Oil finishes the week flat as the market sees Saudi pipeline outage as less disruptive than feared
Oil extended a three-session retreat as concerns over disruptions to Saudi crude supplies eased, with Saudi Arabia moving to restore the damaged East-West pipeline to its Red Sea coast and aiming to return about half its capacity within days. Brent traded 0.9% lower to settle at $103.87 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 1.6% to close at $100.30. Brent was tracking its first weekly loss in three weeks. CNBC
US Stocks Mixed, SOX Rises 2.8%; AI Hardware Stocks Surge Late as Memory Stocks Lead Gains, Micron Up Nearly 4%
The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 2.78% to 11,921.69, with 26 constituents higher and 4 lower. Memory led: SanDisk gained 10.99%, Seagate Technology 6.93%, Western Digital 4.13%, Micron 3.92% and SK Hynix 2.46%. Broadcom added 2.97% and Nvidia 1.34%. TradingKey
Crypto stocks surge as bitcoin and ethereum rally sharply
Bitcoin rose 5.7% to $80,941.54 and ethereum climbed 5.9% to $2,594.32. Coinbase Global jumped 11.2%, Strategy 12.9% and Robinhood Markets 7.8%. The article notes total crypto market value increased despite recent rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, suggesting those moves were already priced in. Investing.com
Qualcomm Drops 6% as Past Month's Rally Unwinds; Skyworks and Qorvo Slip
Qualcomm fell 6% to $178.15 in what the article characterizes as positioning-driven profit-taking after a month-long rally, leaving the stock up 12% over the past month and 6% year to date. Skyworks Solutions slipped 2% to $89.25 and Qorvo 2% to $117.65. The broad chip ETF gained 1% over the same session, framing the selling as concentrated in Qualcomm rather than the RF group. 24/7 Wall St.
Nucor stock falls on weaker than expected third quarter guidance
Nucor guided third quarter earnings to a range of $5.55 to $5.65 per diluted share, below Wall Street expectations. The guidance was issued after Thursday's close and shares declined alongside steel peers in Friday's session. Investing.com
| Asset | Close | Chg | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500^GSPC | 7,650.50 | +12.74 | +0.17% |
| Nasdaq Composite^IXIC | 26,522.54 | +104.24 | +0.39% |
| Dow Jones^DJI | 51,682.64 | -95.40 | -0.18% |
| CBOE Volatility Index^VIX | 14.81 | -0.63 | -4.08% |
| Brent CrudeBZ=F · 2:30 PM ET settle | $103.87 | -$0.95 | -0.91% |
| GoldGC=F · 1:30 PM ET settle | $4,415.90 | +$16.20 | +0.37% |
| Tenor | Close | Chg | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-MonthT-bill | 3.97% | 0bp | +0.00% |
| 3-MonthT-bill | 4.14% | +2bp | +0.49% |
| 6-MonthT-bill | 4.24% | +4bp | +0.95% |
| 1-YearT-note | 4.44% | +4bp | +0.91% |
| 2-YearT-note | 4.76% | +9bp | +1.93% |
| 5-YearT-note | 4.86% | +8bp | +1.67% |
| 10-YearT-note | 5.01% | +7bp | +1.42% |
| 30-YearT-bond | 5.34% | +5bp | +0.95% |
The equity tape ratified that reading through its cross-section rather than its level. Headline breadth was unremarkable, with the S&P 500 up 0.17% and the Dow down 0.18%, but dispersion underneath was wide. Duration-sensitive defensives sat at the bottom, and the single largest decliners were rate-expressive: Alexandria Real Estate fell 5.40% as a levered REIT into a higher front end. Leadership concentrated in two uncorrelated risk sleeves. Semiconductors carried the tape, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index up 2.78% and memory leading it, SanDisk 10.99% and Seagate 6.93%, an earnings-cycle trade with little rate sensitivity. Separately, Coinbase gained 11.66% and Robinhood 9.12% on a bitcoin rebound that Investing.com attributes to rate hikes already being discounted. Both groups outperformed for reasons independent of the discount rate, which is why the index level held while the rate-sensitive complex did not.
The macro print cut against the rate move. Industrial production was unchanged in August after 0.2% growth in July, manufacturing output contracted 0.3%, and capacity utilization held at 76.3%, some 3.1 points below its long-run average. A goods sector that is flat to contracting is not the profile that ordinarily accompanies a front end repricing toward further tightening, and it compounds the divergence already visible in Thursday's housing data. Two readings of the same economy are now on the table: a labor market and a services complex firm enough to justify the path the two-year is discounting, or an industrial base already absorbing the tightening that has occurred. The calendar resolves it quickly. Goolsbee speaks in London before Monday's open, the first Committee voice since the hike and the first chance to hear whether the industrial data registers internally, followed by the Chicago Fed National Activity Index at 8:30. The cleaner test is Tuesday's $78 billion 2-year auction, a live bid on precisely the tenor that moved most this week and a more honest read on demand at 4.76% than any survey. Wednesday's flash PMIs then close the loop on whether August's goods-sector weakness is contained or broadening into services. The front end is positioned for only one of the two answers.