Oil and yields exhale as chip demand carries Wall Street

Wall Street opened with equity futures in the green as two major headwinds eased at once: crude oil and bond yields. Brent slipped back below the 100-dollar mark while WTI also turned lower, and the 10-year US Treasury yield retreated toward 5.27 percent. CNBC confirms the picture; according to CNBC, government forces gaining ground along the Red Sea coast in Yemen reduced supply fears and supported the pullback in oil.

The rate calendar is coming into focus: a hike at the October 28 meeting is priced at only around 20 percent, with the next move seemingly pushed to December. August inflation lost momentum and labor data pointed to cooling. Against that, the ISM services prices index hit 74, its highest since 2022, so price pressure is far from over. According to Kitco, a market torn between soft payrolls and stubborn prices saw long-dated yields ease from multi-week highs, opening room for precious metals.

Chip demand keeps burning hot

In AI hardware, supply shortages are trailing demand. AMD management promised a substantial supply ramp in 2027, and the company's capacity planning now stretches three to five years ahead. According to Trendforce, management visited manufacturing partners in Taiwan and confirmed that its multi-billion-dollar ecosystem commitment remains on track. Samsung's preliminary third-quarter figures and TSMC's 47 percent year-on-year jump complete the picture; TSMC reports final numbers on October 15.

Across the index, earnings concentration stands out. Excluding AI names, the S&P 500 would sit around 6900, per a GoldmanSachs chart; the correction has already happened, but the headline index is riding on the shoulders of chip giants. GoldmanSachs research expects the ten largest tech companies alone to generate two-thirds of the index's total profit growth in the third quarter. The host argues that as long as chip demand holds, the heavyweights will keep carrying the market.

The rate-sensitive baskets of the S&P 500 took the beating instead: financials, staples, utilities and real estate fell hard after Jackson Hole. RSI readings, distance from the 50- and 200-day averages and Bollinger bands all flag these baskets as deeply oversold. The host builds a rebound case from here: if oil and yields keep easing while chip earnings hold firm, battered defensive shares could see snapback buying. Seasonality supports the call; in midterm years the late-September low usually gives way to an upward October.

France's plan softens European yields

Behind Europe's yield relief sits a fiscal consolidation promise. The National Rally leader presented a 2027 counter-budget built on a 140-billion-euro savings package spanning immigration, EU contributions and red tape. According to Politico, the plan echoes old promises, yet the headline figure still narrowed bond spreads a touch. Street protests, cautious statements from finance officials and calls for the ECB to halt balance-sheet tightening remain on the agenda; the France story will stay on market radars.

AI financing featured off-balance-sheet structures this week. OpenAI is negotiating a 30-billion-dollar round anchored by Abu Dhabi-based MGX and BlackRock; according to Thenextweb, no lead investor has been named and the price appears to have been set by the company itself. On the Anthropic side, banks are marketing a record 60-billion-dollar credit package tied to leasing Broadcom chips; according to Cryptobriefing, the structure pairs a 42-billion-dollar senior tranche with a junior slice in which Blackstone commits 9 billion, built around renting rather than buying chips. Chinese startups added 12- and 50-billion-dollar rounds and listing plans.

Single-stock radar

Analyst revisions brought a rain of price-target hikes in tech. ASML saw 2028 estimates lifted with a 2557-euro target in focus, while KLA earned a buy on a low 2027 bar and easing supply bottlenecks. Meta's product-cycle enthusiasm produced talk of a 1000-dollar target, and two houses wrote that ServiceNow demand stabilized and reaccelerated in the third quarter. Together with a fresh buy on Shopify, the picture points to corporate software demand warming up again.

Single names were led by housing and takeover headlines. Lucid delivered 3806 vehicles in the third quarter, beating the 3581 consensus and trimming inventory, though profitability at low volumes remains an open question. Takeover pressure is lifting Mattel shares. The most colorful file was Lennar: Berkshire added 2.4 million shares, lifting its stake toward 12 percent, while an Hntrbrk investigation found that Millrose, spun off last year, bought roughly 200 million dollars of Lennar homes in a month to rent out, equal to about 7 percent of home sales, allegedly flattering demand.

Transport and autos were the soft underbelly. One house cut American to 14 dollars on fuel costs and trimmed Delta and United targets; Delta's own refinery and Friday's earnings will be the litmus test. Auto retail saw cuts for AutoNation, Carvana and Stephens, alongside a 14-dollar Ford target and a 280-dollar McDonald's target. The host closed by noting the seasonal rhythm keeps working, with eyes on Friday's airline earnings.