Fed’s Kashkari says AI will force a rate hike; EURUSD and USD reverse early moves

EURUSD is giving back some of its morning gains. The pair reversed course after a failed attempt to extend its upward move and is now losing buying momentum. In the second half of the session, the momentum has clearly shifted to the sellers. The US100, on the other hand, reflects relative strength—the index has gradually lost its downward momentum and is stabilizing in the second half of the day, ignoring some of the negative market signals.

The main topic of the day in the tech world is the potential delay of OpenAI’s IPO — reports in the NYT about the debut being pushed back to next year (in part due to SpaceX’s poor performance following its IPO) have hit the entire semiconductor sector hard. Micron, AMD, and Intel are down about 2% each, while Oracle is down more than 1%. The ripple effect was particularly evident in Asia: SoftBank, a key investor in OpenAI, plummeted by more than 12% , the Nikkei 225 lost 4.15% , and South Korea’s Kospi plunged by 5.81% .

JPMorgan warns outright that the IPO delay “could slow the pace of spending on AI infrastructure.” On the other hand, however, postponing the launch date will keep market expectations alive, which, paradoxically, could have a positive effect on market returns given the narrative being built and the promises of increasingly advanced AI development.

The main risk factor on the geopolitical front, however, is the U.S.-Iran situation. Trump reported on Truth Social that Iran had launched at least four kamikaze drones at ships in the Strait of Hormuz. One struck the deck of a large container ship—the vessel sustained damage but continued its voyage. The other three drones were shot down. Trump called the incident a “stupid violation of the ceasefire agreement.” The Strait of Hormuz is a key route for about 20% of global oil supplies—any escalation in this region immediately catches the attention of commodity markets.

At the same time, Fed’s Kashkari spoke out on inflation—according to him, the labor market is not currently a source of inflation. Price pressures are being driven by the supply side, and one of the factors he mentioned is… the expansion of AI infrastructure. Kashkari of the Fed said that the development of artificial intelligence likely means the Fed will have to raise interest rates.

Source: xStation