Syz the moment

OpenAI is in discussions to possibly sell shares in a move that would boost the company’s valuation from $29 billion to somewhere between $80 billion and $90 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the talks. Employees would be allowed to sell their existing shares rather than the company issuing new ones, the Wall Street Journal said. In April, OpenAI picked up just over $300 million in funding from backers such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive and K2 Global at a valuation of $29 billion. That was separate to a big investment from Microsoft announced earlier this year, which closed in January. The size of Microsoft’s investment was believed to be around $10 billion. Source: Techcrunch

As highlighted by Goldman Sachs PB: "the amount of shorting in US equities since mid-August is the largest in six months and ranks in the 98th percentile vs. the past decade." Meanwhile, the level of short gamma is the highest in a long time. Dealers have been forced to sell deltas as we have moved lower (chart by Tier1Alpha). This has pressured the market. But we need to keep in mind that gamma works both ways, so a possible bounce from here would force dealers to buy back all that delta they sold recently. Source: The Market Ear

A Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of developer shares fell as much as 6.4% Monday, taking its loss in valuation this year to $55 billion. Evergrande, which scrapped key creditor meetings at the last minute and said it must revisit its restructuring plan, dived 25%. China Aoyuan Group Ltd. was the biggest drag on the gauge, slumping by a record 76% after shares resumed trading. Sentiment has worsened dramatically in recent days as investors brace for years of pain from the ailing sector, with policy support failing to resolve liquidity woes. While developers are pinning their hopes on the upcoming Golden Week holiday period to revive home sales, a rapid cooling of a late-August rally in property shares shows any relief may be short lived. Source: Bloomberg

Big opens then lots of selling. Source: Bespoke

Source: BCG, Morgan Stanley Research thru Compounding Quality

So what could be the effects on the US economy and job market? Below chart shows the effects on GDP depending on the duration of the shutdown. - According to Goldman, a government-wide shutdown would reduce quarterly annualized growth by around 0.2% for each week it lasted after accounting for modest private sector effects. Goldman's baseline is that a shutdown could last for 2-3 weeks (the Trump government shutdown, the longest in history, lasted 35 days, from Dec 22, 2018 to Jan 25, 2019). - Meanwhile, Bloomberg also speculates that in an extreme tail event, the maximum hit to 4Q GDP would be a drag of 2.8% if the shutdown lasts for the entire quarter. Source: Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, www.zerohedge.com

BofA Harnett says it depends whether the economy is in inflationary or an inflationary period. When monetary policy needs to work harder to slow economy in inflationary era (e.g. 1970s/1980s), Dow Jones returns were most of the time negative in the 3 months and 6 months that followed the last Fed hike... However, in disinflationary period, markets returns were quite strong. So do you believe we are in an inflationary or disinflationary period? Source: BofA Global Research

Long-only institutional & retail investors are all-in overweight tech and meaningfully underweight energy. Will elevated tech valuations, rising long-end yields, and rising oil prices trigger a squeeze in positioning? Source: The Daily Shot, EPFR, DB