Thursday, October 15, 2026

The Morning Call---Cracks in the AI story.

 

The Morning Call

 

10/15/26

 

The Market

         

    Technical

 

            Wednesday in the charts.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hawks-circle-soaring-cpi-lifts-dollar-hammers-everything-else?gift=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJuaWQiOiIxMTI4NDIwIiwic2VuZGVyVWlkIjoiUUhnc3BaZVVFS2E3RHhXM216eFlKbjhaWEFoMiIsImlhdCI6MTc5MjAwOTUxMSwiZXhwIjoxNzk0NjAxNTExLCJhdWQiOiJ6aC1naWZ0In0.PhP-JYllp8vkBvGWSs1Per7tcvqC-2HpDTVUy9rR0f0

 

           

Note: for a second time in a row, the S&P failed to successfully challenge its former high. It is now sitting on its 50 DMA (i.e., support). Let’s see how it handles that. That said, the rest of the Market held its own. Our portfolios were up on the day, as everything else offset the decline in the AI related stocks. So this may not be a sign that the Market is headed lower---just the big tech names. It is too early to tell, but I am planning at strategy based on that assumption.

 

            Wednesday in the technical stats.

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/momentum

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/market-performance

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/sectors/rankings

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/signals/new-recommendations

 

            King dollar is crushing everything.

https://www.zerohedge.com/the-market-ear/king-dollar-crushing-everything?gift=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJuaWQiOiIxMTI4NDE1Iiwic2VuZGVyVWlkIjoiUUhnc3BaZVVFS2E3RHhXM216eFlKbjhaWEFoMiIsImlhdCI6MTc5MjAwNzQyMSwiZXhwIjoxNzk0NTk5NDIxLCJhdWQiOiJ6aC1naWZ0In0.RtEWXB5mwBWZmbNSZabv8B81w2Cnkp-wVeL78x4Gvy8

 

Thursday morning setup: US futures are lower as the AI unwind goes global - Korea's Kospi crashed into a bear market and tripped circuit breakers, CoreWeave bonds sank deeper into distress and Anthropic's still-blistering but slowing growth failed to impress - while yesterday's hot CPI scare has morphed into a growth scare; as a result Treasuries are ripping higher with 10Y yields tumbling 10bps to 5.08%, the lowest since Sept. 23. As of 6:20am ET, S&P futures are 0.3% lower at 7,749 while Nasdaq futures slide 1.1% to 29,857 and Dow futures are up 0.2%; small caps are the odd man out with Russell 2000 futures up 0.3%. Yesterday the S&P 500 fell 1.1% to its worst day since July, the Nasdaq 100 lost 2% and the SOX dropped for a sixth straight session. Premarket, Mag-7 and AI baskets are all lower with Apple the only Mag 7 name in the green; chipmakers, memory, neoclouds and AI infrastructure names are all sliding, with CoreWeave down another 6-7% after imploding 15% yesterday as its bonds traded at distressed levels. The day's driver is AI financing (again): Anthropic's $16.8 billion Q3 revenue implies slowing growth, and a Gartner report that $3,5 trillion of AI infrtastructure spending could be exposed to impairment by 2030 is making the rounds. Bonds rally across the curve in a bull flattener with yields down 7-11bps, as the AI selloff pushes investors into havens and odds of an October Fed hike slide back to around 30% from a post-CPI intraday peak of 58%; bunds and gilts also rally about 10bps, helped by the pullback in energy. The dollar is lower, with the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index down 0.3%-0.4% and the Swiss franc leading G-10 gains while the Aussie slumps after a weak jobs report. In commodities, Brent drops almost 2% to $104 on the risk-off tone and talk of the US easing shadow fleet sanctions, gold jumps 1.3% to $4,158 and silver is up 2.1%, while copper slides. Bitcoin is down 0.6% near $81,200. US economic data slate includes September retail sales, PPI, October Empire manufacturing and Philly Fed, and weekly jobless claims (all 8:30am) and August business inventories (10am). Fed speaker slate includes Goolsbee (10am), Hammack (4:30pm) and Chair Warsh, who has a fireside chat with the IMF's Georgieva in Bangkok at 11:30pm ET before the blackout. Treasury sells $110 billion of 4-week and $105 billion of 8-week bills at 11:30am.

 

    Fundamental

 

       Headlines

 

              The Economy

 

                        US

 

                          Weekly jobless claims totaled 199,000 versus projections of 200,000.

 

September CPI was up 0.6%, in line; the core CPI was up 0.3% versus +0.2%.

                          https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/rate-hike-odds-bond-yields-explode-higher-after-hotter-expected-cpi

 

                                  More analysis.

                          https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2026/10/september-cpi-shows-widespread-movement.html

 

September PPI was up 1.3% versus consensus of +0.5%; core PPI was up 0.7% versus +0.3%.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/inflation-broadening-out-producer-prices-soar-most-4-years

 

September retail sales rose 0.8% versus estimates of +0.3%; ex autos they were up 0.9% versus +0.5%.

 

The October New Your Fed manufacturing index came in at 25.5 versus expectations of 10.3; the October Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index was 20.9 versus 28.4.

 

                        International

 

August Japanese machinery orders were up 5.2% versus forecasts of +3.0; final August industrial production fell 2.4% versus -1.7%.

 

August UK GDP grew 0.1% versus predictions of -0.1%; August industrial production was up 0.8% versus -0.1%; the August trade balance was -L920 million versus -L3.1 billion; August YoY construction output declined 1.8% versus -1.6%.

 

August EU industrial production declined 0.5% versus consensus of 0.0%.

 

                        Other

 

                          Home buying slump hits six weeks.

  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-14/us-mortgage-rates-hit-7-5-extending-slump-in-purchase-activity?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc5MTk5MTU3NiwiZXhwIjoxNzkyNTk2Mzc2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUTVVZOE9UOTZPU0kwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMzFCNTRDQTI3MTE0NjAxOUQxMURCN0IxRUM4NTE2MyJ9.-P02mqZ3R2OAyzrobYTnnZrZzCMFOTrcTZayY_mHftQ

 

 

            Fiscal Policy

 

              There is no winning the AI race without global workers.

              https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2026/10/14/theres_no_ai_victory_for_the_us_without_the_worlds_workers_1210968.html

           

 

            AI

 

              A second crack?

                          https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/coreweave-dont-say-i-didnt-warn-you?r=1ng8jx&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

 

              A third crack?

  https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/anthropic-says-q3-revenue-jumped-168-billion-and-turned-adjusted-profitable-run-rate-math?gift=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJuaWQiOiIxMTI4NDcxIiwic2VuZGVyVWlkIjoiUUhnc3BaZVVFS2E3RHhXM216eFlKbjhaWEFoMiIsImlhdCI6MTc5MjA2ODk0OCwiZXhwIjoxNzk0NjYwOTQ4LCJhdWQiOiJ6aC1naWZ0In0.-X7zW5yd336EA2nA2qZfWsxJ4i9v5J-KMrFZPA8RqLE

 

 

              Investment bubbles are a feature of capitalism.

              https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/dowd-investment-bubbles-are-feature-capitalism-not-bug

 

     Investing

 

            Proceed with caution.

            Continue To Proceed With Caution

 

            Dispelling two bull market worries.

                        https://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-worry-the-bull-market-is-getting-old-but-history-shows-it-can-continue-to-age-gracefully-0402e69c?st=yypMDV

 

            That pesky ‘term premium’.

            https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/13/business/term-premium-bond-yields.html

 

            Investors locking in higher yields.

            https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/7afe1319-c9c0-40e5-83f2-4d08b1304b39

 

            How much money is enough?

                        https://open.substack.com/pub/spilledcoffee/p/how-much-is-enough?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

 

            The nightmare scenario.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nightmare-scenario-move-creator-bassman-warns-6-20y-could-unleash-convexity-vortex?gift=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJuaWQiOiIxMTI4MzEyIiwic2VuZGVyVWlkIjoiUUhnc3BaZVVFS2E3RHhXM216eFlKbjhaWEFoMiIsImlhdCI6MTc5MTk5MDMwMSwiZXhwIjoxNzk0NTgyMzAxLCJhdWQiOiJ6aC1naWZ0In0.8KAqXXefrBMtuI5bB3blDV0Vi-Ulyt4IkNxKkAnTRsU

 

Note: Cheapest to Deliver (CTD) is the specific bond from a basket of eligible government or Treasury securities that a short position holder (the seller) chooses to deliver when settling a bond futures contract, because it costs them the least amount of money to acquire and deliver.

 

              AI rains on the tech parade.

              https://talkmarkets.com/article/openai-rains-on-the-tech-parade

 

              Where the gold market is headed.

              https://talkmarkets.com/article/5-charts-revealing-where-the-gold-market-is-headed-next

 

    News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

 

            BlackRock

            https://talkmarkets.com/article/blackrock-stock-jumps-3-after-earnings-beat-as-assets-climb-to-155-trillion

 

What I am reading today

 

            The social security COLA for 2027.

            https://wolfstreet.com/2026/10/14/the-social-security-cola-for-2027-will-be-largest-since-2023/

 

 

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