TheChek News Flow

Stocks extended their decline from record levels as investors grew cautious about lofty valuations and the billions pouring into artificial intelligence, fueling questions about the pace of recent gains. Asian shares were poised for their biggest decline in two weeks as MSCI’s gauge of global stocks and the S&P 500 index retreated from their record high after a seven-day rally. Equity-index futures for the US edged up, indicating the pause in the gains may be brief. Gold extended its scorching rally to top $4,000 an ounce amid concerns over the US economy and a government shutdown. A gauge of the dollar rose to its highest level in more than a month while the yen slid to its lowest against the US currency since February as Sanae Takaichi’s surprise win as the new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party continued to weigh.

The S&P 500 slipped along with technology stocks as concerns grew that a $16 trillion surge from its April lows had gone too far. The drop came amid mounting chatter about lofty valuations around artificial intelligence, with the billions poured into building infrastructure fueling fears of a replay of the dot-com crash 25 years ago. The pause in the rally came after investors cheered a wave of AI alliances this month, involving OpenAI, Nvidia Corp. and Asian technology companies such as Hitachi Ltd. and Fujitsu Ltd. The Elon Musk-backed artificial intelligence startup xAI is also raising more financing than initially planned — including an equity investment from Nvidia — to bring its ongoing funding round to $20 billion. In the US, investor optimism has grown heated in recent months, with many seeming too busy chasing the upside to worry about risks like a US government shutdown and stretched valuations. Some Wall Street pros noted that having multiple large technology stocks surge by double-digits in quick succession could be a sign that valuations have become disconnected from underlying fundamentals. Billionaire Ray Dalio — who founded the hedge-fund firm Bridgewater Associates — expressed reservations about the scale of the stock market’s recent rise, which has stoked concern about an AI bubble as valuations have soared.  “This is something that feels frothy to me,” Dalio said. Dalio sees gold as a strong store of value at a time of rising government debt burdens, geopolitical tensions, and the erosion of confidence in the stability of national currencies.  Concerns over the US economy and a government shutdown added fresh momentum to gold’s surge, with its 52% gain this year putting the traditional safe haven on course for its strongest annual advance since 1979.

Read More: OpenAI, Nvidia Fuel $1 Trillion AI Market With Circular Deals While concerns are legitimate and an ever-present risk, there was no fresh information that came to light overnight to really threaten the bull market, wrote Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com in Melbourne. Even as there are pockets of risk, including in Asia and the US, “we are not really seeing a broad-based risk of a reversal yet, so we do think the trade could potentially continue for the time,” Rupal Agarwal, a quantitative strategist at Sanford C Bernstein, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. ttention in Asia was also on the yen, which weakened to as low as 152.34 against the dollar, while moving to a fresh record against the euro since the common currency’s inception in 1999. The markets curbed their expectations for a Bank of Japan interest-rate hike in the aftermath of the victory by the pro-stimulus lawmaker. On Wednesday, Japan’s wages rose at the slowest pace in three months with real pay extending its falling streak.

Macro :
- Trump Hasn’t Decided Yet on Fannie, Freddie IPO, Pulte Says

- Denmark Is Close to Buying 16 More F-35 Jets, Berlingske Says

Keep an eye on :

- ABBN SW : ABB to Sell Robotics Unit to SoftBank For $5.375B Ent. Value

- ALC SW : Staar Drops as Holder Defender Capital Opposes Sale to Alcon

- AST US : Starlink Rival AST SpaceMobile Gets Rare Sell After 237% Rally

- NDA GY : Aurubis Sees 2026 Pretax Operating Profit EU300M to EU400M

- BMW GY : BMW Cuts Annual Guidance on Weak China Sales, Tariff Costs

- LLY US : Lilly Hires Ex-FDA Official as Infectious Disease Head (Correct)

- ENX FP : Euronext Sept. Total Cash Market Transaction Value M/M +21%

- GIVN SW : Givaudan Invests CHF187m in New Production Facility in Ohio

- GLEN LN : Glencore Gets ‘Lifeline’ from Australia to Prop Up Smelter (1)
- GLV ID : Glenveagh Holder Offers 5% of Issued Shares

- GOOGL US : Google Set to Invest $10b in India Data Center Cluster: ET

- JNJ US : J&J Says FDA Approves Simponi for Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis

- HL/ LN : Peter Hargreaves to Step Down From Hargreaves Lansdown Board: FT

- LDO IM : Leonardo Formalizes Five-Year €1.8 Billion Loan

- LCID US : Lucid Shares Sink After Third Quarter Deliveries Disappoint

- NDX1 GY : Nordex Gets Order of 236 MW for Wind Projects in North America

- OBCK GY : Ottobock IPO : Ottobock Sets Final IPO Price at €66/Share

- PGHN SW : Mercuria, Partners Group Pledge US Energy Investments: Reuters
- RI FP : India Regulator Approves Tilaknagar Buy of Pernod Ricard Unit

- REvolut IPO : Revolut’s Billionaire CEO Shifts Residence From UK to Mideast

- SALM NO : Salmar Prelim 3Q Harvest Beats Estimates

- SAN FP : Sanofi’s AlphaMedixTM Hit All Phase 2 Primary Efficacy Endpoints

- TGS NO : TGS 3Q Contract Seismic Allocation 45%

- UBSG SW : UBS Shelves Risk Transfer Deal Tied to $2.5 Billion of Loans

- UBXN SW : Janus Henderson Said to Oppose Advent’s $1.3 Billion U-blox Bid

- UMI BB : Umicore Starts Sale of Permanent Gold Inventories

- xAI : Nvidia to Invest in Musk’s xAI as Part of $20 Billion Funding