Preview of US Stock Market | All three major stock index futures fell together. Meta Muse sparks "AI disruption trade." Anthropic plans to lease computing power directly to break away from reliance on cloud providers.

Pre-market Market Movements 1. On Wednesday, September 23, before the U.S. stock market opened, all three major U.S. stock index futures fell together. As of press time, Dow futures were down 0.16%, S&P 500 index futures were down 0.05%, and Nasdaq futures were down 0.24%. 2. As of press time, Germany's DAX index was down 0.75%, the UK's FTSE 100 index was down 0.08%, France's CAC 40 index was down 0.26%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 index was down 0.41%. 3. As of press time, WTI crude oil was up 0.20% at $90.70 per barrel. Brent crude oil was up 1.02% at $100.26 per barrel. Market News Anthropic strengthens control over computing power, seeks to reduce reliance on cloud service providers. Anthropic plans to lease up to 1 gigawatt of computing capacity from a data center developer majority-owned by Apollo Global Management Inc (APO.US), and is currently in early-stage talks. This is one of the major efforts by the AI company to reduce its dependence on cloud service providers. According to people familiar with the matter, Anthropic has discussed entering facilities developed by Stream Data Centers as a direct tenant and deploying TPUs designed by Broadcom Inc. (AVGO.US) and Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) there. Anthropic is in talks with Stream Data Centers to lease a data center with up to 1 gigawatt of computing power. Anthropic is seeking direct control over computing resources, which could reduce costs. Anthropic has also discussed the possibility of Alphabet Inc. Class C providing a credit guarantee for the project. It is not yet clear which part of the project Alphabet Inc. Class C would guarantee. SoftBank launches massive junk bond issuance to finance AI buildout. SoftBank has launched a deal set to become one of the largest corporate junk bond issuances in history, as the Japanese conglomerate turns to debt investors to fund large-scale investments in artificial intelligence. As one of the world's largest AI investors, SoftBank has begun marketing the multi-part deal, with initial price guidance for the dollar portion underway. The group aims to raise more than $11 billion through the issuance, including a $10 billion dollar-denominated bond portion and a 1 billion euro (about $1.1 billion) euro-denominated bond portion. The issuance is the latest in a series of moves by SoftBank in the bond market this year, aimed at helping fund its nearly $65 billion commitment to OpenAI and finance more M&A in the sector. U.S. crypto regulation races to fill the vacuum: CLARITY Act stalls in the Senate, SEC and CFTC quickly step in. Just two days after the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) expanded its crypto regulatory rulebook under existing authority. The agency issued an order creating a temporary pathway for certain tokenized stock trading, bringing financial markets one step closer to round-the-clock trading. On the same day, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) submitted a crypto rulemaking proposal to the White House for review. Details of the proposal were not made public, but a notice from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed that the rules remain under review. Iran says it contacted the U.S. through Qatari mediators, setting conditions including ending the war, stopping aggression, lifting the blockade, and unfreezing assets. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei said Iran made contact with the United States in New York through Qatari mediators. Baghaei said Iran conveyed conditions to the U.S. side, including ending the war on all fronts and stopping what Tehran calls U.S. "acts of aggression." He also said Iran's conditions include ending the maritime blockade and economic war, as well as unfreezing Iranian assets. U.S. diesel export ban imminent? Trump expresses support, saying he will make a decision "soon"! As diesel prices surge to record highs, recent rumors that the U.S. government is considering a diesel export ban continue to intensify. In response, U.S. President Trump said on Tuesday that he supports banning diesel exports. Trump also said he has internally called for a diesel export ban and said he will decide "soon" whether to implement the ban. U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent subsequently said the government is evaluating the feasibility of a diesel export ban based on overall U.S. refining capacity, and is studying whether a full ban or a partial ban would be more workable. OECD: AI boom expected to temporarily offset the impact of Middle East energy shocks. In its interim economic outlook report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) pointed out that global economic growth is expected to slow to 2.9% in 2026, but slightly better than the 2.8% forecast in June. Looking ahead to 2027, commodity price shocks triggered by Middle East conflicts are expected to drag on growth momentum, and the OECD forecasts global economic growth of only 3.0%, below its June forecast of 3.1%. The OECD said strong AI infrastructure spending this year, from data centers to semiconductors, has become an important pillar supporting economic resilience, driving U.S. economic growth and boosting technology product exports from Japan and South Korea. However, the OECD warned that the global outlook is especially affected by factors such as energy market volatility, extreme weather triggered by a strong El Nino phenomenon, surging government bond yields, and disappointing returns on AI investment. If these risks materialize, they could reduce global economic growth by 0.7 percentage points next year and raise global inflation by 1.1 percentage points. Individual Stock News Agents "reshape" the services sector! Muse reignites "panic," financial stocks hit by collateral damage. On Tuesday, the U.S. financial sector fell about 2% in a single day. JPMorgan Chase (JPM.US), Wells Fargo & Company (WFC.US), Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.US), and other institutions all posted their biggest declines in months. Insurer Allstate Corporation (ALL.US) and travel booking platform Booking Holdings (BKNG.US) were also not spared. Analysts pointed out that AI agents can automatically complete price comparisons and bill management, directly undermining business models that rely on "consumer inertia." Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) plans to offer Copilot enterprise discounts of up to 50%, while launching an AI "super app." According to people familiar with the matter, Microsoft Corporation executives told sales staff this week that enterprise customers committing to buy large numbers of seats and paying extra based on usage of certain features will be authorized to receive larger discounts of 30% to 50% on subscriptions to its Copilot AI software. The discounts are expected to begin as early as October, in sync with Microsoft Corporation's plan to launch a revamped Copilot super app. According to the people familiar with the matter, the new version of Copilot is expected to launch this week and will integrate features such as AI coding tools and OpenClaw-style AI agent capabilities into a single app. Some features of the app will be charged extra based on subscriber usage. "The Big Short" investor adds to Micron (MU.US) short position, warning that a cycle reversal will trigger "violent selling." Michael Burry, who became famous for shorting the U.S. subprime mortgage market in 2008, disclosed his latest trading moves, further increasing short positions in Micron Technology, Inc., Dutch AI infrastructure supplier Nebius Group (NBIS.US), semiconductor ETF-iShares (SOXX.US), and Palantir Technologies (PLTR.US), and said the short positions established this time are "not small." Burry expressed clear doubts about the valuations of memory chip makers. He described their share prices as having "risen to absurd levels relative to themselves," and predicted that once the cycle reverses, the relevant stocks will face "violent selling." About a month after launch, SpaceX's (SPCX.US) AI agent Grok Bot surpasses 400,000 weekly users. Grok Bot, an AI agent product launched by SpaceX's AI division SpaceXAI, surpassed 400,000 weekly users about a month after launch, indicating relatively modest early demand for the product, which is key to Elon Musk's company realizing its AI ambitions. According to a presentation shown at an event in London and attendees, as of September 14, Grok Bot had 418,000 weekly users, up 24% from the previous week. The product's latest user data is not yet available. The agent product is different from SpaceXAI's flagship chatbot Siasun Robot&AutomationGrok. NVIDIA Corporation and SpaceX successively show executive share-selling signals. According to a latest Form 4 filing submitted on Tuesday, NVIDIA Corporation director Mark Stevens sold another 1.4 million shares in a transaction on September 18, worth about $300 million, continuing the trend of large-scale selling by insiders at the chip giant. Before this latest reduction, Stevens had already sold about $640 million worth of NVIDIA Corporation stock earlier this month. On the SpaceX side, the latest regulatory filing shows that company President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell filed to sell nearly $52 million worth of stock; another disclosure showed that an investment account held in the name of U.S. President Donald Trump bought and sold the company's shares in July. Qualcomm (QCOM.US) releases Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR 2nm process, targeting Apple Inc.'s A20 Pro and focusing on "on-device agents." Qualcomm released its latest chipset for Android phones, which will be tuned for on-device artificial intelligence and will compete with the A20 Pro in Apple Inc.'s (AAPL.US) iPhone. Qualcomm said in a press release on Tuesday that the new chip, branded "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6," will be manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's 2-nanometer process and will be adopted by flagship smartphones from companies such as Motorola, Xiaomi, and ZTE. Qualcomm launched two versions this time, one of which has additional capabilities and carries the "Extreme" brand. Novo Nordisk A/S Sponsored ADR Class B (NVO.US) considers entering the hair loss market, seeking new growth points under its "post-Wegovy" strategy. Novo Nordisk A/S Sponsored ADR Class B is setting its sights on the hair loss market the Ozempic maker is seeking diversification as part of its "post-Wegovy" growth strategy. "We can leverage our scientific knowledge to potentially enter this area," said Martin Lange, chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk A/S Sponsored ADR Class B, adding that "this is not necessarily the first direction we would pursue, but it would be a clear possibility." Important Economic Data and Event Preview Beijing time 21:45: Preliminary U.S. S&P Global Manufacturing PMI for September. Beijing time 22:05: Federal Reserve Governor Barr speaks on the theme of "housing." Beijing time 22:30: U.S. EIA crude oil inventory change for the week ending September 18.