Wall Street stepped back from record highs Tuesday as the Fed’s two-day meeting got underway. 

A quarter-point cut tomorrow is all but locked in, what isn’t is the path that follows. That’s the debate investors and traders are already gaming out.

August retail sales rose 0.6%, a stronger-than-expected showing that complicates the Fed’s job where consumer demand is still hot even as policymakers try to cool the economy. 

Bond yields hovered near 4% and the dollar slipped, while gold pushed above $3,700 an ounce, another classic move often driven by market hedging before a big policy call.

Sector moves told their own story:

Health care names like UnitedHealth and Travelers dragged on the Dow…

but energy and consumer discretionary gained ground, with Tesla leading the way. 

Volatility ticked up, the VIX climbing to its highest in more than a week… a subtle reminder that calm at the index level can mask nerves underneath.

Adding a bit of political drama to the mix, an appeals court blocked President Trump from removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook, ensuring she’ll vote on this week’s decision. 

At the same time, the Senate confirmed Trump adviser Stephen Miran to the Fed board, giving him a seat and a say tomorrow. 

The Fed’s decision was already high-stakes; now the cast around the table makes it even more so.

Oracle’s 40% AI-cloud spike proves data is still the most valuable asset on the planet after co-founder Larry Ellison surpassed Elon Musk to become the richest man in the world with his shares. 

Which means the next move might just be Mode Mobile, the company that pays people to use their phones.  Mode collects first-party data by turning screen time into income for users.  

Mode Mobile has already helped users earn and save $325M+, and achieved a staggering 32,481% revenue growth over three years.

It was named Deloitte’s #1 fastest-growing software company in North America and has raised over $52M to date. However, space in their current round is limited to just $5M. 

Their last raise at $0.30/share was oversubscribed, and they now count more than 55,000 investors. With Nasdaq ticker $MODE secured, you can still get in before the window closes.

Click here for all the details

Disclosures

Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.

The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.

In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. Mode Mobile has filed a Form C with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with its offering, a copy of which may be obtained here: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1748441/000164117225025402/ex99.pdf

U.S. tech giants are lining up billions for UK AI infrastructure, with announcements expected later this week from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia. 

Plans include new data centers and research tie-ups, giving Prime Minister Keir Starmer a chance to position Britain as a “sovereign AI” hub.

For investors, here is the signal: sovereign AI projects… where governments push for homegrown compute and talent…are no longer side plays. 

…they’re becoming central to the global race for AI dominance. 

The UK’s move mirrors similar efforts in the EU, Middle East, and Asia, suggesting the next wave of AI investment will be shaped as much by geopolitics as by pure market demand.

Investor Takeaway: Owning the pipes matters. Data centers, chip supply, and power infrastructure are the choke points that will decide who leads in AI. 

Britain is trying to secure its own lane, and investors should watch which firms win those long-term contracts.

Bloom Energy stock jumped after analysts flagged its ties to Oracle’s AI-driven cloud push.

The logic is straightforward: as Oracle wins more data-center business, Bloom’s fuel-cell tech gets pulled along for the ride. 

What started as a niche clean-energy play is being re-cast as a critical link in the AI infrastructure chain — a way to keep the servers running when demand never stops. 

For investors, that makes Bloom less a side story and more a backdoor bet on the same demand cycle fueling chipmakers and hyperscale clouds.

The upside: AI’s appetite for compute power makes reliable, scalable energy solutions more valuable. Bloom fits the bill very well. Oracle’s expanding cloud footprint, including its TikTok hosting deal, gives Bloom a direct link to some of the biggest growth stories in tech.

The risk: valuations are racing ahead of fundamentals. Bloom still faces cost and scale challenges, and if AI spending slows, its halo could dim quickly.

Callback: Just days ago we noted how OpenAI’s funding strains revealed the fragility beneath AI’s boom.Oracle’s resilience — and Bloom’s surge alongside it — shows how second-order plays in the ecosystem may prove more durable than the flagship names themselves.

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GE Aerospace is set to close at its first record high in 25 years, a milestone that would have seemed unthinkable during the company’s years of sprawling complexity and decline.

The surge is powered by two engines. 

Together, those forces have built one of the industry’s deepest backlogs.

For investors, the rally is more than a cyclical upswing. 

It’s the capstone of GE’s long restructuring, the final confirmation that the aerospace spinout isn’t just surviving on its own, it’s thriving. 

From once being the poster child of corporate bloat, GE Aerospace now stands as a standalone leader straddling both civilian and defense markets.

Builders are rolling out the deepest price cuts in five years as they work to clear inventories ahead of tomorrow’s Fed decision. 

Incentives are piling up as developers try to jumpstart sales.

From free upgrades to mortgage rate buydowns, developers are once again playing ball with buyers.

The hope is simple: a quarter-point cut tomorrow could revive demand and bring sidelined buyers back into the market.

The challenge is harder: affordability remains stretched, and construction costs haven’t eased much. That makes discounts a temporary fix rather than a cure.

Investor Takeaway: Sentiment across housing is still weak, but lower mortgage rates could flip the switch. If borrowing costs fall meaningfully this fall, housing equities may have more upside than their current mood suggests.

Netskope, the cloud security provider, made its public debut today, another strong entry in this month’s IPO revival. 

The stock’s opening pop shows investors are still hungry for growth, especially in digital defense and enterprise risk management.

The upside: cybersecurity demand only grows as AI adoption expands. Netskope’s cloud-first model puts it right in the slipstream of enterprise digital transformation.

The downside: competition is brutal, and IPO momentum fades fast if execution slips. 

Investors still remember cybersecurity names that stumbled post-debut.  Expect margins and revenue growth to be under the microscope.

Callback: We’ve been following the year’s IPO comeback, from StubHub to nuclear energy. 

Netskope adds a new angle: investors aren’t just betting on entertainment or clean energy, they’re betting on the infrastructure that protects it all.

Markets pulled back today, but the real story is what happens tomorrow. 

The Fed’s first rate cut in nine months will set the tone…

…not just for bonds and equities, but for housing demand, IPO momentum, and every sector leaning on cheap capital.

The ripple effects are already visible. 

Big Tech is pouring billions into sovereign AI projects. 

Energy names like Bloom are proving second-order winners in the infrastructure race. 

GE Aerospace has broken a 25-year ceiling, fueled by travel and defense spending. 

Homebuilders are slashing prices, hoping a cut sparks buyers back to life. 

And Netskope’s IPO shows investors still have appetite for risk if the story is compelling enough.

The signal: policy may trigger the first move, but capital is already repositioning for the cycle ahead. Tomorrow, Powell speaks. What he says will decide whether today’s hedges turn into tomorrow’s rallies.