Breaking the September market curse

September has been far from an ideal month for U.S. stocks for the past several years, with the S&P 500 dropping during the month in four of the past five years. 

This time, though, things seem to be better, supported by a flurry of upbeat economic data — including a 3.8% second-quarter GDP growth and jobless claims that suggest a resilient labor market.

With a couple of days still to go, will the markets finally get to end the month on a positive note, even as U.S. President Donald Trump continues with his aggressive tariff policy?

On Friday, Trump unveiled sweeping new tariffs, including on furniture, adding fresh uncertainty to an already jittery market. While on Friday investors appeared to shrug off tariffs, the weekly close told a different story: caution is creeping back in.

Inflation data came in line with expectations, which should’ve been a relief. But in a twist, strong economic signals could actually keep the Fed from cutting rates, reining in market bulls. Good news can be bad news for markets.

Still, the S&P 500 is up 2.84% so far this month — and if all goes well, it looks like the September jinx will be broken this year.

The Middle East could benefit from higher H1-B fees. As Trump hikes fees for H1-B visas, the Gulf region’s sustained push to become the next global artificial intelligence hub could see it outflank other geographies as it snaps up foreign talent that faces an uncertain future in the U.S.

Vance confident TikTok is ‘successfully separated’. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said he was optimistic about the future of TikTok in the U.S., saying “we have successfully separated this company from TikTok global and actually made it so that we can control people’s data security.” Tiktok has long faced concerns about its data collection practices and parent company ByteDance’s relationship with the Chinese government.

Buffett Indicator at all-time high. Warren Buffett’s one-time favorite yardstick for stock market valuations has climbed to an all-time high, reviving fears that investors are once again testing the limits of market exuberance.

Markets rally on Friday. All three major U.S. indexes climbed on Friday, but still finished the week lower following the release of crucial inflation data. Markets in Europe also ended Friday in positive territory. Over the weekend and early Monday, stock futures were little changed in overnight trading.

[PRO] Intel leads the list of most overbought stocks. Intel rallied over 20% in the past week and has seen a year-to-date gain of nearly 80%. However, this puts the stock is now even deeper into overbought territory.

OpenAI’s tangled web of dealmaking

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is everywhere, inking deals valued in the tens to hundreds of billions of dollars with infrastructure partners, even as it continues to burn mounds of cash.

His artificial intelligence startup, now valued at $500 billion, has signed agreements with several companies including Oracle, Coreweave and Broadcom. 

While OpenAI says that scaling is key to driving innovation and future AI breakthroughs, investors and analysts are beginning to raise their eyebrows over the mindboggling sums.

— Ashley Capoot