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September headline CPI came in at 3.7% versus 3.6% expected, with core at 2.6% against a 2.5% consensus and a 0.3% monthly core print. The Nasdaq fell 1.9% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1% — the biggest declines since July — while the 10-year yield spiked as high as 5.33%. October rate-hike odds jumped to roughly 46% from about 20% pre-CPI, and CME FedWatch now shows a 70.6% chance of a 25bp hike by December.
CoreWeave fell as much as 17% Wednesday as yields on its 2031 and 2032 unsecured notes pushed to roughly 14.8%–16%, levels Bernstein's Madison Rezaei called "typically associated with distress." The company carries about $52 billion in debt and lease obligations after raising over $35 billion this year, and CreditSights flagged a mismatch between long data-center leases and shorter customer contracts. Default insurance on the debt hit roughly 1,000 basis points; the CEO called the market reaction "irrational."
Taiwan Semi posted Q3 revenue of $46.72 billion, up 41.2% year over year and 16.2% sequentially, topping its own $44.6–45.8 billion guidance. Net profit rose 68.7% to NT$763.1 billion with a 66.4% gross margin and 58.7% operating margin, both above guidance. High-performance computing was 68% of revenue and grew 22% sequentially; Chairman C.C. Wei said the demand-supply gap for leading-edge AI silicon is "still quite big," and guided Q4 to a roughly 58% year-over-year surge.
Nvidia closed down 3.16% at $221.30 Wednesday and slipped another 1.8% premarket Thursday; AMD fell 5.73% to $570.82 and shed another 2.5%, while Micron dropped 4.10% to $914.13 and lost another 4%. Broadcom gave up 3.1%. The 20 most valuable global AI and semiconductor names have shed more than $1 trillion in market value so far this week, with Nasdaq 100 futures off about 1.3%.
Oracle closed at $130.55, down 8.83%, as higher Treasury yields raised the cost of its debt-funded AI buildout. Total debt is heading toward roughly $167 billion, and investors are weighing a revenue timing gap before OpenAI-related contract revenue begins in 2027, plus pending approvals and power logistics on the Project Jupiter data center. Next earnings update lands December 14.
Anthropic held its pre-IPO investor day in San Francisco Wednesday, disclosing Q3 revenue of $16.8 billion, up 45% from $11.6 billion in Q2, and said it was profitable on an adjusted basis with positive free cash flow. The company is targeting a listing as soon as the week of November 9 at a $1.8–2 trillion valuation, per WSJ, Reuters and Bloomberg reporting. Note: Anthropic is not publicly traded — this is an IPO watch item.
ASML reported Q3 net sales of €11.7 billion and net income of €5.0 billion, with EPS of $14.88 beating the $12.47 estimate by over 19%. Bookings hit a record €13.2 billion, roughly double analyst forecasts. Guidance holds full-year 2026 sales at €44–45 billion with Q4 at €14.2–15.2 billion, yet shares gave back early gains as the macro tape overwhelmed the print.
Apple closed at $342.96 Wednesday for a $5.005 trillion market cap, its first close above the line after six prior intraday touches. It joins Nvidia, which currently sits around $5.33 trillion, as the only companies to hit the mark. The milestone comes two days ahead of iPhone Duo pre-orders and about a month into John Ternus's tenure as CEO — and notably, Apple held up while the AI-levered names got hit.
SK Hynix fell more than 10% and Samsung Electronics dropped 8.73% as the KOSPI plunged roughly 8%. SoftBank Group tumbled 7.9%, Advantest fell nearly 14%, and Tokyo Electron lost 6.45%. Beyond the rate-hike fear, traders cited concerns about a potential global memory oversupply as early as 2029 as capacity ramps.
Bank of America lifted its AMD price target to $720, citing server CPU share gains from agentic AI workloads — a call issued as the stock fell 5.7%. Baird's William Power raised Palantir to $250 from $200 with an Outperform, and Barclays initiated at Overweight with a $265 target; PLTR closed nearly flat at $208.67, down 0.2%, notably resilient versus the chip complex. Elsewhere, Northland upgraded C3.ai to Outperform with a $16 target, up from $10.
