A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap: 1. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 bps for the first time since July 2023 in a unanimous 12-0 decision. In its statement, the Fed said Middle East conflicts and broader geopolitical developments contributed to the decision. The updated dot plot now points to one more 25 bps hike in 2026, with 12 of 18 officials expecting exactly one additional hike, 4 expecting two more hikes, and 2 expecting no further hikes. The Fed also projects 2 additional rate hikes in 2027, signaling policymakers expect rates to remain higher for longer. 2. President Trump is expected to meet with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York next Tuesday to discuss the next phase of the Iran conflict, according to reports. The discussions are expected to focus on U.S. proposals for a postwar strategy, with leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman, expected to participate. The meeting comes as the administration works on a broader postwar framework ahead of the Sept. 24 Trump–Xi summit, where regional security and AI are also expected to be discussed. 3. Generac $GNRC signed a long-term agreement to supply backup power generators for Amazon $AMZN data centers, with total payments under the deal potentially reaching $8B. Initial generator deliveries are expected to total roughly $2.4B across 2027 and 2028. As part of the agreement, Amazon received warrants to purchase up to 1.69M Generac shares at $200.93 each, with about 308K shares vesting immediately and the rest vesting in stages as Amazon’s payments move toward the $8B threshold. The warrants are exercisable through September 2033. The deal gives Generac a major long-term hyperscaler customer as AI data center growth continues driving demand for backup power and broader energy infrastructure. 4. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said today’s rate hike removed a “dose of accommodation,” adding that the move shows the Fed is serious about restoring price stability. Warsh also said he believes the Fed can bring inflation back under control without damaging the labor market: “We don’t need to do harm to the job market to achieve our objective.” On AI, he said the Fed is closely monitoring developments but that decisions around AI’s risks and rewards belong to other policymakers, adding that the Fed’s AI task force is expected to report back by year-end. Meanwhile, White House official Desai called the Fed’s rate hike “rather unfortunate.” 5. Nebius $NBIS announced another ~20% price increase for on-demand H100, H200, B200, and B300 GPUs, effective October 1, just 4 months after raising prices by roughly 30%. The company also posted 5 first-place results in the latest MLPerf AI inference benchmarks, including the top full-rack performance on NVIDIA’s GB300 NVL72. Nebius was one of only 2 companies to submit results on NVIDIA’s next-generation Vera Rubin NVL72 platform, achieving 603K tokens/sec running DeepSeek R1 across 72 GPUs in the preview category. The results further reinforce Nebius’ infrastructure capabilities, engineering execution, and close partnership with NVIDIA. 6. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVDA with 3.0M contracts, $TSLA with 2.4M contracts, $AAPL with 1.6M contracts, $SPCX with 1.2M contracts, $INTC with 1.0M contracts, $MU with 857K contracts, $META with 857K contracts, $AMZN with 854K contracts, $AMD with 743K contracts, and $HOOD with 403K contracts. 7. Trump administration officials are reportedly considering a meeting with major AI and tech executives on the sidelines of Xi Jinping’s Washington visit next week, though nothing has been finalized, according to CNN. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia $NVDA CEO Jensen Huang are among those expected to be in Washington for the state dinner and could potentially attend. The proposed discussion would focus on the future of AI and related risks, although Xi is not currently expected to participate. The meeting comes as the U.S. and China also prepare to discuss shared AI risks ahead of the September 24 Trump–Xi summit. 8. Chipotle $CMG is partnering with Palantir $PLTR to strengthen food safety monitoring across its restaurants. Chipotle will use Palantir’s platform to track potential food safety risks, including pest incidents, employee illnesses, and other operational factors that could impact restaurant safety. The partnership comes after a challenging summer for food safety across the U.S. and highlights how Palantir continues expanding beyond government and industrial customers into large-scale commercial use cases, where its software is being used to improve operational decision-making and risk management. 9. U.S. homebuilder confidence fell to 32, its weakest reading since late 2022, as elevated mortgage rates continued weighing on demand. The average 30-year mortgage rate has climbed back above 7%, near its highest level in almost 2 years. Builders are increasingly responding with incentives, with 38% cutting prices and 66% offering buyer concessions. At the same time, housing inventory has reached a 7-year high, while Redfin estimates there were 58% more sellers than buyers in August, the widest imbalance since it began tracking the data in 2013. 10. Nokia $NOK is expanding AI-RAN trials with operators across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East as carriers move from early evaluations into lab and live-field testing. The platform combines Nokia’s anyRAN software with NVIDIA’s Aerial RAN Computer and has delivered more than 20% improvement in spectral efficiency, according to Nokia. New and ongoing partners include A1 Group, Chunghwa Telecom, du, e&, Mobily, stc, TPG Telecom, Zain Saudi, and NTT DOCOMO, while earlier evaluations involved T-Mobile, SoftBank, and Indosat. Nokia and NVIDIA are also expanding their AI-RAN collaboration as the telecom industry moves toward AI-native 5G and 6G networks. 11. Apple $AAPL is reportedly weighing a return to the server market with an AI-focused enterprise system built around its own M-series chips and NVIDIA’s NVLink Fusion networking technology, according to The Information. The proposed servers would use either 2 or 4 M8 Ultra chips and target AI developers, enterprises, and governments looking to run AI inference on private infrastructure. The project is currently aimed for 2029, though the plans could still change or be canceled. The move follows surging demand from AI developers for Mac mini and Mac Studio systems, helping drive Mac revenue up nearly 29% last quarter to $10.4B. If launched, it would mark Apple’s return to the server market for the first time since discontinuing Xserve in 2011. 12. CoreWeave $CRWV signed a definitive 15-year anchor lease with Blockfusion for capacity at its Niagara Falls, New York AI data center campus. The former power plant is being converted into a high-density, liquid-cooled AI facility powered predominantly by hydroelectric energy. The agreement further expands CoreWeave’s long-term AI infrastructure footprint while leveraging low-cost, renewable power to support next-generation GPU deployments. WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap: 1. Nvidia $NVDA reported Q2’27 revenue of $96.2B, beating estimates of $92.2B and up 106% YoY. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.22 versus $2.10 expected, up 120% YoY. Data Center revenue reached $89.0B, above the $85.8B estimate and up 117% YoY, while adjusted gross margin was 75.0%, in line with expectations and up 250 bps YoY. Nvidia guided Q3 revenue to $108.0B +/- 2%, ahead of the $104.2B estimate, with adjusted gross margin expected at 74.0% +/- 50 bps. The company generated $64.0B of adjusted operating income, $54.0B of adjusted net income, and $21.3B of free cash flow, while returning roughly $26.0B to shareholders in Q2 with about $99.0B remaining on its authorization. Nvidia said its outlook assumes no Data Center compute revenue from China, while Vera Rubin is ramping into full production with racks running at partners. 2. US GDP came in at 1.5% QoQ, matching estimates. PCE rose 0.2% MoM versus 0.1% expected and 3.7% YoY versus 3.6% expected, while Core PCE was in line at 0.2% MoM and 3.3% YoY. Consumer spending increased 0.2% MoM, above the 0.1% estimate, and personal income rose 0.4% MoM, ahead of the 0.2% estimate. Real personal consumption was flat at 0.0% MoM, matching expectations. 3. Meta $META agreed to an $18B youth safety commitment as part of its settlement with U.S. states, including $17B tied to broader settlement terms and $2.2B payable to California. Under the deal, Meta will spend the money over 10 years on youth online safety initiatives and implement new protections for users under 18, including limiting social media use to 2 hours per day and blocking access from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. Compliance will be monitored by an independent auditor for 5 years. Meta will accrue about $10B in legal expenses in Q3 2026, but says its July financial guidance remains unchanged. The company also said $5.3B of the settlement is tied to YouTube and TikTok implementing similar daily limits, night mode, and age assurance measures. 4. The Bank of Korea raised rates by 25 bps to 3.00%, marking its second straight hike and the first back-to-back rate increases since the COVID era. The central bank also raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast to 3.3% from 2.6%, signaling stronger confidence in the economy even as it tightens policy. 5. Nvidia $NVDA has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9B, according to The Information. Strategically, this would give Nvidia a much deeper foothold in the open-source AI ecosystem, where Hugging Face has become one of the main distribution layers for models, datasets, and developer workflows. The likely goal is not just owning another AI asset, but controlling more of the software layer around AI adoption: GPUs, networking, CUDA, inference infrastructure, and now a major platform where developers actually build, share, and deploy models. For Nvidia, this makes the ecosystem stickier and strengthens its position as AI shifts from training frontier models to deploying millions of inference workloads across enterprises. 6. U.S. new home sales fell 10.5% MoM in July to 607,000 units, the lowest level in 6 months and far worse than the 1.4% decline expected. Excluding January 2026, this was the weakest reading since November 2022. New home sales have now declined in 3 of the last 4 months and are down 6.3% YoY. The Midwest saw the sharpest drop, with sales plunging 42.7% MoM to 43,000, the lowest level since 2012. Sales in the South, the largest homebuying region at more than 60% of total sales, fell 13.0% to 383,000, the second-lowest level since January. The weakness comes as the 30-year mortgage rate hit 6.81%, its highest since August 2025, continuing to pressure homebuyer demand. 7. An IRGC spokesperson said the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen unless the U.S. accepts Iran’s conditions. Those conditions reportedly include foreign warships staying at least 400 km away and no vessel transiting the Strait without Iran’s permission. The IRGC also said Iran and Oman have agreed to share revenue from shipping through the Strait, adding another layer of geopolitical and energy-market risk around one of the world’s most important chokepoints. 8. CrowdStrike $CRWD reported Q2’27 revenue of $1.47B, beating estimates of $1.44B and up 26% YoY. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.31 versus $0.29 expected, up 35% YoY, while free cash flow reached $377.4M, above the $353M estimate and up 33% YoY. Net new ARR hit a record $333M, up 51% YoY, bringing total ARR to $5.84B, up 25% YoY. CrowdStrike raised FY27 guidance to $5.99B–$6.01B in revenue, $1.25–$1.26 in adjusted EPS, and $6.60B–$6.61B in ARR. Management called Q2 the best quarter in company history, citing record Falcon Flex results, record net new ARR, stronger retention, and a Mythos-driven tailwind as AI adoption increasingly needs security at scale. $CRWD was up 10% after hours. 9. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $TSLA with 2.7M contracts, $NVDA with 2.5M contracts, $META with 1.7M contracts, $AAPL with 1.4M contracts, $INTC with 742K contracts, $AMZN with 695K contracts, $SPCX with 603K contracts, $MU with 595K contracts, $MSFT with 579K contracts, and $AMD with 404K contracts. 10. $NVDA Nvidia's CFO today said revenue is expected to grow approximately 70% in FY28, even with a supply-constrained outlook. The company said Vera CPU is now in full production, shipments are already underway to lead partners, and CPU revenue is expected to more than double in FY28 against roughly $20B of total server CPU demand. Nvidia also said it began production shipments of Vera Rubin earlier this month, while neocloud partners are expected to exit the year with 8 GW of installed capacity, up from roughly 3 GW at the end of 2025. The CFO said cloud industry backlog now exceeds $2T, with capex from the top five hyperscalers expected to reach nearly $800B in 2026 and $1.3T in 2027. Nvidia also addressed “circular financing,” saying it has invested nearly $50B in frontier AI labs and expects AI lab demand supported by its balance sheet to contribute roughly 25% of the business next year. 11. Google $GOOGL has reportedly hired Barret Zoph, co-founder and former CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, as VP of Research, according to WSJ. Zoph will work on Gemini, bringing expertise in reinforcement learning and post-training. Separately, SoftBank is reportedly in talks to acquire a majority stake in OpenAI-backed humanoid robot maker 1X at roughly a $6B valuation. 1X previously tried to raise $1B at a $10B valuation but raised less than half that target, while OpenAI also discussed acquiring the company last year before talks fell apart. 1X says it received more than 10,000 pre-orders for its $20,000 NEO humanoid in the first week, with deliveries planned for 2026, though none have been delivered yet. 12. AWS $AMZN and Nvidia $NVDA announced a major expansion of their strategic AI infrastructure partnership, building on 16 years of joint innovation. As part of the expanded collaboration, AWS will deploy 2 million additional Nvidia GPUs across its global infrastructure in 2027–2028. The companies said they are deepening their work across AI factories, CPUs, networking, open models, data processing, and robotics, giving customers more ways to build and deploy AI at scale. WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap: 1. Today was a green day. The Nasdaq jumped 2.26% to a record close of 27,122.09, while the S&P 500 gained 1.49% to 7,764.70, finishing just 0.4% below its all-time high. The rally was fueled by a powerful AI and semiconductor rebound, with $AMD topping a $1T market cap for the first time, $INTC climbing roughly 12%, $ARM surging about 17%, and Meta jumping around 11% after bullish analyst commentary and strong early traction for $META Muse. Falling oil prices and easing Treasury yields also supported risk assets. The S&P 500 added roughly $1T in market value during the session, though leadership remained concentrated in mega-cap AI names while energy stocks lagged as crude pulled back. 2. Meta $META surged 11.4% to $741.25, adding roughly $200B in market value after Wells Fargo raised its price target to $796 and argued the company finally has a compelling AI monetization story. Another major catalyst was Muse becoming the #1# free app on Apple's U.S. App Store, providing the first strong consumer evidence that Meta's AI investments may be gaining traction. Investors also positioned ahead of Meta Connect, where Zuckerberg is expected to unveil new Muse features, AI models, and wearables. 3. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said U.S.-China talks went “very well,” announcing that the two countries have formally established U.S.-China AI Dialogues and will meet again in 2 months. Bessent also said the U.S. and China are creating an AI incidents hotline to communicate if safety-related issues arise and are now discussing protocols covering cybersecurity, AI agents, and broader AI safety. The move marks one of the first formal bilateral frameworks focused specifically on managing frontier AI risks between the two countries. 4. President Trump announced that the U.S., Denmark, and Greenland have reached an agreement giving the United States permanent responsibility for Greenland’s security, saying the arrangement comes at no cost to the U.S. Under the agreement described by Trump, no U.S. adversary will be permitted to establish a military base, maintain a military presence, or make sensitive investments in Greenland without U.S. approval. Trump also said the U.S. will begin building a significantly larger military presence on the island and described the agreement as having “no end.” 5. Anthropic told investors it expects to scale available compute capacity to roughly 5 GW by the end of this year, up from about 1.5 GW last year, according to the New York Times. That would put it roughly in line with OpenAI’s estimated compute footprint this year, with both companies targeting around 10 GW by the end of 2027. Anthropic has aggressively secured capacity across multiple providers, including a deal to pay SpaceX about $1.25B per month for compute through May 2029, while its partnership with Amazon includes up to 5 GW of capacity. The company is also reportedly in talks with Meta over a potential $10B compute lease spanning two years, though no agreement has been finalized. 6. GameStop $GME CEO and Chairman Ryan Cohen purchased another 1.15M shares for approximately $26.4M, paying an average price of $22.94 per share. The purchase increases his direct ownership to 40.5M shares. Including warrants, Cohen now beneficially owns 44.2M shares, representing roughly 8.7% of GameStop. The latest buy further increases his personal investment in the company and follows his recent series of open-market purchases. 7. The Trump administration is reportedly proposing a $5B Middle East energy reconstruction fund, according to the Wall Street Journal, aimed at rebuilding infrastructure damaged during the Iran war and reducing the region’s dependence on the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. would seek matching contributions from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, and Jordan, potentially expanding the fund to $10B. The proposed fund, known as Pact, would be managed by the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, though discussions remain ongoing and the terms could still change. The proposal comes as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains well below pre-war levels and Gulf producers continue relying on more expensive alternative export routes. 8. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVDA with 3.8M contracts, $TSLA with 2.8M contracts, $META with 2.8M contracts, $INTC with 2.2M contracts, $AAPL with 1.4M contracts, $AMD with 1.3M contracts, $MU with 1.2M contracts, $AMZN with 1.0M contracts, $SPCX with 826K contracts, and $MSFT with 753K contracts. 9. OpenAI projects $278B of cumulative negative free cash flow through 2030, driven by roughly $856B of compute and infrastructure spending, according to the Financial Times. The company expects revenue to grow from $36B this year to $350B in 2030, generating roughly $840B in total revenue over the remainder of the decade. OpenAI's $122B funding round from March is projected to be exhausted by 2028, and the company is now discussing another major capital raise, with investors reportedly approaching it around a $1.2T valuation while OpenAI is seeking an even higher figure. The projected cash burn has improved from $305B estimated in May, while recent model launches boosted annualized revenue by about 20% in July despite ongoing price cuts to compete with Anthropic and lower-cost Chinese open-weight models. OpenAI also confidentially filed for an IPO in June but has since delayed the listing process. 10. Meta $META’s new Muse AI assistant is outpacing ChatGPT’s early mobile launch across several key adoption metrics, according to Sensor Tower. Muse reached 2.8M downloads in its first 12 days across both app stores. On a comparable U.S. + Canada iOS basis, Muse recorded 1.8M downloads versus 1.3M for ChatGPT. Muse also set a new U.S. daily download record of 264K on September 19, marking its third consecutive day above 200K. Engagement has also been stronger, with Muse reaching 448K U.S. daily active users by day 10, while ChatGPT took 49 days to reach a similar level. By day 12, Muse had 642K U.S. mobile DAUs versus 231K for ChatGPT at the same point, while even on U.S. iOS only, Muse reached 359K DAUs. 11. Last week marked hedge funds' largest weekly purchase of U.S. equities in 5 weeks, driven by a combination of short covering in macro products such as index futures and ETFs and new long purchases in individual stocks. The strongest demand was concentrated in Information Technology and Communication Services, with hedge funds now buying those sectors for 3 consecutive weeks. Software has been a particular focus, with hedge funds purchasing U.S. software stocks in 4 straight weeks and in 6 of the last 8. As a result, software allocations have risen to roughly 5.0% of total hedge fund market exposure, the highest level since the start of the year, up from a record low of 1.3% in February. 12. U.S. household equity exposure has climbed to a record 39.9% of household net worth, up 12.6 percentage points since the 2022 bear market. Over the same period, homeowners’ equity in residential real estate has fallen to 19.3% of household net worth, down 3.5 percentage points and its lowest share since Q2 2021. As a result, the gap between household exposure to equities and real estate has widened to a record 20.6 percentage points. For perspective, during the 2005 housing boom, real estate represented 24.1% of household net worth and exceeded equity exposure by about 1 percentage point, highlighting how dramatically household wealth has shifted toward financial assets. WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

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Al Mayadeen, citing an Asian source: a closed China-Oman-Iran trilateral in Beijing, with Oman pulling China in as a more direct participant, even a guarantor. Attribute that carefully. Source said. Not a published MFA communique. What is verified: Wang Yi met Bagheri Kani the same day, Sultan Haitham was in Beijing, and Al Jazeera/SCMP confirmed the diplomacy surge. Muscat has mediated for years. Now the reporting says Oman wants China sitting closer to the table while the US keeps strike options warm. If true, that is Gulf states choosing a guarantor that signs currency swaps over a patron that schedules bombs around midterms. China builds the mediation track. Washington builds the runway at Ramon. Watch which one the region invites back.

🚨LATEST: China and Oman sign pact to expand digital currency and cross-border payment cooperation. Their central banks signed the agreement in Beijing alongside a five-year currency swap worth 30 BILLION yuan, equivalent to 1.5 billion Omani rials.