FedWatch Tool puts the odds at close to 90%. The most direct casualty of a higher-for-longer rate environment driven by sticky inflation is the cohort of tech companies that fund their capital spending with debt. To lock in the computing capacity that the next phase of AI development demands