Driven largely by a sharp rise in energy prices stemming from the Iran war, the median inflation rate across the countries monitored in CFR's Global Inflation Tracker increased to 3.0% in Q1 2026—up from 2.8% the quarter prior. The IMF forecasts a continued rise in global inflation as the supply shock from the war puts further upward pressure on prices, writes expert @BennSteil. Explore CFR's Global Inflation Tracker to trace inflation trends in almost 200 countries:

Driven by the success of NVIDIA’s system-level architecture, HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) has effectively become the default memory configuration for high-end AI accelerators. In today’s AI infrastructure, memory is no longer a secondary component — it is a performance-defining element. You can think of HBM as the most premium real estate in a megacity. The location is unbeatable: it sits extremely close to the compute die, connected through an interposer with thousands of ultra-wide data paths. The infrastructure is top-tier: 3D die stacking, TSV vertical interconnects, and advanced packaging technologies such as CoWoS enable unprecedented bandwidth density.

Driven by inflation expectations and relentless Treasury supply, 30-year U.S. Treasury yields are trading at their highest levels since 2009. What signal is the long-end sending about inflation, deficits and market risk?