📈 Chips are driving the Nasdaq again. Bitcoin +6% and Buffett definitively hands over the reins
Good morning, investors! ☕ We’ve reached the end of one of the wildest weeks in recent memory. The Nasdaq gained 0.40% on Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.17%, while the Dow Jones fell 0.18%. But beneath the surface, the market was anything but calm—semiconductors continued to rally, bitcoin jumped nearly 6%, and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond climbed back above 5%.
On top of that came a major symbolic change: Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway after more than six decades.
Let’s get to the most important news. 👇
📈 Chips saved the Nasdaq
Friday’s trading ended as follows:
🟢 S&P 500: +0.17% 🟢 Nasdaq: +0.40% 🔴 Dow Jones: −0.18%
Technology companies, and especially semiconductor companies, were once again the main drivers. The technology sector was even the strongest sector in the entire S&P 500.
That’s especially interesting in the context of the whole week.
At the start of the week, AI and chip stocks took a serious hit after several prominent figures in the AI industry began publicly calling for a slowdown in the development of the most advanced models due to safety risks.
But in the second half of the week, investors started returning to semiconductors.
Overall, the Nasdaq ended the week higher, the S&P 500 was basically flat, and the Dow recorded its biggest weekly percentage drop since March.
The AI trade took a few punches during the week, but investors certainly don’t seem ready to give up on chips just yet.
⚠️ The 10-year yield is back above 5%
The picture here is a little less encouraging.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond once again topped 5% on Friday.
This matters for technology companies because higher yields mean more competition from bonds and also reduce the present value of future earnings.
And, of course, the Fed remains a concern too.
The U.S. central bank raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points this week, and the market now sees an approximately 55.4% probability of another hike at the October meeting, according to CME FedWatch. A week ago, it was just 42.5%.
So while tech stocks are rising, the environment around them is certainly not ideal.
Investors are basically hoping that corporate earnings and continued AI investment can outweigh higher rates.
🛢️ Oil is still above $100
Energy remains another problem.
Brent crude fell approximately 1% on Friday to $103.87 per barrel, giving us at least a little relief.
One reason was that China, at Saudi Arabia’s request, urged Iran to help curb Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure. This eased some concerns about further supply disruptions.
But oil above $100 is still no cause for celebration.
An even bigger problem is diesel prices, which have reached record highs because of the current situation. More expensive diesel then feeds into the costs of transportation, agriculture, and goods.
And that’s exactly why central banks are tightening monetary policy again.
This week, not only the Fed but also the ECB and the Bank of Japan raised rates, with Japan’s central bank bringing rates to their highest level in 31 years. The Bank of England left rates unchanged but also warned of the possibility of a future hike.
₿ Bitcoin +5.9%. Crypto stocks took off
One of Friday’s biggest moves came from crypto.
Bitcoin jumped 5.9%, immediately lifting companies with strong ties to the cryptocurrency market along with it.
🚀 Coinbase $COIN 🚀 Strategy $MSTR 🚀 Robinhood$HOOD
These three companies gained approximately 9% to 16% in a single day.
If you’re not familiar with Coinbase, for example, it’s one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States. The more interest there is in cryptocurrencies and the more people trade, the more the company can earn from fees and other services.
That’s why its stock tends to be extremely sensitive to bitcoin’s movements.
Yet on Tuesday, crypto stocks plunged after the U.S. Senate failed to advance key cryptocurrency legislation.
A few days later and the mood is completely different. Classic crypto. 😅
🤖 AI infrastructure continues to grow at a staggering pace
And here’s another interesting piece of news straight from the AI world.
British AI cloud company Nscale, backed by Nvidia $NVDA, has filed paperwork for an IPO in the United States.
And the numbers are pretty wild.
The company’s revenue for the first half of the year rose 1,252% year over year to $140.6 million. But the company also lost $1.02 billion.
Nscale provides computing power, data centers, electricity, and other infrastructure needed to train and run AI models. Competitors include CoreWeave and Nebius.
The company already has contracts worth more than $103 billion in total, and its infrastructure has more than 10 GW of planned power capacity.
Just last month, Anthropic committed to spending $45 billion on computing capacity at an Nscale data center in West Virginia. Nvidia also invested $1 billion in Nscale convertible bonds this week.
This is a good example of how, despite concerns about valuations, real investment in AI infrastructure is still continuing on a massive scale.
On the other hand, Nscale also illustrates the other side of today’s AI boom—huge growth, but also huge losses and a high concentration of customers. Its largest customer accounts for 52% of the company’s current revenue.
👴 Warren Buffett definitively hands over the reins
And finally, a piece of news I definitely wouldn’t want to leave out.
At the age of 96, Warren Buffett has stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway $BRK-B $BRK-A and is becoming chairman emeritus.
Buffett handed the CEO role to Greg Abel earlier this year. His son, Howard Buffett, is now becoming Berkshire’s new non-executive chairman.
Warren Buffett took over Berkshire back in 1965 and turned what was originally a struggling textile company into a conglomerate worth around $1.1 trillion.
Today, Berkshire owns GEICO, the BNSF railway, and a range of other businesses, while also holding large equity stakes in companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, and Alphabet.
Berkshire shares reacted to the news with only a slight decline. That makes sense—the succession had been in the works for years, and Greg Abel is already running the company’s operations.
Even so, a huge chapter in investment history is coming to an end.
👀 What to watch next week?
The market will continue to focus mainly on the Fed, oil, and AI.
After the first rate hike since 2023, every further comment from Fed officials will matter. Investors will also get new economic data and try to assess whether an October rate hike will actually happen.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Middle East continue, and oil remains above $100.
Geopolitically, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the United States will also be very interesting. Topics are expected to include Iran, Taiwan, and the U.S.-China AI race.
So next week doesn’t look like it’ll be boring either. 😅
Yesterday in one minute:
📈 S&P 500 +0.17% | Nasdaq +0.40% | Dow −0.18%
🔥 Semiconductors once again drove the technology sector higher
📈 The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed back above 5%
🏦 The market sees a 55.4% chance of another Fed rate hike in October
🛢️ Brent fell to $103.87, but remains above $100
₿ Bitcoin +5.9%
🚀 Coinbase, Strategy, and Robinhood gained approximately 9–16%
🤖 Nscale is heading for the stock market—revenue +1,252%, but losses of more than $1 billion
👴 Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
And that’s all for today! ☕📈
💎 And if you’re interested in my more detailed analyses, specific buys and sells, and other content I don’t share publicly, you can join my membership here on Bulios. You’ll find plenty of additional benefits and content for those who want to follow my portfolio and investment decisions in greater depth.
