The pullback in CEO confidence hasn't shown up in capex intentions though.
“Planned business investment stayed the course in Q2, as most CEOs cited no revisions to capital investment plans. However, the share anticipating increases to capital spending plans in the next 12 months rose further, while fewer CEOs expect to reduce capex compared to Q1." Source: Neil Sethi
Tech giant SoftBank is up nearly 73% so far this year
AI demand powered the country’s stocks to an all-time high and helped Masayoshi Son’s company dethrone Toyota after more than 20 years at the top. Source: FT
South Korean stocks have more than quadrupled over the last 17 months, trouncing every other country.
The reason? 2 South Korean companies in the AI memory space, both of which now have a market cap above $1 trillion: SK Hynix & Samsung. Source: Charlie Bilello
SpaceX sized up against the other biggest IPOs ever. $75B offering at a $1.8T valuation, dwarfing the next largest offerings sizes.
Source: Negligible Capital Bloomberg
The current market frenzy is far beyond the 2021 MEME STOCK MANIA
Retail investors are now spending a record 4.9 TIMES more money on semiconductor options contracts than the average seen since 2020, according to Citadel data. This is also exceeding the 2024 record by ~25%, when the AI chip frenzy first drove a surge in retail semiconductor options activity. In other words, retail investors are making record bets on semiconductor stocks. Source: Global Markets Investor, Citadel securities Afficher la traduction
Jevon-paradox Token usage (blue bars) is exploding higher. It started in January when Agentic AI went mainstream with Claude Cowork and Moltbook (OpenClaw).
AI users are creating agents and code, leading to exponential growth in AI usage. It's just starting. Source: a16z, Jim Bianco
ONLY 10% OF AMERICANS ARE NOW KEEPING THE ENTIRE US ECONOMY FROM CRASHING.
28 million people are driving 49% of everything Americans spend. The other 221 million account for just 37%. This is the highest concentration of consumer spending ever recorded in US history. Every 1% rise in the stock market increases consumer spending by 0.05%. Markets are up double digits this year. The entire consumer economy is now a direct function of where the S&P 500 closes every day. The bottom 80% have nothing left to contribute. National household debt just crossed $18 trillion. Credit card balances hit a record $1.2 trillion as lower income households borrow just to cover basic expenses against prices that are 25% higher than 2020. Deloitte projects that a 10% stock market correction would cause real consumer spending growth to fall to just 0.2% in 2027 and drop 1% in 2028. The 28 million people keeping this economy running are fully invested in the stock market. The US economy has never been this dependent on this few people. And those people have never been this dependent on the stock market. Source: Bull Theory, FT
U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stocks fall to 2-year low
Source: zerohedge
