Notable market news this past week (13-Sep-26)
Here is the Skeptivest roundup of the latest market headlines for the week
🌍 Oil spikes as Middle East tensions escalate, AI/semiconductor stocks come under pressure
Brent crude rose above US$108/bbl amid escalating Middle East tensions and growing concerns over disruptions to regional energy infrastructure and shipping. The renewed oil shock is significant for markets as a sustained rise in energy prices could push headline inflation higher, complicating the Fed’s easing path and increasing the risk of a higher-for-longer rate environment. Against this backdrop, the 10-year US treasuries yield breached 5%, its highest level since 2023, as investors reassessed the outlook for inflation and monetary policy. The combination of higher energy costs and elevated yields could weigh on equities, particularly long-duration growth and technology stocks.
Global AI and semiconductor stocks also came under pressure last week as prominent industry executives, including Sam Altman, Dario Amodei and Elon Musk, called for a more measured pace of frontier-AI development, citing concerns over the safety and controllability of increasingly autonomous models. While the sell-off remains contained, the debate could prompt investors to reassess the pace of AI infrastructure spending and returns on capex, adding to scrutiny of richly valued AI names amid elevated treasury yields.
☕️ Quick fire happenings to note
🌏 Global macro
- US consumer prices rose 0.4% m/m in August, bringing headline CPI to 3.4% y/y, unchanged from July and broadly in line with expectations. However, core CPI accelerated to 0.3% m/m from 0.2% with shelter and airline fares among the contributors, suggesting underlying price pressures remain sticky. The data, alongside elevated oil prices, has strengthened expectations for a Fed rate hike this week, with markets increasingly pricing a higher-for-longer rates path.
- The ECB raised its policy rate by 25bp to 2.50% and upgraded its inflation and growth forecasts, reinforcing concerns that inflation may remain sticky. While the ECB provided limited forward guidance, markets increased expectations for another hike in October, adding to the broader global bond sell-off and reinforcing the shift from easing towards renewed tightening and a less accommodative global rates environment.
- China exports remain strong but domestic demand remains weak – China’s August exports rose 25% y/y, while imports increased 28.2%, leaving an approximately US$119bn trade surplus, highlighting continued strength in trade despite subdued domestic demand. The divergence reinforces China’s reliance on external demand and manufacturing exports to support growth, while questions remain over the strength of the domestic recovery.
🏦 Individual stocks/companies
- Nvidia Corp (-9.13% past 5D) shares fell last week as global AI and semiconductor stocks came under renewed pressure, amid growing investor concerns over whether the pace of AI-related capex and earnings growth can justify elevated valuations. The sell-off was further exacerbated by warnings from tech leaders urging the industry to slowdown the pace of advanced AI capability scaling to manage growing existential risks, while Fed policy uncertainty and elevated valuations added to broader risk-off sentiment across the sector.
- Oracle Corp (-13.84% past 5D) shares declined despite reporting better-than-expected Q1 results, as investors panicked over a severe US$5.4 billion negative free cash flow triggered by US$28.5 billion in AI capital expenditures. While strong demand lifted Oracle's cloud backlog to US$664 billion, aggressive infrastructure spending sparked dilution fears via a US$20 billion equity issuance and a US$700 million spike in restructuring costs. Combined with confusion over co-founder Larry Ellison's cancelled share-sale plan, these balance sheet pressures collided with a broader sector-wide AI market correction fueled by rising interest rates and scepticism over immediate AI investment returns.
- Dell Technologies (+9.16% past 5D) shares surged last week, bucking a broader technology sell-off after a highly bullish Wall Street initiation report highlighted the hardware giant’s strong positioning to capture enterprise revenue. Analysts pointed out that Dell is uniquely situated to secure a significant market share in the hardware demands driven by "agentic AI" workloads.
🇸🇬 Singapore related
- In a major advancement for digital finance, Singapore’s DBS Bank partnered with Citigroup to complete the first successful cross-border USD payment using tokenised deposits over the Swift Digital Ledger, clearing a weekend transaction in minutes and bypassing standard two-day time zone delays. Building on this breakthrough technology, DBS simultaneously joined forces with OCBC and UOB to execute their very first live, blockchain-enabled SGD settlements over the exact same Swift ledger network.
