Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Back on: A resurgence in chipmakers powered a rebound on Wall Street overnight, with stocks rising and oil falling as traders looked past fresh airstrikes between the US and Iran to focus on technology strength and the coming earnings season. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq added 1.3%, while a gauge of semiconductor firms climbed 3.6%. Sentiment was helped by reports that SK Hynix’s roughly USD26.5 billion US share listing was more than seven times oversubscribed. Micron said it plans to lift US plant spending to USD250 billion to meet AI demand. West Texas Intermediate crude fell about 2% to just under USD72 a barrel after surging the previous day, while an auction of 30-year Treasuries drew the highest yield in nearly two decades. In corporate news, Meta launched its first paid AI model, and S&P Global downgraded Oracle to its lowest investment-grade rating amid rising AI spending. (Bloomberg)(Reuters)(WSJ)
2.
Cloud cover: Meta launched its first paid AI model while chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company is weighing whether to rent out its computing infrastructure to outsiders. The new model, Muse Spark 1.1, marks the first time Meta has charged businesses for access, a departure from its history of giving its AI away for free. AI chief Alexandr Wang said its pricing was “very aggressive and attractive" against rivals, at roughly a quarter of what OpenAI and Anthropic charge. He told CNBC accounts start with USD20 in free credits, then USD1.25 per million input tokens and USD4.25 per million output tokens. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg told Bloomberg the offers Meta receives to use its compute are “so high that it may make sense" to rent it out rather than use it internally. Separately, an internal memo reviewed by Reuters showed Meta plans to start manufacturing its “Iris” AI chip in September and to double computing capacity to 14 gigawatts in 2027. Meta shares rose 4.7%. (Meta)(Bloomberg)(CNBC)(Reuters)
