The Finimize Daily Brief

The social media giant’s earnings beat even its own expectations, driven largely by AI-assisted ad sales. Plus, rising inflation, growing government debt, and a pressure-cooker of unrest is causing France a world of trouble – and it’s not the only one feeling the heat.

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The rockets-and-AI company churned out blockbuster results, and everyone cheered – well, everyone invested in SpaceX, anyway. Plus, this deal would double Nscale and Anthropic’s current agreement – good news for the neocloud’s upcoming IPO, so long as the gathering clouds don’t roll in…

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The world’s second-biggest economy has been growing – and it’s got its incredible export engine to thank. Plus, Musk’s gift comes on the back of Anthropic announcing that it’s setting up a public good fund, starting with 5% of its shares.

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Bonds linked to the big AI spend dove sharply this week as investors worried about getting their cash back. Plus, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy could be downgraded not one but two notches, on concerns it’s not doing enough to improve market governance. 

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The potential of higher interest rates and funding worries had chip investors heading for the exits. Plus, when the stock market closed on Wednesday, Apple notched a valuation above $5 trillion – only the second-ever company to do so.

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Prices are rising in the US – and it’s not just energy and fuel to blame. Plus, Japan’s biggest institutional investors are buying more domestic debt than they have in a long time.

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Wall Street’s banks more or less beat expectations, but there’s still good reason to be cautious. Plus, the International Monetary Fund says global economic growth is holding up – but its biggest boosters could become its biggest liabilities.

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China’s not the only central bank filling its reserves with shiny yellow stuff. Plus, the acquisition could make it easier for AI companies to swap out Nvidia’s chips for cheaper ones – including Amazon’s.

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Almost 20 years after the global economic crisis, an international financial stability watchdog has found that many countries still aren’t fully prepared to handle a big bank’s collapse. Plus, OpenAI’s annualized revenue isn’t as high as everyone thought – but it’s still on track for big sales this year.

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SK Hynix’s Solidigm has reportedly chosen the banks that will handle its public listing, as memory makers rush to list. And with debt loads rising and a fraught presidential election looming, more investors think lending to French companies is a safer bet than lending to the country itself.

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The rockets-and-AI firm is hoping to borrow around $40 billion to buy Nvidia’s specialist AI chips for its data centers – and geopolitical chaos doesn’t tend to produce a lot of winners, but liquid gold has been living up to its name…

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Big Tech needs more power, and nuclear operator Constellation is here for it. Plus, China’s answer to Anthropic and OpenAI blew past its $7.5 billion target – and the funding round isn’t even over yet.

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The head of Saudi Aramco warned that oil stockpiles are running very low – and that’s a threat to inflation. Plus, the pros are trying to dial back their exposure to AI stocks, and particularly US ones – but that’s easier said than done these days. 

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Corporate bonds had been fairly calm this year, but a glut of new borrowing is now testing investors’ appetite. Plus, the US economy added fewer jobs than expected in September – and July and August’s figures were revised down, too.

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Crop prices just went up, which means more expensive groceries could be on the table – along with an inflation headache. Plus, with the AI buildout snatching up memory chips almost as fast as they’re being made, phones and other gadgets are getting pricier.

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The AI firm is putting safety over a public listing, but it’s still looking for funding to keep growing – and prices are still rising faster than the Federal Reserve would like, but traders are less sure an interest rate hike is coming next month.

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In a fresh report, Bain sees existing AI services generating $1.8 trillion per year – but that leaves another $4.2 trillion to come out of (currently) thin air. Plus, Anthropic’s IPO prospectus warned that AI could pose a catastrophic risk to humanity…

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More corporate dollars are being spent on cheaper, good-enough AI models – and that makes AI startups’ sky-high valuations tougher to justify. Plus, with geopolitical uncertainty the world over, gold and oil are moving in opposite directions.

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The closely-watched meeting kept the two countries’ trade truce alive for another two months – but AI, tariffs, and more are still up in the air. Plus, rising energy bills are weighing on Europe’s shoppers – and that’s not great for households or retail stocks.

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The social media giant’s surprise device – a cute, pocketable AI assistant – will be a test of what form factor people want their physical AI buddies to take. Plus, inflation fears and government borrowing costs are rising the world over – and the debt pile is only growing…

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With investors waiting for AI star Anthropic’s listing, other IPO candidates are holding off on launches – and for the first time in months, more analysts downgraded profit predictions than upped them.

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Tencent and Alibaba both made big – but very different – AI announcements, and saw their share prices rise. Plus, prediction market Polymarket is asking European regulators to categorize it as financial services – but that might be a hard sell.

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US diesel just hit a new all-time high, and the fuel crunch is starting to show up in other places, too – while Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank will be hoping that its big bets on AI pay off, especially now that it’s taking on more and more debt to pay for them…

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With inflation rising, the Bank of Japan just raised interest rates to the highest level in 31 years. Plus, FigureAI’s latest tech marks a big step up in humanoid capabilities – and with the market growing, there’s a lot to play for.

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Chinese hybrid cars have made serious inroads in European markets, and regional carmakers are suffering – plus, the BoE gave its strongest hint yet that interest rate hikes are coming, while several other major economies have already pulled the trigger.

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The world’s best-performing sovereign wealth fund played it safe on stocks, and now it’s got a message for investors – while crypto and digital asset stocks fell after the Clarity Act failed to get the votes it needed to advance.

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The conflict in the Middle East has pushed oil prices up – and now stockpiles are dwindling and bypass shipping routes are under attack. Plus, US homebuyers – already facing housing prices at all-time highs – are now paying more for mortgages, thanks to rising government bond yields.

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AI leaders are calling for more time to implement safeguards on their own tech, as worries about its potential threat to humanity grow. Meanwhile, in the music industry, AI can generate plausible songs and an army of bots to listen to them – taking a share of the royalty pool away from real, human artists.

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Global bond yields have been scaling lofty heights – but with inflation heating up and competition for investors’ cash growing, they could go higher still. Plus, US consumer prices are still running hot – and with diesel costs rising, they could get hotter.

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With inflation running hot around the world, interest rate hikes are on the table for major central banks all over – and China’s regulators told bankers to keep pricing debut listings low, hoping to keep retail investors buying.

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Inflation in the world’s second biggest economy rose last month, but it’s not really consumer demand driving prices up – and America’s Treasury Secretary has been trying to prop up the Japanese yen and curb runaway US bond yields, with some words for traders who dared to question him.

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Fitness tracker Oura is planning its debut – and Robinhood is part of the team selling its shares, alongside big Wall Street names – while Europe’s challenger to big American and Chinese AI firms just got a fresh gust of funding at a big ol’ valuation.

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Europe’s industrial powerhouse is struggling, and cars are to blame for a chunk of it – while the Big Tech company has eschewed AI spending in favor of going all in on… foldable phones?

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Episode description: The latest US jobs report blew economists’ expectations away, just in time for the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates – while the world’s biggest fund is considering a portfolio shuffle that could dramatically lower its US government bond holdings, right at a time when America’s issuing more.

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Diesel is closing in on a record all-time high, pushed up by damage to oil refineries and the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz – while ByteDance’s loan is Asia’s second-biggest of the year, the fact that banks were more or less throwing themselves at the firm says a lot about the AI boom.

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Unitree’s share price has tanked, and it doesn’t seem to have had anything to do with the viral videos from the World Humanoid Robot Games… Plus, the rise of AI is a massive technological shift – and as data-center-building continues, it’s going to cost a massive amount of money.

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The worldwide bond selloff (driven by escalating hostilities in the Middle East and rising oil prices) pushed government borrowing costs up to multi-year highs – while the AI startup’s latest compute agreement is yet another deal underwritten by the superstar chipmaker-turned-financier.

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Kevin Warsh rode into Jackson Hole with a giddyup and an Old West warnin’ about inflation. And record profits, lagging pay: welcome to America’s K-shaped economy, where the wealthy keep winning and everyone else… doesn’t.

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The world’s biggest company is still growing like a startup, posting better-than-expected profit and sales at its earnings reveal on Wednesday – while US inflation is still a bit too hot, growth is cooling, and shoppers are keeping wallets in pockets.

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China and Canada are in America’s crosshairs – and if they retaliate, a back-and-forth trade war could hurt everybody. Plus, ETFs that can double returns are looking a bit less attractive now: investors found out the hard way that they can double losses too.

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