Jensen Huang said on Monday that he is not afraid of custom chips. The same day, Nvidia put US$3.5 billion into MediaTek convertible bonds and brought MediaTek onto its own NVLink. He is not trying to keep custom chips outside the door; he wants them running across Nvidia's network. Reports say the tie-up is meant to get custom data-centre chips deployed faster. Nvidia closed 1.48 per cent higher at US$220.78. On the custom-silicon side, the tape read the opposite way. $Marvell Technology(MRVL)$ fell another 2.29 per cent to US$211.66, and its gain for the year slipped from 154.91 per cent on Friday to 149.07 per cent. The wound is the same one as last week. Revenue from the US$120 billion arrangement with

On Wednesday $S&P 500(.SPX)$ closed 0.48 per cent lower, its third session in a row heading down. $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ rose 6.55 per cent the same day to close at US$653.69. The whole market was backing away while one of the largest companies in it put on six and a half points, and those look like two unrelated things. They are one thing. What is holding the indexes down is rates: Brent crude moved back above US$100 for the first time in two months, the inflation print lands on Friday, the ten-year Treasury yield was pushed to 4.85 per cent and the thirty-year broke above 5.30 per cent. The Treasury stepped in that day and raised the cap on its buybacks of ten-

The indices: all three fell back from record closes, and the Dow lost 0.66 per cent The three indices moved back from the previous day's record closes on Wednesday: the $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ Average fell 0.66 per cent to 51,179.90, the largest decline; the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ fell 0.22 per cent to 7,801.77; and the $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ Composite fell 0.22 per cent to 27,538.69. The pressure came from the bond market: the 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.36 per cent at its intraday peak and closed at 5.28 per cent, while the 30-year touched 5.73 per cent and closed at 5.66 per cent. Minutes from the Federal Reserve's Septemb

One batch of results, three different share prices. $Dell Technologies Inc.(DELL)$ closed 15.81 per cent higher on Wednesday at US$492.20. Credo's revenue more than doubled from the previous quarter and the stock closed down 20.04 per cent at US$165.22. $Broadcom(AVGO)$ left its answer until after the close, beat on both revenue and earnings, and saw its shares push above US$370 before being knocked back below US$350. The hardest number in Dell's results is US$95 billion — a record order backlog for AI servers. It raised full-year revenue guidance by US$25 billion to US$192 billion at the same time. At least 15 firms moved their targets that day: UBS from US$455 to US$500,

The indices: the Nasdaq set a record close, the Dow did not follow The three indices pulled apart on Monday: the $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ Composite rose 1.05 per cent to 27,477.31, a record close for it, having reached 27,544.06 at its intraday peak; the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ rose 0.66 per cent to 7,773.95, still shy of its own record close by less than 0.6 per cent; and the $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ Industrial Average added just 0.18 per cent to 51,267.90. The 10-year Treasury yield closed at 5.31 per cent, three basis points above Friday. Put those three together and what made the high was not the breadth of the market but a handfu

The indices: the selling stayed inside technology, so the Nasdaq fell while the Dow closed higher The three indices split on Thursday: the $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ fell 1.25 per cent to 27,193.34, the steepest of them; the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ fell 0.47 per cent to 7,765.36; and the $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ rose 0.10 per cent to 51,231.60. The 10-year Treasury yield came back from 5.28 per cent to 5.23 per cent on the same day. Rates fell and equities fell with them, which is not the chain of cause and effect of recent days: what was repriced was the assumption about demand along the AI chain, and the discount rate had nothing to d

The indices: the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both set record closes and the 10-year came back to 5.27 per cent The three indices pushed higher again on Tuesday: the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ rose 0.58 per cent to 7,818.93, closing above 7,800 for the first time and at a record close, having reached 7,844.52 at its intraday peak; the $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ Composite rose 0.45 per cent to 27,599.89, also a record close; and the $Dow Jones(.DJI)$Average added 0.49 per cent to 51,521.28. The 10-year Treasury yield came back to 5.27 per cent from 5.31 per cent the day before. Last week's pattern, where weak data lifted equities, has

All three indexes closed lower on Tuesday, the Dow worst of them at 1.18 per cent, $S&P 500(.SPX)$ down 0.58 per cent and $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ Composite down 0.32 per cent. Chips went the other way on the same day: Intel put on 9.05 per cent to close at US$104.47, back above US$100 and the biggest gain in the row. The indexes went one way and the chips went the other, and that is the split this day comes down to. What pushed the indexes down was oil. WTI moved above US$94 and Brent came close to US$99, and what pushed oil up were attacks in the Middle East. The attacks fell over the weekend, so they were not in Friday's closing prices and only arrived at Tuesday's open. The

The indices: a weak jobs report, and all three still closed higher All three indices closed higher on Friday: the $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ Composite rose 1.19 per cent to 27,190.86, having reached 27,353.68 at its intraday peak; the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ rose 0.73 per cent to 7,722.72; and the $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ rose 0.49 per cent to 51,176.96. The September employment report came out that morning: non-farm payrolls added 29,000, where the market had looked for somewhere between 85,000 and 90,000, and the unemployment rate went from 4.1 per cent in August to 4.2 per cent, where a flat reading had been expected. The previous tw

Hello. The Treasury's buyback tool was upsized again, and the bond market bought it for half a day. US Treasury Secretary Bessent said on Thursday that the size of each long-dated Treasury buyback had gone from US$2 billion to at least US$4 billion, and could rise further. The 30-year yield fell as much as 10 basis points and the dollar index weakened — and then the bond market pushed back. The reason is simple enough: buybacks deal with liquidity, while the deficit, inflation and the term premium have not moved at all. There was a new variable that day: the consumer. $S&P 500(.SPX)$ closed down 0.87 per cent and $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ 1.32 per cent, about 600 points — Barro