All-Time Highs While Literally Everything Else Gets Weird
The S&P and Nasdaq are partying at record levels while bond yields surge, oil tanks, and India's market does the opposite of what economics textbooks say it should.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both touched all-time highs this week, which sounds great until you remember bond yields are simultaneously doing their best impression of a rocket ship. Normally these two things don't happen together. Normally rising yields are supposed to make stocks less attractive. But AI stocks apparently didn't get the memo and just kept climbing anyway, because why let fundamentals ruin a good rally.
Meanwhile oil dropped more than 2% as Middle East exports recovered and shipping risks eased, which is the market's way of saying 'maybe this geopolitical crisis won't be that bad.' The G7 is also tapping stockpiles, because nothing says confidence like releasing your emergency supplies. Wall Street is calling this a boom, but CNN helpfully reminds us that surging yields could shake things up, which is financial journalism for 'enjoy it while it lasts.'
In the 'things that make you go hmm' category: India's stock market is sinking while its economy grows, which is apparently confusing enough that the BBC needed five full reasons to explain it. Brazil's markets hit records on Bolsonaro rally news, proving once again that markets and politics have a complicated relationship that no one fully understands.
The AI headlines continue their schizophrenic split between 'Sacramento public transit is using AI daily' and 'protesters are literally pulling plugs on AI firms.' Notre Dame is working on AI that interprets nonverbal communication, which should be helpful for reading the room at the next AI protest. Officials are stonewalling on risk questions, naturally, because transparency is so 2019.