Wall Street Journal

NVIDIA announced an additional $150 billion stock buyback plan, setting a new record for the largest buyback in U.S. corporate history, surpassing Apple's previous record of $110 billion. CEO Jensen Huang stated that this move demonstrates confidence in the long-term opportunities of AI. Boosted by this news, NVIDIA's stock price rose by 1.3% in pre-market trading on Monday, after previously falling nearly 1%.

OpenAI's resident AI assistant "o," powered by the GPT-6 Astra variant "Aeon," focuses on long-task scenarios. It is expected that on Tuesday (September 29), Dev Day will simultaneously launch the $500 monthly subscription for ChatGPT Pro Max ultra-fast subscription, as well as an AI hardware device resembling a donut. Analysts believe that with a dual approach of software and hardware, it will fully target strong competitors like Meta and Grok.

Muse launched two weeks ago and has already reached millions of users, with Mark Zuckerberg stating, "It's a home run right out of the gate." This personal AI Agent is about to be fully integrated with Ray-Ban smart glasses, betting on the convergence of the metaverse, smart glasses, and large models. In addition, he rarely admitted that the failure of Llama 4 was "the most terrifying moment" and revealed that Meta is building a 5-gigawatt computing cluster.

Goldman Sachs believes that the market has overvalued the risks of stagflation and high yields. The effects of tariffs are weakening, energy may face deflation, and the cost reduction from AI consumerization will drive inflation down. Although growth is slowing, core profits remain strong, and the central bank's hawkish space is limited. In the "Goldilocks" scenario, AI FOMO is reignited, and there is no need to wait for the midterm elections; the "Goldilocks" market may ignite the U.S. stock market's year-end rally ahead of schedule.

Oracle issued a "force majeure" notice to Project Jupiter's developers, expressing concern that this data center project located in New Mexico, which plans to provide $300 billion in computing power to OpenAI, may not be operational as originally scheduled in 2028. The project had already faced regulatory and financing pressures, with related loans falling to distressed levels, and this notice further exacerbates market concerns about the project's implementation and the stability of its financing chain.

U.S. Treasuries faced the most severe single-day sell-off in nearly 18 months: soaring oil prices, PMI hitting record highs, hawkish statements from the Federal Reserve, and a lackluster 5-year Treasury auction, with four negative factors resonating on the same day. The 10-year yield broke 5.1%, reaching a new high since 2007; the market's betting on another rate hike in October surged to 68%, and the swap market has priced in expectations for three rate hikes over the next year. Analysts believe that over 80% of this sell-off was driven by real interest rates, with the 30-year mortgage rate surpassing 7%, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the Treasury's repurchase plan.

The three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower collectively, with the Dow Jones down 0.18%, the S&P 500 down 0.11%, and the Nasdaq down 0.13%. Popular tech stocks had mixed performances, with Meta up 1.13% and SK Hynix down 1.57%; IONQ's stock price rose 13%, marking the largest intraday gain since July 30. Spot gold fell below the $4,300 per ounce mark, reporting $4,299.92 per ounce. Brent crude oil saw an intraday increase of 1.0%, reporting $96.37 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose for the fourth consecutive day, reaching its highest level since July.

WTI crude oil fell below 90 USD per barrel, with an intraday decline reaching 2.9%. According to reports, an Iranian official stated that if the United States takes preliminary measures to ease military pressure, including ending the military blockade of Iranian ports and stopping military actions related to the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 7 days. However, Iranian sources later denied reports regarding the reopening agreement of the Strait of Hormuz.

Muse was launched for 12 days and has surpassed 2.8 million downloads, with 640,000 daily active users, completely exceeding ChatGPT's data during the same period. It has topped the iOS charts in the United States, leading to a single-day surge of 11% in Meta's stock price. Muse targets ordinary users as an AI agent entry point, supporting cross-network task execution, with a minimum subscription monetization of $20/month. Relying on Facebook/Instagram's hundreds of millions of users for traffic, Shopify has announced a partnership, but Amazon has directly blocked it.

Ukrainian drones launched the largest airstrike on Moscow, causing one of Russia's largest oil refining companies to come to a standstill. The global diesel market responded urgently—U.S. crack spreads soared to a historic peak of $117 per barrel, with retail prices surpassing $6.45 per gallon. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is fiercely debating an export ban, and analysts warn that this move will not only fail to save domestic oil prices but will also trigger a rupture in the global energy chain.