US August core PCE comes in below expectations, cooling bets on a Federal Reserve October rate hike.

Micron Technology is set to release its Q4 fiscal 2026 results after U.S. stock market trading closes on Wednesday. FactSet data shows analysts expect Micron’s earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter ending in August to rise roughly 940% year-over-year. If the forecast is met, Micron could for the first time in at least two and a half years surpass NVIDIA to become the largest single contributor to S&P 500 third-quarter profit growth. FactSet projects S&P 500 third-quarter profit growth of 29.1% year-over-year; excluding Micron, that figure would drop to 24%, meaning Micron’s earnings growth alone lifted the index’s overall growth rate by roughly 5 percentage points. Rising demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other storage products from AI servers, paired with relatively limited supply expansion, has driven improvements in memory chip prices and profitability. Micron’s ranking as a contributor to S&P 500 profit growth has climbed from ninth place in last year’s third quarter to sixth in the fourth quarter, and to third in the first half of this year. Another key focus of this earnings report is the mass production progress of HBM4. Mehdi Hosseini, an analyst at Susquehanna, forecasts that mass production and shipments of NVIDIA’s Rubin platform will likely be concentrated after April 2027, meaning HBM4’s significant revenue boost for Micron will mainly materialize in 2027. He projects HBM4’s average selling price (ASP) will be over 50% higher than the current HBM3e, and sets Micron’s fiscal 2027 EPS forecast at roughly $200, above the consensus market estimate of around $165. Micron’s stock has rallied nearly 280% so far this year, with a market capitalization of about $1.2 trillion.

One of the world’s largest hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates, projects that if AI remains unregulated and society is unprepared for the technological transformation, artificial intelligence could impact nearly one-fifth of the U.S. labor market. Bridgewater CEO Nir Bar Dea stated in an interview: "We are very optimistic about the positive impacts AI brings, but we also recognize that any positive thing capable of changing the world so profoundly may also bring serious negative consequences." He added: "According to our estimates, AI could affect 18% of the U.S. workforce. Just imagine how large-scale social disorder this could trigger."

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, a crypto whale currently holds long positions in LIT and HYPE valued at $41 million, with an unrealized profit of roughly $9.25 million. The breakdown is as follows: 4.9 million LIT long positions, delivering an unrealized profit of $6.46 million and held for over 78 days; 200,000 HYPE long positions, generating an unrealized profit of $2.73 million and held for more than 418 days. The trader’s cumulative net profit totals $8.68 million.

According to a New York Times report, government officials revealed that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is ramping up efforts to conduct a comprehensive investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI, and other superintelligent AI models, to probe potential risks these technologies may pose to consumers. The agency plans to issue legally binding formal demands (similar to subpoenas) to these tech giants, ordering them to submit relevant information. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson launched the investigation prior to the "Hugging Face incident". The probe focuses on alleged violations of the FTC Act related to "unfair or deceptive acts or practices", and will require these AI companies (referred to as "SI" by former President Trump) to submit relevant documents.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, US stocks opened with semiconductor stocks mixed: Intel (INTC) rose 2.50%, NVIDIA (NVDA) gained 1.72%, Qualcomm (QCOM) increased 1.49%, Lam Research (LRCX) advanced 0.52%; Arm (ARM) dropped 1.68%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 1.36%. Storage stocks saw minor divergence: Micron Technology (MU) climbed 0.82%, SanDisk (SNDK) added 0.35%; Western Digital (WDC) declined 0.87%, SK Hynix (SKHY) edged down 0.09%. Most optical communication concept stocks fell: Corning (GLW) decreased 2.97%, Coherent (COHR) dropped 1.61%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) fell 1.33%, Ciena (CIEN) declined 0.98%. Neocloud stocks generally retreated: Hut 8 (HUT) plunged 5.86%, Cipher Digital (CIFR) dropped 2.82%, Applied Digital (APLD) fell 2.56%, TeraWulf (WULF) decreased 2.49%.

Sept 30 Update: #Bitcoin ETFs: 1D NetFlow: +628 $BTC(+$53.48M)?? 7D NetFlow: +8,716 $BTC(+$742.56M)?? #Ethereum ETFs: 1D NetFlow: -5,621 $ETH(-$15.31M)?? 7D NetFlow: +95,515 $ETH(+$260.19M)??