Wall Street Action Driven by Inflation and AI Financing Developments
-
No surprises on inflation and new financing developments in the artificial intelligence trade drove the record-breaking action on Wall Street last week. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq both dropped modestly Friday but managed to post their third straight winning weeks. The S & P 500 rose above 7,800 during Thursday's session for the first time ever. It closed at a record. The Dow bucked the trend, falling nearly 0.6% for the week. Here's a closer look at what drove the market. Cooler inflation gives the Fed room to wait Two closely watched inflation reports helped fuel the week's market gains by easing concerns that the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates at its September meeting.
Compare 2 other versions
Epoch Times BusinessBy Friday’s market close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 53,732, down 0.56 percent for the week. The S&P 500 finished the week up 0.36 percent at 7,785 after touching its record high on Thursday. The Nasdaq edged up 0.14 percent, while the small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 1.12 percent.
ZeroHedgeAt Friday’s close, the index sat roughly 10% above its 200-day moving average. That is one of the widest gaps of this entire cycle, and it sits about 3.7% above the 50-day line, too. Add our Money Flow and Breadth Indicator at 80%, with 72% of members above their own 200-day average. This market has done a lot of work in a short window. Friday’s quiet fade from record highs is the kind of small caution flag that shows up when a tape gets this extended.
-
Building on the prior week's weaker-than-expected jobs report , the consumer price index on Wednesday showed an increase of 0.1% in July, while the annual inflation rate eased to 3.4%. Both were in line with estimates. Jim called the report " very benign ." The following day, the producer price index came in unchanged for the month, cooler than the 0.2% increase economists expected. On an annual basis, the headline PPI increased 4.7%. Together, the reports offered further evidence that inflation is moderating, even as it remains above the Fed's 2% target. Treasury yields moved lower as traders dialed back expectations for a September rate hike.
Compare 2 other versions
Epoch Times BusinessThe mood shifted Wednesday morning decisively when a new report showed inflation easing further. The consumer price index—a measure of the cost of living—moderated for a second straight month, to 3.4 percent in July from 3.5 percent in June, matching expectations.
ZeroHedgeThe Inflation Data Just Made The Bulls’ Job Easier Before we answer that larger question, let’s touch on what changed this week. Both inflation reports came in soft. July CPI rose just 0.1% on the month and 3.4% over the year, with core at 0.2% and 2.5%. The reports were all in line with forecasts, and the shelter reading did most of the lifting, a slow-moving piece that the Fed will likely fade. The next morning, PPI landed flat at 0.0% versus a 0.2% gain expected, and the annual rate cooled to 4.7% from 5.5%. Final demand goods prices actually fell 0.7%. The tariff “passthrough” the hawks keep warning about simply hasn’t shown up in the pipeline yet, a point I walked through in Friday’s commentary.
-
We started small, only purchasing 25 shares, given Micron's volatility. Intel and Micron ended the week up roughly 1% and 11%, respectively. Nvidia brings Wall Street into the AI buildout Nvidia announced that it has partnered with six large asset managers on a $500 billion financing push designed to turn AI compute into an investable asset class . The chipmaker signed agreements with Apollo Global Management , Blackstone , BlackRock , Brookfield Asset Management , KKR , and Club holding Goldman Sachs to establish financing platforms for Nvidia customers.
Compare 1 other version
BloombergBond Traders Agonize Over AI Companies’ $70 Billion of Shadow Credit Backstops Even before Nvidia Corp.’s splashy $500 billion financing partnership this week, investors were starting to fret over the roughly $70 billion in phantom liabilities that don’t appear on major AI companies’ balance sheets, but could materialize at the worst possible time.
6 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
-
01 CNBC Nvidia is in talks to invest as much as $3 billion in SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary developing a massive planned Ohio data center project for OpenAI, The Information reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the discussions.
-
02 ZeroHedge Look at the ceiling first. Price is pressed right against its own record highs, with Thursday’s 7,801 close and 7,817 intraday high just overhead. Above that sits the round 8,000 mark, which also happens to be Goldman’s year-end target. Round numbers act like magnets until they act like ceilings, so that’s where sellers tend to dig in. The floor sits much further away. First support is the 20-day line near 7,585, then the 50-day line near 7,510, both comfortably below Friday’s close. The takeaway is the asymmetry. There’s little cushion above, and plenty of open air below, down to those averages.
-
03 Bloomberg At AI-Fueled Market Party, Wall Street Eyes the Rates Punch Bowl Enthusiasm for Big Tech and its huge investments in artificial intelligence is powering the stock market to record highs again. With a resilient economy and scorching demand, there’s seemingly only one obstacle that can derail this ride: higher interest rates.
-
04 Epoch Times Business Aiding the positive market sentiment for equities was a wave of strong earnings from AI-infrastructure companies that added to investor interest in stocks.
-
05 RealClearMarkets The S&P 500 is in position for a rare fourth year of consecutive annual gains. Risks are rising, yet Wall Street is doubling down. Read Full Article »
-
06 NPR Economy Money that investors borrow to trade in the stock market is called margin debt. This debt is now above $1.5 trillion, 50% higher than a year ago. Could this spell trouble for the U.S. economy?
Fact Corroboration
Which sources independently confirm the same facts. Hover a claim to see its sources, or a source to see what it corroborates.
Coverage by Perspective
Source Similarity
Connections show how similarly each outlet covered this story. Thicker lines = more similar framing.
Sources (6)
- bloomberg
- npr-economy
- epochtimes-biz
- zerohedge
- cnbc
- rcmarkets