Tag: AI

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How Safe are Safe Havens?

Are Safe Havens Safe?

Safe havens are still called safe havens, but their behaviour in 2026 shows they’re no longer the automatic bolt‑holes investors once relied on.

The old crisis playbook — buy Treasurys, buy yen, buy gold — has been scrambled by a very different macro environment, where inflation, fiscal strain and policy divergence overpower fear.

Treasuries?

U.S. Treasuries, historically the world’s default refuge, have been moving the “wrong” way. Instead of yields falling during geopolitical shocks, they’ve risen — a direct consequence of higher real yields and persistent inflation expectations.

When oil doubled after the Iran conflict closed the Strait of Hormuz, markets didn’t panic into bonds; they repriced inflation.

Add the United States’ swollen deficit, and Treasuries suddenly look less like a sanctuary and more like an asset with its own vulnerabilities.

Gold?

Gold, the ancient crisis hedge, has also lost its shine. Despite war and volatility, prices have sagged from their January 2026 peak.

A stronger dollar and elevated real yields have dominated its behaviour, while last year’s retail-driven surge left the market more exposed to “fast money” unwinding than to traditional safe-haven flows.

Structurally, gold still works — but tactically, it’s been unreliable.

Yen?

The yen, once the quintessential risk-off currency, has arguably suffered the biggest reputational hit. Even with the Bank of Japan hiking rates to 30‑year highs and intervening heavily, the currency has slid to multi‑decade lows.

Japan’s towering debt load and stark policy divergence from other major central banks have made yield differentials overpower fear.

Fundamentals

Safe havens haven’t disappeared — they’ve fragmented. Instead of rising together when markets wobble, each now responds to its own fundamentals.

In a world where investors chase AI equities even during war, resilience requires a broader mix of assets, not blind faith in yesterday’s refuges.

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Trump’s 2025 Financial Records Reveal a Vast and Unusual Income Mix

Financial records released for Trump

Trump’s 2025 Financial Records Reveal a Vast and Unusual Income Mix

The release of over 900 pages of President Donald Trump’s 2025 financial records has offered an unusually detailed look at how the U.S. president generated money during his first year back in office.

The disclosure, published by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, outlines a sprawling network of earnings that range from cryptocurrency windfalls to merchandise sales and even film pensions.

One of the most striking elements is the sheer scale of the report: at 927 pages, it dwarfs the financial disclosures of other senior U.S. officials. Within it, Trump’s commercial ventures appear to have thrived.

Branded merchandise alone brought in several million dollars, with his Save America coffee‑table book generating $1.8m and his Trump‑embossed Bible adding another $208,000.

Even niche items, such as the “American Eagle” limited‑edition guitar, contributed tens of thousands more.

The records also highlight Melania Trump’s growing financial presence. Her documentary Melania, produced by Amazon at a reported cost of $40m, earned her $10.7m. Additional income flowed from NFT sales and her book of the same name.

Perhaps most eye‑catching is the volume of Trump’s share trading activity: more than 21,000 trades in a single year, including significant investments in Nvidia during a period of heightened geopolitical scrutiny over AI chip production.

Trump maintains that his investments are handled at arm’s length by external funds.

The disclosure also reveals substantial legal settlements. Lawsuits against major media companies, including Meta, ABC and Paramount, resulted in payouts totalling more than $86m, with portions earmarked for the Trump presidential library and other public trusts.

Taken together, the records depict a president whose financial world remains as unconventional and diversified as his political career — blending entertainment, litigation, digital assets and traditional investments into a uniquely modern portfolio.

Ethical Argument

The release of President Trump’s 2025 financial records raises a clear ethical concern: transparency is essential for public trust, yet the sheer scale and complexity of his income streams make meaningful scrutiny difficult.

When a sitting president earns millions from merchandise, media projects and aggressive litigation, the boundary between public duty and private profit becomes blurred. Ethical governance requires avoiding even the appearance of conflicts of interest.

A leader’s financial incentives should never intersect with policymaking, market influence or regulatory power.

Disclosure is only the first step; genuine accountability demands simplicity, separation and independent oversight.

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Alphabet’s arrival in the Dow marks a decisive shift in America’s most famous index

Alphabet in club Dow

Alphabet’s entry into the Dow Jones Industrial Average this week is more than a routine reshuffle; it is a symbolic acknowledgement that the modern U.S. economy is now defined by data, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence rather than legacy telecommunications.

The change took effect on 29 June 2026, placing Google’s parent company among the 30 blue‑chip names that represent the industrial and corporate backbone of the United States.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Alphabet replaces Verizon, which leaves the index after more than two decades. The Dow is a price‑weighted index, meaning companies with higher share prices exert greater influence on its movements.

Verizon’s comparatively low share price had steadily reduced its mechanical impact, while Alphabet’s share price—hovering around $350—immediately makes it one of the Dow’s most consequential components.

This weighting logic, rather than any judgement on business quality, is the primary reason behind the switch.

The inclusion also reflects a broader structural shift. Alphabet brings significant exposure to AI, cloud computing, digital advertising and autonomous systems, areas that now dominate corporate investment and market leadership.

Five of the Mag Seven now in club Dow – 9 of the Dow are Tech related Companies

Its arrival means the Dow now contains five members of the so‑called Magnificent Seven, aligning the index more closely with the forces driving U.S. equity performance.

Verizon’s departure underscores how the Dow evolves to remain representative of the economy it tracks.

Alphabet’s addition signals that the digital era is not merely influencing markets—it is now embedded at the heart of America’s oldest stock benchmark.

But does this spell potential danger for the Dow in the future as the balance of power is weighted more towards tech?

Should the markets crash because of the overreach of AI tech’ then the Dow will fall hard.

SectorCompanies
TechnologyApple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, Cisco Systems, Intel, IBM, Salesforce
FinancialsGoldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Travelers, Visa
IndustrialsBoeing, Caterpillar, Honeywell, 3M, UnitedHealth Group
ConsumerMcDonald’s, Coca‑Cola, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Walmart
HealthcareJohnson & Johnson, Merck, Amgen
EnergyChevron
CommunicationsWalt Disney
MaterialsDow Inc.
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Jane Street’s Rise and the Quiet Transformation of Wall Street

AI Algorithmic trading

The idea that “Jane Street is taking over Wall Street” is not a literal claim of ownership but a reflection of a deeper structural shift in global finance.

Over the past ten years, the centre of gravity in markets has moved away from the traditional, relationship‑driven banking model and towards firms built on mathematics, automation, and relentless execution.

Down your street

Jane Street is the most visible and successful expression of that shift, and its ascent tells a larger story about how modern markets now function.

Founded in 2000, Jane Street began as a niche player in the then‑nascent world of exchange‑traded funds. ETFs were still viewed as a technical curiosity, but the firm recognised early that they would become the backbone of global investing.

By building sophisticated systems to price, hedge, and arbitrage these instruments, Jane Street positioned itself at the heart of a market that has since grown to more than $10 trillion.

Today, it is one of the largest ETF liquidity providers in the world, often stepping in when banks cannot or will not.

Different

What makes the firm stand out is not just scale but method. Jane Street operates with a level of automation that traditional banks struggle to match.

Its trading is driven by quantitative models, rapid data ingestion, and a culture that treats technology as the primary engine of profit.

This allows it to operate across asset classes — bonds, options, currencies, commodities — with a consistency and precision that human‑centred trading desks cannot replicate.

The results are striking. In recent years, Jane Street has generated trading revenues comparable to major global banks, despite employing only a fraction of their staff and avoiding the capital‑intensive business lines that weigh down traditional institutions.

Its profitability has surged during periods of market stress, when liquidity evaporates and automated firms with strong balance sheets become indispensable.

Break from tradition

Culturally, too, Jane Street represents a break from Wall Street tradition. It has no CEO, minimal hierarchy, and a compensation model that rewards collective performance rather than individual deal‑making.

This structure attracts elite quantitative talent and reinforces the firm’s identity as a technology‑driven institution rather than a bank with traders attached.

Its culture is radically different

Jane Street has:

  • No CEO, minimal hierarchy, and a collective‑profit pay model.
  • Extremely high compensation — ~£700k average pay in the UK, with interns earning over $23k/month

To say Jane Street is “taking over” is to acknowledge that the old Wall Street — built on phone calls, intuition, and personal networks — is being eclipsed by firms whose competitive edge lies in code, computation, calculations and speed.

The transformation is quiet but profound: the future of market‑making belongs to those who can automate complexity, and Jane Street is already operating in that future.

AI plays a central role in how Jane Street operates. The firm’s entire trading model is built around automation, data analysis, and algorithmic decision‑making.

Here’s how AI fits into its structure:

Core of its trading engine

Jane Street’s systems ingest vast amounts of market data in real time — prices, volumes, volatility, and correlations across thousands of instruments.

Machine‑learning models help identify patterns and optimise execution strategies, allowing trades to be placed faster and more efficiently than any human desk could manage.

Reinforcement and predictive modelling

AI techniques such as reinforcement learning are used to refine trading algorithms. These systems learn from past market behaviour, adjusting parameters to improve outcomes under different conditions — for example, predicting liquidity shifts or price movements in ETFs and derivatives.

Risk and portfolio management

AI also supports risk control. Automated models continuously assess exposure across asset classes, recalibrating positions when volatility spikes or correlations change.

This enables Jane Street to maintain tight risk limits while trading billions of dollars daily.

Talent and culture

The firm’s workforce is dominated by mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists rather than traditional bankers.

They design and maintain AI‑driven systems that make trading decisions autonomously, with human oversight focused on model validation and strategic direction.

Broader impact

Jane Street’s success has influenced the entire financial ecosystem. Banks and hedge funds now emulate its AI‑centred approach, shifting from intuition‑based trading to quantitative automation.

In that sense, AI isn’t just a tool for Jane Street — it’s the foundation of its dominance.

In short, AI is the invisible trader behind Jane Street’s rise, enabling the firm to process information, execute trades, and manage risk at a scale and speed that traditional Wall Street institutions can’t match.

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Memory shortage shaking Apple to the core

Memory shortage shakes Apple to the core

Apple’s sharp share-price drop recently (June 2026) wasn’t the result of a single misstep, but a sudden collision between global supply‑chain pressure and investor expectations.

The company’s stock slid roughly 6% in one session – its steepest fall in more than a year – after Apple pushed through sweeping price increases across Macs, iPads, HomePods, Apple TV and even Vision Pro.

For a company that normally adjusts pricing with surgical caution, the breadth and scale of these rises jolted the market.

Unprecedented price surge

The trigger sits outside Cupertino. Memory‑chip prices have surged at a pace industry veterans describe as unprecedented, driven by AI data‑centre expansion that is consuming vast quantities of DRAM and NAND.

Apple’s suppliers have passed on extraordinary cost increases, and Apple, unusually, has chosen not to absorb them.

Some Mac configurations rose by hundreds of pounds; certain high‑end models jumped by more than a thousand. Investors interpreted this as a sign that Apple’s margins – already under scrutiny given its premium valuation – are being squeezed harder than expected.

Concerning

The concern is not simply higher prices, but what they imply. If Apple is forced to raise hardware prices now, analysts fear the same pressure could extend to the iPhone later this year.

That would test the limits of consumer tolerance at a time when upgrade cycles are already lengthening. The market’s reaction reflects a deeper anxiety: Apple’s pricing power is formidable, but not infinite.

A modest rebound followed the initial sell‑off, suggesting the drop may have been an overreaction. But prices for Apple products have increased whatever the markets tell us.

Even so, the episode underscores how sensitive Apple’s valuation is to any hint of margin compression in its hardware business.

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The Great Memory Squeeze: Why the AI Boom Is Reshaping the Entire Hardware Industry

AI memory RAM shortage

A global shortage of DRAM is rippling through the technology sector, exposing a stark divide between the giants of consumer electronics and the smaller firms that rely on stable component pricing to survive.

What was once a cheap, predictable commodity has become the industry’s most volatile input, with prices rising several hundred per cent in under a year.

Feeding AI

The cause is simple: artificial intelligence systems now consume extraordinary volumes of high‑performance memory, and suppliers are prioritising the biggest buyers.

For companies like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung, the surge in memory costs is disruptive but manageable. These firms have the scale, cash reserves and supply‑chain leverage to secure allocation and pass higher costs on to consumers.

Apple has already raised prices across several product lines, while Microsoft has increased the price of its Xbox Series S and warned that memory costs may double again by 2027. Their margins will tighten, but their market positions remain secure.

Smaller manufacturers face a far harsher reality. Start‑ups, niche hardware makers and mid‑tier consumer electronics brands are being pushed to the back of the queue, forced to pay inflated prices or accept long delays. Some may simply be unable to ship products at all

Pressure.

Companies such as GoPro have already warned investors of existential pressure, and others in the audio, camera and budget‑device sectors are quietly preparing for cancelled launches or reduced specifications.

The stock market has responded unevenly. Memory suppliers like Micron and SK Hynix have seen extraordinary rallies, with margins soaring and investors betting on prolonged demand.

Meanwhile, smaller hardware firms are experiencing sharp declines as profitability evaporates.

Longer term, the memory crunch may accelerate consolidation. If supply remains tight, the industry could tilt even further towards a handful of dominant players, with innovation increasingly concentrated among those able to afford the rising cost of participation.

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IBM’s ‘block of flats’ chip design pushes Moore’s Law into new territory

IBM chip stack design

IBM’s latest research breakthrough – a sub‑1nm chip architecture built like a “block of flats” – marks one of the most ambitious attempts yet to stretch Moore’s Law beyond its natural limits.

The company claims its new NanoStack design can pack almost 100 billion transistors onto a fingernail‑sized chip, a density that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.

In early tests, the prototype delivered 50% higher performance and 70% better energy efficiency than IBM’s own 2nm technology, signalling a potential generational leap in computing power.

Moore’s Law at 50 years

For more than half a century, Moore’s Law – the observation that transistor counts double roughly every two years – has shaped the trajectory of the semiconductor industry.

But as transistors approach atomic scales, the physics has become unforgiving. Leakage, heat, and quantum effects increasingly threaten the neat exponential curve that once defined progress.

The industry’s response has been to move vertically: instead of squeezing more transistors across a flat surface, designers are now building upwards.

Verical stacking

IBM’s NanoStack takes this vertical shift to an extreme. Rather than simply elongating transistor structures, the company has begun stacking entire sheets of transistors on top of one another, creating a skyscraper‑like arrangement.

Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey reportedly likens the shift to replacing a city of houses with a 100‑storey tower block – a vivid contrast to the 30–50‑storey equivalents being pursued by rivals such as Samsung and Intel.

The approach is bold, but it comes with engineering hazards. Heat rises through the stack, threatening performance and reliability. Layers that are too thin risk transistors failing to switch off cleanly, undermining the chip’s logic.

Obstacles

These are not trivial obstacles, and IBM acknowledges that commercial production remains several years away.

Yet the company argues that the architectural shift is essential if computing is to keep pace with the demands of AI, cloud workloads, and energy‑constrained data centres.

If NanoStack proves manufacturable at scale, it could represent the most significant extension of Moore’s Law since the industry moved from planar to FinFET designs.

The broader question is whether this vertical strategy can deliver multiple generations of improvement, or whether it is the final flourish before the industry must abandon transistor‑count metrics altogether.

For now, IBM has injected fresh momentum into a field long assumed to be running out of road – and reminded the industry that Moore’s Law may bend, but it is not yet broken.

Moore’s Law states

Moore’s Law is the principle that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles roughly every two years, leading to continual increases in computing power and efficiency.

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SpaceX’s sharp comedown from its euphoric peak

SpaceX shares now trade at $156.11, down more than 30% from their post‑IPO peak of $225.64, and the company is carrying roughly $29.1 billion in long‑term debt.

Less than two weeks after its record‑breaking IPO, SpaceX has surrendered the majority of its early gains. The stock, which opened for public trading at $150 and surged to an intraday high of $225.64 on 16 June, has since fallen more than 30%, briefly dipping below its debut price before stabilising around $156.11.

Dramatic reversal

The reversal has been dramatic. At its height, SpaceX’s valuation briefly exceeded Amazon and Microsoft, fuelled by a thin free float, intense retail demand, and exuberance around its AI‑compute ambitions.

But sentiment turned quickly as investors reassessed the sustainability of such rapid gains. A three‑day slide wiped out more than $600 billion in market value, dragging the company back toward its opening‑day levels.

Big one-day loss

Monday’s 16% plunge alone erased nearly $400 billion, one of the largest single‑day market‑cap losses in U.S. history. The stock’s volatility has been amplified by a broader tech sell‑off, with rising interest‑rate expectations hitting high‑valuation companies hardest.

Debt load: bridge financing, bond issuance, and the new capital structure

SpaceX’s debt position has become a central focus of the market’s reassessment. Ahead of the IPO, the company refinanced its borrowings with a $20 billion bridge loan, replacing five earlier debt facilities tied to both SpaceX and Musk’s AI venture, xAI. This brought total debt to $20.07 billion as of March.

Since listing, SpaceX has moved rapidly to restructure that short‑term financing. It has launched its first‑ever investment‑grade bond sale, targeting around $20–25 billion in new notes, with proceeds earmarked to repay the bridge loan and fund AI and Starship development.

Regulatory filings reportedly show the company now holds $29.1 billion in long‑term debt, alongside a massive $100.8 billion cash position built through the IPO and earlier funding rounds.

A company still in transition

SpaceX remains one of the world’s most valuable companies, but the market is now pricing it more soberly.

The stock is still above its $135 IPO price, yet the early euphoria has given way to questions about valuation, capital intensity, and the scale of its AI and space‑infrastructure ambitions.

Don’t forget – this is an Elon Musk company after all, and its early days.

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Nikkei: A Record High – Then a Brutal Reality Check

Nikkei Index in freefall

The Nikkei’s latest surge ended with a thud. After breaking to a fresh all‑time high above 72,800 at the start of the week, the index reversed violently, delivering one of its sharpest two‑day pullbacks of the year.

Monday’s breakout looked like another leg in Japan’s extraordinary momentum trade; by Tuesday afternoon it had morphed into a classic bull‑trap, with the Nikkei closing nearly 4% lower and giving back the entire move.

Selling continued into Wednesday, taking the peak‑to‑trough decline to roughly 6%.

The speed of the reversal matters. This wasn’t a gentle pause but a decisive rejection of the highs, driven by a global tech wobble and profit‑taking after an extended run. Japan’s rally has been fuelled by semiconductors, exporters and foreign inflows — the same forces now showing strain.

Whether this is a reset or the start of something deeper longer-term will depend on how those flows behave from here.

What actually happened

1. New all‑time high — Monday 22nd June 2026. The Nikkei surged to a record intraday high of 72,831.73. It also closed at a record 72,353.96 that day .

2. Violent reversal — Tuesday 23rd June 2026 The next session saw a huge drop:

  • Open: 72,404.37
  • Low: 69,788.38
  • Close: 69,788.38 That is a –3.83% fall in one day, wiping out the entire breakout move .

3. Continued selling — Wednesday 24th June 2026 The index fell again to around 69,174–69,277 depending on source timing, extending the pullback .

How big was the fall?

From the intraday peak 72,831.73 to Wednesday’s low around 68,461 (24th June intraday low) is roughly:

–4,370 points ≈ –6.0% in two sessions

That is a material reversal by Nikkei standards.

Interpretation

This is exactly the pattern you’re asking about:

  • Record high → immediate sharp sell‑off → follow‑through decline.
  • The catalyst appears to be a tech‑led global risk‑off move, with Wall Street’s AI/semiconductor correction spilling into Japan, plus some profit‑taking after an extreme run.
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Qualcomm suggests AI Agents will replace apps soon

The future is Agentic AI not apps

Qualcomm’s latest pitch is blunt: the age of standalone apps is fading, and AI agents are about to take their place.

It’s a bold claim, but it reflects a wider shift sweeping through the tech industry as on‑device AI becomes powerful enough to handle tasks that once required entire software ecosystems.

Delegating Intent

Qualcomm argues that future smartphones will rely less on tapping icons and more on delegating intent. Instead of opening an app to book travel, edit photos, or manage finances, users will instruct an AI agent that understands context, preferences, and history.

The agent will then orchestrate the work across services in the background. In Qualcomm’s view, this makes the traditional app model feel increasingly rigid and outdated.

The company’s latest Snapdragon platforms are designed around this idea: fast local processing, persistent personal models, and low‑latency agentic behaviour that doesn’t rely solely on the cloud.

It’s a strategic move to keep mobile hardware relevant as AI shifts the centre of gravity away from apps and towards continuous, conversational computing.

Sceptics will note that apps won’t vanish overnight. But the direction of travel is clear. If Qualcomm is right, the next major platform shift won’t be about bigger screens or faster chips.

It will be about replacing the app grid with an intelligent layer that simply gets things done.

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Elon Musk: The Trillion‑Dollar Man

Elon Musk has spent two decades bending entire industries around his will, but the past year has pushed him into a category previously reserved for myth.

With the SpaceX IPO igniting global markets and sending shockwaves through the aerospace and technology sectors, Musk has become the first individual in history to be calculated as worth $1 trillion.

Empire buidling

It is a milestone that reflects not only personal wealth, but the scale of the industrial empires he has built — and the future investors believe he is about to unlock.

SpaceX’s long‑anticipated public listing has been the catalyst. The company’s valuation surged as soon as trading began, propelled by overwhelming demand for exposure to the world’s dominant launch provider and the backbone of the modern satellite economy.

Starlink

Starlink’s global footprint, the Falcon and Starship programmes, and SpaceX’s near‑monopoly on commercial and government launches have created a business with both extraordinary cash flow and unmatched strategic importance.

Investors are effectively betting on Musk’s ability to commercialise space in the same way he electrified the car industry.

Tesla, Neuralink, X.ai, X, The Boring Company, Solar City & SpaceX

The IPO has also crystallised the value of Musk’s wider ecosystem. Tesla, despite its volatility, remains the world’s most recognisable electric‑vehicle brand.

Neuralink and The Boring Company, though smaller, contribute to the perception of a founder whose ventures consistently reshape their sectors.

But it is SpaceX — with its blend of infrastructure, defence relevance, and global communications — that has propelled Musk into trillion‑dollar territory.

Speculative

Critics argue that such valuations are speculative, driven by hype rather than fundamentals. Yet SpaceX’s track record is unusually concrete: reusable rockets, profitable satellite services, and a launch cadence unmatched by any nation, let alone any company.

We can make the future

The market is effectively pricing in a future where SpaceX becomes the backbone of off‑planet logistics, lunar infrastructure, and perhaps even the first commercial missions to Mars.

Trillion Dollar Man

For Musk, the symbolism is obvious. Becoming the world’s first trillion‑dollar individual cements his status as the defining industrialist of the 21st century.

A figure whose ambitions stretch far beyond Earth, and whose companies now command the kind of economic gravity once associated only with nation‑states.

Context: Countries With GDP ≥ $1 Trillion (Nominal USD, 2026) – Approx’ indication only

United States — 29.0
China — 18.5
Germany — 4.6
Japan — 4.3
India — 4.0
United Kingdom — 3.4
France — 3.2
Italy — 2.3
Canada — 2.2
Brazil — 2.1
Russia — 2.0
South Korea — 1.9
Australia — 1.8
Mexico — 1.7
Spain — 1.6
Indonesia — 1.5
Netherlands — 1.2
Saudi Arabia — 1.1
Turkey — 1.0
Switzerland — 1.0

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Anthropic’s Fable: The Mythos-Class Model That Finally Goes Public

Anthropic has taken a decisive step in its race to dominate the frontier‑model market, releasing Claude Fable 5 to the public just two months after its private sibling, Mythos, sent Wall Street into a frenzy.

The move marks the company’s most assertive attempt yet to commercialise Mythos‑level capability while reassuring regulators and investors that safety, not speed, is steering the rollout.

Mythos, unveiled in April 2026, stunned both the cybersecurity world and financial markets with its ability to identify software vulnerabilities at a level previously associated with specialist security tools.

Anthropic restricted access, citing the model’s potential for misuse and limiting deployment to vetted partners under Project Glasswing.

That scarcity — and the model’s almost uncanny diagnostic power — helped fuel a surge in Anthropic’s valuation and contributed to the broader AI‑driven market rally.

Fable 5

Fable 5 is the company’s answer to the question Mythos raised: Can a model this capable ever be released at scale? According to Anthropic, the answer is yes — but only with a redesigned safety architecture.

The company says Fable 5 includes new classifiers and guardrails that automatically block responses in high‑risk domains such as cybersecurity and biological threat modelling.

When a query crosses those boundaries, the system falls back to the safer Claude Opus 4.8, ensuring continuity without exposing dangerous capabilities.

Despite these constraints, Fable 5 is no diluted product. Anthropic claims it outperforms Opus 4.8 by more than 10% on key engineering and knowledge‑work benchmarks, offering enterprises a model that is both more capable and more predictable.

Early customers, the company says, are reporting better return on spend due to higher accuracy and reduced task repetition.

IPO

The timing is strategic. Anthropic has just confidentially filed for its IPO, with revenues ballooning from roughly $10 billion last year to a run rate of $47 billion.

Its latest funding round valued the company at $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI’s March valuation.

With OpenAI and SpaceX/xAI also preparing for blockbuster listings, Anthropic needs a flagship product that demonstrates both capability and commercial maturity.

Fable 5 is that product: a Mythos‑class model built for the real world rather than the lab. By releasing it now — powerful, constrained, and priced at a premium — Anthropic is signalling that the era of frontier‑model scarcity is ending, and the era of industrial‑scale AI deployment has begun.

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Markets in Asia continue volatility as Softbank falls 10%

Softbank down 10%

SoftBank’s sharp 10% slide on Wednesday became the defining symbol of a broader rout across Asia’s technology markets, as the region absorbed the full force of Wall Street’s overnight tech sell‑off.

The reversal ended a brief rebound in chipmakers and reignited concerns that valuations across the artificial‑intelligence complex have run too hot for too long.

The immediate pressure on SoftBank stemmed from reports that its attempt to raise at least $6 billion through a margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake had stalled.

That setback landed at a moment when sentiment toward high‑growth tech names was becoming more fragile, amplifying the downside.

Investors rotated out of risk, hitting Japan’s semiconductor ecosystem: Advantest and Renesas both fell more than 3%, while South Korea’s SK Hynix plunged over 8% and Samsung Electronics dropped 7.45%.

Taiwan’s TSMC and Hon Hai were also dragged lower.

A deeper structural worry is now taking hold. Massive AI‑related fundraising — including upcoming listings for SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI — appears to be siphoning capital away from publicly traded tech stocks.

Some investors see this as the early stage of a rotation; others fear it signals overheating. For Japan, one unexpected beneficiary could be defence contractors, with strategists suggesting a shift toward “heavies” as retail traders search for stability.

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AI revolution will be “50 times bigger” than the dot‑com boom says Masayoshi Son of Softbank

In essence, Son is reframing SoftBank’s entire identity around AI, portraying it not as a sector but as the next economic infrastructure — a claim that, if realised, would make the dot‑com era look modest by comparison.

SoftBank becomes Japan’s most valuable company as of May 2026.

Scale of transformation: Son argues that artificial intelligence will reshape every industry, dwarfing the internet’s impact in the early 2000s.

SoftBank’s strategy: He reportedly plans to channel the group’s investment focus almost entirely toward AI ventures, positioning SoftBank as a global accelerator for AI‑driven companies.

Vision Fund revival: After years of losses, Masayoshi Son sees AI as the catalyst to reignite the Vision Fund’s profitability, citing rapid advances in generative and autonomous systems.

Economic outlook: He predicts exponential productivity gains and new business models emerging from AI integration, describing it as a “moment of singularity” for technology and finance.

Investor sentiment: Some analysts remain cautious, recalling SoftBank’s volatile history with tech valuations, but acknowledge that Son’s influence could again shape global investment trends.

AI is more than the next dot-com era – it’s the new tech revolution in creation.

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KOSPI down – KOSPI up!

KOSPI rebounds

The Kospi staged a sharp and surprisingly confident rebound on Tuesday, 9 June, clawing back 7% – a meaningful portion of Monday’s bruising 8% plunge.

The reversal was driven less by any single catalyst and more by a collective sense that Monday’s sell‑off had overshot fundamentals.

Bargain hunters moved quickly, snapping up oversold technology and battery names, while institutional investors stepped in to stabilise the market after the previous session’s disorderly drop.

Overnight cues helped sentiment. A steadier tone in U.S. futures and a pause in global risk aversion gave Korean equities room to breathe.

The Won also firmed slightly, easing pressure on foreign flows. By mid‑session, the KOSPI had regained momentum, with traders framing Monday’s collapse as a capitulation move rather than the start of a deeper structural downturn.

The rebound doesn’t erase underlying fragilities, but it does show how quickly sentiment can flip.

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South Korea’s KOSPI plunges 8%!

Kospi Index falls again

South Korea’s KOSPI index suffered a severe shock on Monday, 8th June, plunging more than 8% in early trading and triggering an automatic 20‑minute circuit breaker as panic selling swept through the market.

The index briefly fell to the mid‑7,400s, marking its third circuit‑breaker event of the year and underscoring the fragility of sentiment after a sharp global tech sell‑off.

Semiconductor heavyweights led the rout. Samsung Electronics slumped more than 8.5%, while SK Hynix dropped over 7%, with additional steep losses across major industrial names including LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor and Samsung SDI.

The sell‑off mirrored a sharp downturn in U.S. markets the previous Friday 5th June 2026, where semiconductor giants such as Nvidia, Broadcom and Micron were hit hard, fuelling fears that the AI‑driven rally had overheated.

A hotter‑than‑expected U.S. jobs report also stoked concerns that the Federal Reserve may lean towards further rate hikes, adding to the risk‑off mood.

Currency markets reflected the stress: the Korean won weakened sharply to around 1,554 per dollar as foreign investors accelerated withdrawals.

Although local institutions and retail investors later stepped in to “buy the dip,” helping trim some losses, the episode highlighted the market’s vulnerability to global tech sentiment and shifting U.S. rate expectations.

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Nasdaq’s Rally Snaps as Hot Jobs Data Slams Tech

Nasdaq drops

The Nasdaq Composite endured a bruising session on Friday, 5th June 2026, tumbling more than 4% in its steepest single‑day decline since April 2025.

The sell‑off was triggered by a powerful combination of surging Treasury yields and a violent unwinding in semiconductor and mega‑cap technology stocks, following a far stronger‑than‑expected U.S. jobs report.

Employers added 172,000 jobs in May 2026, more than double economists’ forecasts, a result that swiftly erased hopes of near‑term Federal Reserve rate cuts and instead fuelled expectations of tighter policy for longer.

Chipmakers bore the brunt of the rout. Broadcom, Nvidia, Micron, Marvell and AMD all suffered heavy losses, with the sector’s slump wiping out well over a trillion dollars in market value across the week.

The Nasdaq closed at 25,709.43, down around 4.18%, while the S&P 500 fell 2.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 695 points.

The broader risk‑off mood extended beyond equities. Bitcoin slid below $60,000 for the first time since 2024, while gold and silver also weakened as investors recalibrated expectations for monetary policy.

With Treasury yields climbing above 4.5%, markets ended the week facing renewed questions about valuations, positioning, and the durability of the two‑year AI‑driven rally.

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AI Rout Hits Seoul: Kospi Sinks Over 5% as Chip Giants Slide

AI chip stock fall

South Korea’s markets were hit hard on Friday 5th June 2026, with AI‑linked stocks leading a sharp regional sell‑off after Wall Street’s tech slump rippled across Asia.

The Kospi tumbled 5.54%, closing at 8,160.59, its steepest one‑day fall in months, as investors rapidly unwound positions in semiconductor and AI beneficiaries.

Heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were at the centre of the decline, sliding 6.40% and 9.92% respectively. This demonstrates how tightly exposed Seoul’s market has become to the global AI cycle.

The pullback followed a sharp rotation out of chipmakers in the United States, triggered by disappointing revenue data from Broadcom. This shook confidence in the sector’s near‑term momentum.

With AI names having powered much of 2026’s rally, even a modest earnings wobble proved enough to spark a broader de‑risking.

Domestic strain

Domestic pressures added to the strain. South Korea’s labour minister urged major tech firms to share more of their AI‑driven semiconductor profits with workers and suppliers. This is a signal that political scrutiny of the sector is rising just as global sentiment cools.

For now, the sell‑off looks like a reminder of how tightly South Korea’s market is tethered to global AI expectations.

If Wall Street’s AI led enthusiasm falters, Seoul’s tech giants may face a more prolonged test.

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Nvidia moves into PCs – All hail Nvidia!

New AI PC chips from Nvidia

Nvidia’s long‑anticipated push into the PC market has finally materialised — and it marks the company’s most aggressive attempt yet to extend its dominance beyond the data centre.

At Computex in Taipei, Jensen Huang unveiled the N1X, an Arm‑based CPU fused with a Blackwell‑class GPU into a new RTX Spark superchip, set to appear this autumn in premium Windows laptops from Microsoft, Dell, HP, ASUS, Lenovo and MSI .

The move is strategically significant. For decades, the PC’s central processor has been the guarded territory of Intel and AMD, with Apple’s M‑series proving the only major Arm‑based disruption.

Nvidia is now entering that arena with a design built explicitly for the age of agentic AI — machines that run multiple AI processes simultaneously, shifting huge volumes of data between GPU and CPU.

Nvidia has argued for months that CPUs have become the bottleneck in modern AI workflows, and the N1X is its answer: a custom Arm design, co‑developed with Microsoft and manufactured on TSMC’s 3‑nanometre process, paired with 128GB of unified memory for high‑bandwidth compute.

Huang framed the launch as a generational reset: “the first completely re‑engineered, reinvented line of PCs in 40 years.” It’s hyperbole with intent.

Nvidia wants to define the AI PC in the same way it defined the AI data centre — not as an incremental upgrade, but as a new category.

More than 30 laptops and 10 desktops are reportedly planned over time, with early models aimed at creators, AI developers and high‑end gamers seeking thin, light machines with workstation‑level capability.

The competitive implications are profound. Arm‑based computing is accelerating across the industry, and Nvidia’s arrival puts direct pressure on Intel and AMD just as both are scrambling to articulate their own AI‑centric roadmaps.

If RTX Spark delivers the performance uplift Nvidia promises, the centre of gravity in the PC market could shift rapidly — from x86 incumbents to a company that has already rewritten the rules of modern computing once.

All hail Nvidia.

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The Coming Shockwave: How Three Mega‑IPOs Could Reshape the S&P 500 and Nasdaq – Opinion

IPOs for SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic

The expected public listings of SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic represent the most consequential cluster of IPOs in two decades.

Each company sits at the centre of a structural shift—space infrastructure, frontier AI models and safety‑driven AI systems—and each is likely to command a valuation in the high hundreds of billions, if not beyond.

Their arrival on public markets will not be a routine liquidity event. It will be a reordering of index composition, capital flows and investor psychology.

At the mechanical level, the impact on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq will be immediate. Index providers now operate fast‑entry rules that allow very large IPOs to join major benchmarks within days rather than months.

This compresses the adjustment period and forces passive funds to sell existing constituents to make room for the newcomers.

The selling pressure will fall disproportionately on the current megacap cohort—Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla—because these names dominate index weightings and therefore become the primary source of liquidity for rebalancing.

The indices themselves may not fall sharply, but the internal rotation will be violent.

The Nasdaq will feel the shock most acutely. Its concentration in technology means the inclusion of three new giants will trigger a scramble for weight, with ETFs forced to buy limited‑float shares at whatever price the market sets.

The S&P 500, broader and more liquid, will absorb the change more smoothly, but even there the effect will be visible: a temporary dip in existing leaders, a spike in volatility and a rapid reshaping of the top‑ten constituents.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq will almost certainly experience a temporary liquidity shock, a forced rotation out of existing megacaps, and then—once the dust settles—a re‑concentration around the new AI/space giants.

The scale of SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic means the indices will not be able to absorb them quietly.

What will likely happen when SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic list their IPOs?

1. A mechanical sell‑off in today’s biggest tech names

Index funds must sell existing holdings to make room for the new entrants.

  • Goldman Sachs notes passive funds will need to rebalance as soon as these mega‑caps are added.
  • JPMorgan estimates that at a $2T valuation, up to $95bn of the eight largest tech stocks may need to be sold to rebalance portfolios.

This means pressure on Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, Broadcom—the very names currently carrying the indices.

2. Fast‑entry rules accelerate the shock

Nasdaq’s new “fast entry” rules allow these companies to join the Nasdaq 100 within 15 days of listing. S&P Dow Jones is considering similar fast‑track inclusion for mega‑caps. The Motley Fool

This compresses what used to be a 12‑month absorption period into weeks.

3. Liquidity drain is real—but limited in absolute terms

Deutsche Bank estimates that even the largest IPOs would still represent just over 0.1% of S&P 500 market cap. So the market‑wide liquidity drain is modest, but the rotation effect is violent because it concentrates selling in a handful of megacaps.

4. ETF flows will be chaotic

Strategas warns that ETFs tracking trillions will compete for a tiny float, making inclusion “frantic.” SpaceX is reportedly floating only ~5% of shares initially. That means forced buying at any price, followed by forced selling elsewhere.

5. After lockups expire (180 days), the second wave hits

SpaceX’s prospectus notes that selling pressure increases as lockups roll off in phases over 180 days. Expect a two‑stage impact:

  • Stage 1: violent index rebalancing
  • Stage 2: insider‑driven supply shock

So what happens to the S&P 500?

Short-term (0–3 months after IPOs):

  • Mild index-level dip as megacaps are sold to fund inclusion.
  • Volatility spike around rebalance windows.
  • Narrow leadership becomes even narrower temporarily.

This is consistent with historical mega‑IPO patterns (e.g., Tesla’s inclusion forced tens of billions in one-day flows).

Medium-term (3–12 months):

  • The S&P 500 becomes more top‑heavy, not less.
  • SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic quickly become meaningful index weights due to their trillion‑dollar valuations.
  • If AI earnings continue to dominate, the index likely recovers and re‑concentrates around the new entrants.

HSBC reportedly notes that stronger tech valuations—especially from high‑valuation IPOs—could push the S&P 500 above 8,000 if earnings broaden.

What about the Nasdaq?

The Nasdaq 100 is hit harder because:

  • It is more tech‑concentrated.
  • Fast‑entry rules force inclusion within 15 days.

Expect:

  • Sharper rotation, especially out of semiconductor and hyperscaler names.
  • Higher volatility as QQQ must buy the new entrants aggressively.
  • A structural reshaping: SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic could become low‑ to mid‑single‑digit weights almost immediately.

The contrarian view (Michael Burry)

Burry argues the IPOs won’t break the bull market, because IPOs float only a “small little bit” of shares, limiting true supply impact. He believes narrative > mechanics.

There’s truth in that: the story of AI and space‑compute may ultimately lift the indices after the initial turbulence.

My Opinion

Short-term: Expect a sell‑off in existing megacaps, a volatility spike, and mechanical downward pressure on both S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Medium-term: Once the forced rotation is complete, the indices likely resume their upward trend, now with three new trillion‑dollar engines powering them.

Long-term: This is the biggest index‑composition shock since the dot‑com era. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq will become even more dominated by AI‑infrastructure and space‑compute giants.

In other words: the indices wobble, then re‑concentrate, then march higher—unless AI demand itself cracks.

If that happens then we’ll most likely witness a crash!

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Nvidia–Unitree: A BIG Strategic Investment on Physical AI

Nvidia has taken another decisive step into the world of “physical AI” by selecting China’s Unitree as its partner for a new humanoid robotics platform aimed squarely at global research institutions.

The collaboration pairs Nvidia’s Jetson Thor hardware — built around the company’s advanced Blackwell GPU — with Unitree’s nearly six‑foot H2 humanoid frame, creating a turnkey system designed to accelerate robotics development in universities and specialist labs.

Isaac Groot

The package integrates Nvidia’s Isaac GR00T humanoid‑focused AI models, simulation tools, and data‑generation stack, effectively offering researchers a complete environment for training, testing, and deploying humanoid behaviours.

Nvidia argues that building such a system independently is “insanely hard”, and that lowering the barrier to entry will broaden the field beyond the world’s largest tech companies.

Unitree timing

For Unitree, the timing is significant. The Hangzhou‑based robotics firm is preparing for a 4.2 billion yuan IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market, with more than 40% of its revenue already coming from outside China.

The Nvidia partnership gives Unitree a high‑profile global showcase just as it seeks to convince investors of its international potential.

The upgraded H2 Plus model — available later this year — will be open for purchase by any lab, not just elite institutions. Early adopters include Stanford, ETH Zurich, UC San Diego and Seattle’s AI2, underlining Nvidia’s ambition to make humanoid research mainstream.

Multi-trillion-dollar industry in the making

Nvidia reportedly argues that building such a system independently is “insanely hard”, and that lowering the barrier to entry will broaden the field beyond the world’s largest tech companies.

Humanoid robots remain a nascent market, with deployments still limited and safety concerns unresolved. But Nvidia’s move signals a belief that physical AI will become a multi‑trillion‑dollar industry.

By fusing its AI stack with Unitree’s maturing hardware, Nvidia is positioning itself not just as the supplier of chips for the robotics boom, but as the architect of the ecosystem that powers it.

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Humanoid Robots on the Front Line in Ukraine Signal a New Frontier in Warfare

The testing of humanoid robots in Ukraine marks a striking moment in the evolution of modern warfare, blending Silicon Valley ambition with the brutal pragmatism of a live conflict.

Foundation Future Industries

Foundation Future Industries, a San Francisco start-up founded in 2024, has positioned itself at the centre of this shift by deploying its Phantom MK‑1 robots for pilot demonstrations on the Ukrainian front lines.

The company’s pitch is simple but provocative: humanoid robots should be used not for household chores, but for the world’s most dangerous jobs. Ukraine, now in its fifth year of war, has become the proving ground.

The MK‑1 units tested so far are limited — they carry modest payloads, lack waterproofing, and cannot yet operate at scale. But their early tasks, such as retrieving supplies from hazardous areas, hint at the potential of autonomous systems shaped for human environments.

Urban combat, with its stairwells, basements and narrow corridors, is inherently built around the human form. Analysts note that this gives humanoid robots theoretical advantages over tracked or quadruped machines in certain scenarios.

Yet the technology’s military promise is entangled with political controversy. The company recently appointed Eric Trump as chief strategy adviser, prompting accusations of impropriety given its $24 million in U.S. government research contracts.

Two humanoid robots were reportedly sent to Ukraine in February 2026.

Foundation insists the partnership reflects a shared vision of rebuilding American manufacturing, but the optics are unavoidable.

Multiple sources describe this as the first recorded deployment of humanoid robots to an active warzone — not just Ukraine, but any modern conflict.

The robot race

The broader context is a deepening geopolitical race. Foundation openly frames its mission as part of a contest with China, whose own robotics sector has showcased early military prototypes.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, has not yet deployed humanoid systems, though it is increasingly integrating AI into battlefield decision-making.

Experts caution that cost, complexity and manufacturability may ultimately limit humanoids’ role. But the symbolism is unmistakable.

Whether or not these machines succeed, Ukraine has become the first real-world laboratory for autonomous, human-shaped robots — a glimpse of how future conflicts may be fought.

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South Korea’s Market Faces a Fragile Balancing Act

Risks to South Korea stocks

South Korean equities are showing signs of strain after a powerful rally led almost entirely by semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Analysts warn that the market’s narrow leadership leaves it exposed to sudden reversals if global chip demand cools or investor sentiment shifts.

Overbought

It has been cautioned that the Kospi’s momentum indicators are flashing overbought signals, suggesting limited room for further gains before a correction sets in.

The country’s heavy reliance on the semiconductor cycle means any slowdown in AI‑related investment or memory‑chip orders could quickly erode confidence.

Broader industrial and consumer sectors have lagged, amplifying the sense that Korea’s stock market is running on a single engine.

Risks

While optimism remains high, the risks are clear: a fragile rally built on concentrated strength and global tech exuberance.

If macro headwinds return, the dust from “macro risks” may finally settle on Seoul’s fast‑moving market.

South Korea’s Kospi hit another new record high despite mixed trading across Asia-Pacific markets and this despite U.S. Iran deal caution.

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All three major U.S. indices closed at new all‑time record highs on Friday 29th May 2026 – ending May 2026 on a high!

All three U.S. indices hit new reocrd highs!

Wall Street ended Friday 29th May on a historic note, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq each closing at fresh record highs.

The Dow broke decisively above the 51,000 mark for the first time, finishing at 51,032.46, driven by powerful gains in AI‑linked industrial and technology names.

The S&P 500 closed at 7,580.06, extending its remarkable nine‑week winning streak — its longest run since 2023 — as investors continued to reward strong earnings and the broadening impact of AI infrastructure spending.

The Nasdaq also set a new peak at 26,972.62, supported by renewed momentum across semiconductors and enterprise technology.

Record Closing Levels — Friday 29 May 2026

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 51,032.46

S&P 500: 7,580.06

Nasdaq Composite: 26,972.62

Markets took geopolitical tensions and mixed macro signals in their stride, focusing instead on resilient corporate performance and easing energy pressures.

Despite narrow market breadth, the rally underscored investors’ confidence that the AI‑driven earnings cycle remains intact heading into the summer.

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Headline: China’s Industrial Profits Surge 24.7% in April as Energy Shock Lifts Upstream Sectors

China's Industrial Profits Climb April 2026

China’s industrial sector delivered its strongest profit performance in more than two years in April 2026, with earnings jumping 24.7% year‑on‑year, a sharp acceleration from March’s 15.8% rise.

The latest figures, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, point to a profit rebound driven overwhelmingly by upstream industries and high‑tech manufacturing — even as large parts of the economy continue to lose momentum.

April 2026 surge

The April surge marks the fastest pace of growth since late 2023 and lifts year‑to‑date industrial profit expansion to 18.2%. Analysts note that the improvement is closely tied to rising producer prices, fuelled by the global energy shock and higher crude benchmarks.

That dynamic has delivered a windfall to mining, oil extraction and petroleum processing, where profits have swung sharply higher after a weak first quarter.

High-tech

High‑tech manufacturing — particularly computing and electronics equipment — remained the single largest contributor to overall profits.

Earnings in the sector more than doubled from a year earlier, reflecting China’s continued investment in AI‑related hardware, data‑centre components and advanced manufacturing capacity.

However, the pace of expansion eased slightly compared with March on a year‑to‑date basis, suggesting some early signs of normalisation.

Not all a bed of roses

The picture elsewhere is far less buoyant. Automobile manufacturers saw profits fall 16.8% in the first four months of the year, despite marginal improvement from the first quarter.

Furniture manufacturing deteriorated further, with profit declines deepening to 54.4%. These figures underscore the unevenness of China’s industrial recovery, with consumer‑facing and property‑linked sectors still under heavy strain.

Broader economic indicators reinforce that contrast. Industrial output grew just 4.1% in April 2026, retail sales barely rose 0.2%, and fixed‑asset investment continued to contract under the weight of the property downturn.

Exports

Yet exports remained a rare bright spot, surging 14.1%, while imports jumped 25.3%, hinting at resilient external demand and restocking activity.

Economists warn that April’s profit surge, while impressive, rests on a narrow base. Upstream sectors are thriving, but the recovery remains fragile — and heavily exposed to global energy volatility.

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S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite and 100 All Hit Fresh Record Highs as Tech Momentum Intensifies – 26th May 2026

New record all-time highs for U.S. indices

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite surged to new all‑time highs yesterday, extending a rally that shows little sign of fatigue as investors continue to pile into megacap technology and AI‑linked names.

The move higher came despite a patchy run of U.S. macro data, underscoring how dominant earnings strength and sector‑specific momentum have become in driving equity sentiment.

S&P 500: 7,519.12, up 45.65 points (+0.61%) — a record closing high.

S&P 500 26th May 2026

The S&P 500’s climb was supported by broad participation across technology, communication services and consumer discretionary, with investors rewarding companies delivering consistent revenue and margin expansion.

Market breadth has improved modestly in recent weeks, helping reinforce confidence that the rally is not solely dependent on a handful of giants.

Nasdaq Composite: 26,656.18, up 312.21 points (+1.19%) — also a record closing high, with an intraday peak of 26,725.29.

Nasdaq Composite 26th May 2026

Nasdaq‑100 (NDX): 30,001.32 – Up: +519.68 points (+1.76%) Intraday high: 30,044.49 – a new record high.

Nasdaq 100 26th May 2026

The Nasdaq once again outperformed, propelled by heavy demand for semiconductor, cloud and AI infrastructure stocks.

Upbeat guidance from several major tech firms earlier this month has strengthened the view that the sector’s earnings cycle still has room to run.

While valuations remain elevated and leave the market exposed to any negative surprise, investors have so far shown little inclination to rotate away from the winners.

Yesterday’s triple records highlight the market’s conviction that the AI‑driven profit cycle remains intact.