Monday, October 6, 2025
It’s tough doing business in an environment of no compromise. We’d already seen evidence of this in difficult negotiations with some of our country’s biggest trading partners. Now we’re seeing it on Capitol Hill, with a government shutdown looking to advance into its second week. No pertinent phone calls are being made. Plenty of fingers are being pointed.
Not that the stock market is paying this any mind. Wall Street always seems to have fun when Washington DC is in gridlock. Pre-market futures are beginning to soar again to start a new trading week: the Dow +102 points, the S&P 500 +28 and the Nasdaq +236 points nearly +1% at this early stage of the session. The small-cap Russell 2000 is +17.
Thankfully, we still have a week of grace before important data is due to be released. Next week, Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures — including the all-important Inflation Rate, which was teetering on the brink of coming back to +3% last time we checked — are due to come out. If they do not, we turn to the Federal Reserve, which would then be effectively flying blind into a new monetary policy meeting at the end of this month. No jobs numbers and no inflation numbers do not an informed Fed make.
Also thankfully, voting Fed members will be on hand this week to publicly summarize their understanding of our current economy, with or without crucial data. Vice Chair Miki Bowman, Fed Governor Stephen Miran, Atlanta President Raphael Bostic, Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari, St. Louis President Alberto Musalem, Fed Governor Michael Barr, Chicago President Austan Goolsbee, San Francisco President Mary Daly and Fed Chair Jerome Powell will all be making appearances this week.
AI Investment Is Still Real
One thing we are able to count on this morning — and likely a big reason the tech-heavy Nasdaq continues to set higher and higher all-time levels — is that investment in AI is a reality. ChatGPT parent OpenAI — perhaps already the most valuable private company on the planet — is inking a multi-year deal with
Advanced Micro Devices AMD to provide chips — 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs, in particular — to the ever-growing AI services firm, with the rollout starting in 2026.
Despite questions regarding powering immense AI infrastructure (and how much it might cost every American), to say nothing of issues related to job security in light of a pending AI onslaught, Wall Street remains delighted by these events. AMD was barely break-even year-to-date until this deal; this morning, the stock is up +35%.
Fifth Third to Buy Comerica
It’s also “Merger Monday” today, as
Fifth Third Bank FITB has agreed to purchase
Comerica CMA for $10.9 billion in an all-stock deal. This merger would create a new Top 10 bank in the U.S., with close to $290 billion in assets. FITB shares are down -1% on the news, but Comerica stock is soaring +14% at this hour.
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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): Free Stock Analysis Report Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): Free Stock Analysis Report Comerica Incorporated (CMA): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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