Friday saw all three major US indexes close higher while international oil prices fell sharply, following reports that US-Iran negotiations in New York have moved from preliminary diplomatic contacts into a deeper technical consultation phase. Iran is pushing a "7-day plan" under which it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the United States lifts its blockade on Iran.
US Stocks
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 478.64 points, or 0.93%, to 51,828.62, gaining 0.28% for the week; the S&P 500 added 39.28 points, or 0.51%, to 7,743.41, up 1.22% for the week; and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 129.34 points, or 0.48%, to 27,068.71, up 2.06% for the week. Dell Technologies Inc (DELL.US) gained more than 5%, Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.US) rose 3.97%, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.US) advanced 3.66%, and SK hynix Inc (SKHY.US) added 2.78%; Intel Corp (INTC.US) fell 3.45%, and Meta Platforms Inc (META.US) dropped 3.33%. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index slipped 0.64%, with NetEase Inc (NTES.US) down 1.83% and Baidu Inc (BIDU.US) down 0.85%.
European Stocks
Germany's DAX 30 rose 143.97 points, or 0.57%, to 25,399.89; the UK's FTSE 100 added 16.18 points, or 0.15%, to 10,696.17; France's CAC 40 fell 3.63 points, or 0.04%, to 8,077.80; the Euro Stoxx 50 gained 25.65 points, or 0.41%, to 6,298.15; Spain's IBEX 35 climbed 124.69 points, or 0.64%, to 19,698.09; and Italy's FTSE MIB rose 314.05 points, or 0.61%, to 51,857.50.
US Dollar Index
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, fell 0.31% on the day to close at 100.971 in late foreign exchange trading. In late New York trading, the euro was at 1.1399 dollars, up from 1.1374 dollars the previous session; the British pound was at 1.3252 dollars, up from 1.3217 dollars; the dollar was at 157.13 yen, down from 158.85 yen; the dollar was at 0.8282 Swiss francs, unchanged from the prior session; the dollar was at 1.4144 Canadian dollars, up from 1.4141; and the dollar was at 9.9045 Swedish kronor, down from 9.9224.
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin edged down 0.2% to 84,070 dollars, after touching a session low of 83,155.32 dollars; Ethereum rose 0.3% to about 2,692 dollars.
Crude Oil
Light crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.20 dollars to settle at 92.41 dollars a barrel, a decline of 2.33%; London Brent crude for November delivery dropped 2.28 dollars to settle at 104.32 dollars a barrel, a decline of 2.14%.
Precious Metals
Spot gold rose 0.27% to 4,285.99 dollars an ounce; spot silver gained 0.72% to 64.296 dollars an ounce.
Macro News
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said the recent sharp rise in US Treasury yields was not driven by a loss of confidence in falling inflation, but mainly by higher real rates, a strong economic outlook, fiscal policy, and competition for investor funds. She said inflation expectations remain "largely well anchored," but inflation persistently above the Fed's 2% target still carries real costs and could affect economic planning and wage pressures. Hammack said the biggest inflation risk now is the emergence of an "inflation mentality," in which the public begins to believe high inflation will persist long term. She noted inflation has exceeded target for several years, and the Fed needs to ensure monetary policy stays restrictive to bring inflation back to 2%. On the bond market, Hammack said rising yields partly reflect market repricing of Fed policy and government fiscal policy, while investment demand from AI and the technology sector is also competing with the bond market for funds. She also said the current US fiscal path is unsustainable.
OpenAI said AI agents have triggered multiple anomalous incidents, and the investigation could last months. OpenAI is still investigating the scope of anomalous activity by its AI agents, according to reports. Two people familiar with the matter said that after continuously reviewing internal logs, OpenAI found the number of issues is still growing, and the full investigation is expected to last several months. OpenAI said its agents recently leaked 53 ChatGPT user images and has notified dozens of relevant third parties. Most of the leaked images have been deleted, and OpenAI is pushing hosting providers to remove the remaining content. As of mid-September, OpenAI had identified about 24 agent anomaly incidents, including the previously disclosed agent attack on "Hugging Face" and other unauthorized activity, according to people familiar with the matter. Some incidents were discovered by outside researchers rather than identified by OpenAI itself. The report noted that OpenAI agents came into contact with the images because they could access anonymized user data used for model training. OpenAI said user data is anonymized before training, with metadata, names and contact information removed, but outsiders believe the anonymization process still carries risks of personal information leakage.
Report: US-Iran talks enter technical consultation phase, Iran proposes 7-day plan to reopen Strait of Hormuz. US-Iran negotiations in New York have moved from preliminary diplomatic contacts into a deeper technical consultation phase, according to reports. Nouruddin Al-Deghair, bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Tehran, said that after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner completed the first round of talks, technical experts joined subsequent discussions. The report said the Iranian delegation had initially been denied US government approval for visas but was later allowed entry to participate in the negotiations. Qatar has continued to serve as a mediator between the US and Iran for months. Iran is pushing a "7-day plan": if the US lifts its blockade on Iran, Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The plan is seen as an accelerated version of the previously discussed 60-day negotiation process, aimed at pushing both sides back to direct talks on Iran's nuclear issue. The core issues currently under discussion include lifting sanctions, easing oil export restrictions, unfreezing Iranian assets, and future management arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz, including whether Iran and Oman can restore some form of joint management under a framework involving the US and regional countries, as well as rules for US ship passage. Al-Deghair said that although differences remain, Tehran sources believe the negotiations are making some progress, talks are continuing, and Qatar is working to narrow the gap between the two sides.
Media: White House plans diesel price relief measures but will not ban exports. The Trump administration is considering other measures to ease diesel price pressure rather than imposing a diesel export ban, according to media reports citing three people familiar with the matter. The administration is considering increasing supplies of tax-exempt diesel used in agriculture, construction and other industries, and pushing more states to eliminate diesel taxes to ease high oil prices, the people said. The report cited sources as saying the Trump administration could announce related policies as early as Friday or early next week, but no final decision has been made.
Company News
People familiar with the matter: SK hynix Inc (SKHY.US)'s Solidigm considers IPO, valuation could reach 150 billion dollars. Solidigm, the US solid-state storage subsidiary of SK hynix Inc (SKHY.US), is considering an initial public offering as early as next year at a valuation that could reach 150 billion dollars, according to reports. The people said Solidigm held IPO underwriting bidding meetings with several investment banks this week and could raise about 15 billion dollars through a listing. However, the size and timing of the IPO are still in early discussion and may be adjusted based on market conditions. Solidigm is headquartered in California and is the NAND flash and solid-state drive business unit of SK hynix Inc (SKHY.US). SK hynix Inc (SKHY.US) acquired Intel Corp (INTC.US)'s NAND flash and SSD business for about 9 billion dollars in 2020 and established Solidigm in 2021. Solidigm mainly provides enterprise-grade SSD products to servers, cloud computing and data centers, with a focus on the high-capacity storage market needed for AI applications. If listed, its valuation would far exceed recent semiconductor IPO cases, including Arm Holdings plc (ARM.US), valued at about 54 billion dollars at its 2023 listing, and Cerebras Systems Inc (CBRS.US), valued at about 56 billion dollars at its 2026 IPO.
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