The U.S. 10-year yield retreated to approximately 5.23% after strong Treasury auction demand, but remains elevated. European sovereign yields are also under pressure, particularly in fiscally vulnerable markets. The Fed minutes showed a more nuanced split than the unanimous September vote implied. Some policymakers viewed the 25 bp hike as insurance against energy-driven inflation; others believed stronger underlying demand required tighter policy. Many argued a higher policy path could be prudent if inflation proves persistent. The Federal Reserve remains concerned about inflation following September’s rate increase. This means strong corporate earnings may not translate into higher share prices if discount rates remain elevated. This is particularly important for AI, utilities and REITs.
US ban direct sales of top-tier AI accelerators (eg Nvidia's H100/B200 series) to mainland China. By leasing, Tencent legally accesses compute power hosted outside China’s sovereign borders. It provides the raw compute needed to train and deploy advanced large language models (Hunyuan LLM suite) and scale AI features across WeChat, gaming, and enterprise ad engines without relying solely on domestic chips. This weighs on Tencent's short-term free cash flow margins but locks in critical high-performance compute capacity for five years. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has positioned itself as an agile, cost-effective alternative to hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform for AI workloads. Landing a $7 billion, multi-year contract with ~30% upfront cash commitments sig
The answer was A. After weeks and days anticipating the increase, the verdict is out and markets have also reacted strongly. The FED was unanimous of its decision and its the first step to further increases. As of 18 September 2026, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose another 2.8%, its fourth consecutive gain, and finally broke above its 50-day moving average after that level had acted as resistance since July. The backdrop is still unusually volatile, the SOX had fallen about 21% in July, so some of what we are seeing is recovery from a major drawdown rather than a fresh move from a stable base. Next to watch : Micron earnings on 30 Sep
The underlying numbers make the comment more credible than a purely sentiment-driven rally. $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ latest quarter produced $96.2bn revenue, +106% YoY, with Data Center at $89.0bn, +117%. $Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$ Data Center revenue reached $6.7bn, +107% YoY, while $Broadcom(AVGO)$ AI semiconductor revenue hit $16.7bn, +221% YoY, and Broadcom expects $21.7bn in the current quarter. The interesting development this week is that money is already moving beyond the obvious GPU names. On Friday, $Lam Research(LRCX)$ ,$Applied
C. 💻 Tech and semiconductors stay strong Brent fell 2.7% to $105.83 after Saudi Arabia began moving more crude through Oman, partially relieving the immediate supply squeeze. Hormuz traffic, however, remains extremely depressed. The post-Fed market is stabilising: global equities rebounded as Treasury yields retreated and Brent eased to $104.82, although both borrowing costs and energy remain restrictive. The important investment message is that the macro shock has eased slightly,e no hard evidence of AI infrastructure demand rolling over. $Broadcom(AVGO)$ just reported perhaps the strongest confirmation: Q3 AI semiconductor revenue was +221% YoY and +54% QoQ, with Q4 AI semiconductor revenue guided to +236% YoY. Q3 FCF was $13.7B, or 46% of r
The Saudi East–West pipeline is particularly important because it was one of the major routes allowing crude to avoid the disrupted Strait of Hormuz. Its temporary shutdown adds another potential bottleneck at precisely the wrong time. The Houthi advance creates a second problem: Bab el-Mandeb controls access between the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. Reuters describes Iran-aligned Houthi gains as creating a new challenge for global shipping while Hormuz is already destabilised. Energy/refining/nuclear/defence: likely relative winners. Airlines/logistics/chemicals/discretionary/Asian energy importers: losers After sticky CPI and the energy shock, the question is no longer simply whether the Fed changes rates; it is the balance between energy-driven inflation + resilient labour demand + weak
The biggest change overnight is a sharper split between AI fundamentals and the broader market. The S&P 500 fell 0.58%, Dow 1.18% and Nasdaq 0.32% as Brent approached US$100 and Treasury yields stayed near 4.8%. Yet semiconductor names tied to custom AI infrastructure held up better, helped by a major new Amazon–Qualcomm agreement. Micron is already shipping HBM4 in volume for Nvidia Vera Rubin, delivering >2.8 TB/s bandwidth and >20% greater power efficiency than HBM3E. SK hynix meanwhile approved about ₩54T of new fab investment specifically to address growing AI-memory demand. HBM remains the strongest fundamental layer, but after recent sharp memory rallies coupled with imminent interest rate increases, better entry points key rather than Supercycle over.