Issue · Thursday, 15 October 2026
Hot CPI hits AI stocks; ETH slides 6%
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TL;DR
- A hotter-than-expected US inflation report reignited rate-hike fears. The Nasdaq fell 1.88%, its biggest one-day drop since July 23.
- AI infrastructure got hit hardest: CoreWeave sank 15% as its bonds sold off.
- Crypto followed: ETH fell about 6% and nearly $483M in BTC/ETH futures were liquidated.
📊 Indices (close, Wed 14 Oct)
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,718.94 | −86.51 (−1.11%), biggest drop since July 29 |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,692.87 | −511.51 (−1.88%) |
| Dow Jones | 51,621.48 | −48.62 (−0.09%) |
| Russell 2000 | Down more than 2% | Now in correction (more than 10% below its record) |
Also: the 10-year Treasury yield ended at 5.189% (down 2.7 basis points after spiking on the CPI print), the dollar index hit a 1-year+ high, gold fell 1.64% to $4,084.80, and Brent rose 0.4% to $106.06 as Middle East tensions simmered.
🪙 Crypto (Thu morning)
- Bitcoin: about $81,000–81,500, down roughly 3% in 24h.
- Ether: about $2,356, down roughly 6.4%. ETH took about $286M of the $483M in BTC/ETH futures liquidations (CoinGlass via CoinDesk).
- SOL and XRP fell about 5% and DOGE about 6%, as Fed uncertainty hit risk appetite.
🚀 Movers
- Bending Spoons (BSP) +41.2% to $53.46. Berkshire Hathaway is investing another $330M (10M shares at $33), lifting its stake to about 4%. The company owns Airtable, AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo.
- Liquidia (LQDA) +26.6% to $33.94. It settled all patent litigation with United Therapeutics and keeps selling Yutrepia. BofA raised its target to $42.
- CoreWeave (CRWV) −15.5% to $65.78. Its unsecured 2032 bonds traded below 80 cents on the dollar (Bloomberg). Neocloud and AI build-out peers also slid: Nebius about −9%, DigitalOcean −14.8%.
- Bank of America (BAC) −4.8% to $51.39. Q3 profit fell 17% to $0.91/share, including a $1.2B Treasury penalty over money-laundering violations ($1.08 excluding it).
- GameStop (GME) +2% or more. CEO Ryan Cohen disclosed buying 844,000 shares.
🤖 AI/Tech story: rates vs. the AI trade
Wednesday showed how sensitive the AI build-out is to borrowing costs. Oracle, CoreWeave and other capital-hungry AI names led the decline, NVIDIA fell 3.2% to $221.30, and chip stocks dropped broadly. One exception: GlobalFoundries rose 4.8% after it was picked to run two new New York fabs backed by up to $21B of Japanese financing. Closer to home, ASML's U.S. shares slipped less than 1% after Q3 sales of €11.66B came in just below the €11.72B consensus, while net profit beat expectations.
👀 What to watch today (times CEST)
- 14:30: US September PPI (consensus +0.5% m/m), retail sales (consensus +0.3%), jobless claims (about 197–200K), and the Empire State and Philly Fed surveys. After yesterday's CPI, a hot PPI print would add to rate-hike bets.
- Before the US open: TSMC (an AI demand bellwether), Charles Schwab, Prologis, BNY, U.S. Bancorp, PNC, Marsh, Ericsson, Wipro.
- After the close: Interactive Brokers, J.B. Hunt, Alcoa.
- Late tonight: Fed Chair Kevin Warsh speaks at a fireside chat at the IMF Annual Meeting.
Sources: MarketWatch ("U.S. Stocks Fall On Hot Inflation Report, AI Sell-Off"); Reuters via Investing.com (14 Oct); Exa market data pages (SPX/DJI/IXIC 14 Oct); CoinDesk, "Nearly $1 billion in crypto bets liquidated…" (15 Oct); Yahoo Finance BTC-USD/ETH-USD history; CNBC, "Stocks making the biggest moves midday: CRWV, BSP, DELL, HPE, BAC" (14 Oct); Morningstar Movers; Business Upturn Top Movers (14 Oct); theclosingprint.net Market Movers (14 Oct); Trading Economics US calendar; SquawkNews "What to Watch in the Day Ahead" (15 Oct); Earnings Whispers calendar 15 Oct 2026.
For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Do your own research.
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