CNBC

Lead Story

In a historic bid to establish artificial intelligence chips as a legitimate Wall Street asset class, Nvidia has partnered with six of the world’s largest asset managers on a monumental $500 billion financing alliance. The landmark arrangement—enlisting Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR—will treat high-performance compute infrastructure like commercial real estate or toll roads, allowing customers to secure debt and equity financing to buy Nvidia GPUs and construct power-dense data centers without burdening their own balance sheets.

Markets & Economics

WTI crude futures surged 5.1% to settle at $82.13 a barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude climbed 5% to $87.72, as hopes for an imminent shipping deal in the Strait of Hormuz evaporated after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected direct negotiations with the U.S. and demanded an end to the naval blockade. This energy price spike sent shockwaves through debt markets, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield back to 4.70% as investors nervously anticipate Wednesday’s critical Consumer Price Index (CPI) release. Market expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike in September have fell to roughly 50% following a weak July nonfarm payrolls report, mirroring the dovish perspectives detailed in Mark Zandi: The Fed should not raise interest rates, where experts cautioned that further tightening is unnecessary. Meanwhile, Kalshi prediction market traders remain highly optimistic, pricing in a modest 11% chance that core inflation ticks above the 2.5% Dow Jones consensus.

Business & Earnings

In dealmaking, Artificial intelligence activity fuels global M&A deals to records: JP Morgan reveals that the tech and infrastructure boom is driving unprecedented consolidation, even as venture capitalist Vinod Khosla warns of the staggering capital expenditures required to compete in Vinod Khosla on funding discovery loop, state of AI race, and AI economics. This immense capital intensity was underscored as OpenAI wrapped up a $7 billion secondary share sale at an $852 billion valuation, and Intel slumped 3% midday after announcing its own $15 billion stock offering to fund foundry buildouts and advanced packaging factory lines. Meanwhile, Boeing agreed to sell three noncore subsidiaries (including eVTOL play Wisk Aero) to Archer Aviation for a 20% stake, assisting CEO Kelly Ortberg’s push to streamline the planemaker and sending Archer shares surging nearly 8%. Conversely, Trump Media & Technology Group closed down 8% after reporting a massive $238 million second-quarter net loss on less than $2 million in revenue, hammered by digital asset declines.

Investing & Commentary

Bank of America’s Jill Carey Hill suggested that investors should pivot away from over-crowded, high-beta momentum plays, noting in BofA’s Jill Carey Hill: We do like value over growth that valuation support is becoming increasingly critical. This defensive sentiment aligns with a major equity upgrade cycle, as Morgan Stanley upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise to buy due to robust data center hardware demand as enterprises front-run memory “Chipflation,” and Wells Fargo upgraded Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy with a $240 price target. For alternative strategies, Standard Chartered initiated coverage on the Chainlink token with an eye-popping $200 price target by 2030, expecting the tokenization of real-world assets to boom to $4 trillion by 2028, while Jim Cramer strongly urged retail investors to ignore a Jefferies downgrade of Apple.

Also Worth Watching

• Mamdani broke the law in getting a quick headline on pied-à-terre tax, says plaintiffs’ attorney (CNBC Video): Attorney Randy Mastro discusses the lawsuit filed by New York City homeowners seeking to delay Mayor Mamdani’s controversial pied-à-terre tax rollout.
• Cyber spend will benefit from AI anxiety over the next couple quarters, says Jefferies’ Joseph Gallo (CNBC Video): Technical experts explain why cybersecurity stocks like CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks hit record highs as AI agent security concerns dominated the Black Hat conference.
• Jim Cantrell: I recently bought more SpaceX stock because I am bullish long term (CNBC Video): Industry pioneer Jim Cantrell details his bullish outlook for SpaceX as analysts predict its $100 billion annualized recurring revenue target is highly achievable.
• Pres. Trump’s attempt to dismiss Lisa Cook is ‘puzzling’, says Allianz Mohamed El-Erian (CNBC Video): Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian breaks down the potential risks to Federal Reserve independence following the administration’s aggressive efforts to fire Governor Lisa Cook.

📈 Since energy price volatility and Wednesday’s upcoming CPI release are the main market drivers right now, I could create a formatted PDF report compiling the exact S&P 500 return projections from JPMorgan’s trading desk across different inflation scenarios so you can share it with your team.