A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap: 1. Crypto markets saw their seventh-largest liquidation event on record, with $3.5B in leveraged positions wiped out over 24 hours. Despite the forced liquidations, the total crypto market cap added roughly $280B in the same period as $BTC Bitcoin crossed $72K and $ETH Ethereum moved above $2,300. The rally came alongside renewed optimism around the CLARITY Act and broader tokenization legislation. 2. Treasury Secretary Bessent said the U.S. Treasury will assess bond market conditions and take further action if needed, while focusing on fundamentals and keeping the market in equilibrium. He said U.S. yields do not reflect underlying fundamentals and that liquidity in the 30-year is “particularly poor,” while also arguing that rates had “nothing to do” with the buyback decision. Bessent reiterated that the U.S. continues to have a strong dollar policy, said 2026 tariff income should be similar to 2025, and added there is a “very good chance” the U.S. has already seen peak deficit. On Iran, he said the U.S. is pursuing “maximum pressure,” with coordinated economic isolation and action against countries doing business with Tehran, while adding that China and others want the Strait of Hormuz reopened. 3. Anthropic is reportedly adding Citigroup to its IPO bank lineup, joining Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan among the lead banks working on the listing. The company is considering filing as soon as the end of August, with more banks expected to join the deal. Anthropic is expected to debut ahead of OpenAI and is also expanding a pre-IPO credit facility beyond its roughly $10B target. If Anthropic tries to raise more than SpaceX, it could become the largest IPO ever, underscoring how intense investor demand has become for frontier AI companies. 4. Deutsche Bank reiterated its Buy rating and $200 price target on Palantir $PLTR, saying the company continues to stand out in turning AI demand into measurable customer value while combining strong growth with profitability. The firm said Palantir’s Bootcamp reinforced its view that Ontology, AIP, and sovereign AI capabilities create durable differentiation as enterprises move AI into production. Deutsche Bank highlighted AIP Evolve as a key product for optimizing AI workflows across quality, cost, latency, and control, with the ability to test frontier, open-weight, and proprietary models, reroute workloads, rewrite prompts, or replace unnecessary model calls with deterministic code. The firm said this creates “model liquidity,” while AutoTune helps customers fine-tune models using governed workflow feedback, keeping proprietary knowledge inside their own environment and addressing major barriers to scaled enterprise AI. 5. Amazon $AMZN plans to invest more than $2B across Latin America from 2027–2030 through Prime Video, focused on original content and live sports. The company expects to more than double its Originals across 5 major markets, while also expanding NBA coverage and third-party streaming access. The push shows Amazon continuing to use Prime Video as both a content platform and a broader ecosystem driver across international markets. 6. Supermicro $SMCI said an independent investigation found no evidence that current senior management knew about the alleged export-diversion scheme involving two former employees and a contractor. The review also found no direct sales of restricted products to known restricted parties and no related issues with previously issued financial statements. Supermicro said it has terminated employees for policy violations, added new export-compliance measures, and continues to cooperate with government investigations. 7. Walmart $WMT fell 8% and posted its worst day since May 2022 after reporting its slowest U.S. comparable-sales growth in more than 6 years. Q2’27 revenue came in at $187.9B versus $186.7B expected, up 5.9% YoY, while adjusted EPS was $0.81 versus $0.74 expected. Net income reached $6.5B, above estimates of $5.91B, and global eCommerce sales grew 23%. But U.S. comps rose just 2.6%, missing the 3.7% estimate, while Q3 adjusted EPS guidance of $0.62–$0.64 came in below the $0.68 expected. Management said consumers remained stretched, especially by higher gas prices, while lower pharmacy pricing also weighed on sales. 8. SpaceX $SPCX and AST SpaceMobile $ASTS are reportedly interested in acquiring 800 MHz spectrum licenses valued around $6B. The licenses cover nearly the entire U.S. population and could support direct-to-device satellite voice services. Preliminary bids are due in early September, with the FCC aiming to complete the process by November 5. 9. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVDA with 2.1M contracts, $TSLA with 1.7M contracts, $SPCX with 1.1M contracts, $AAPL with 1.0M contracts, $MSTR with 746K contracts, $INTC with 739K contracts, $MU with 679K contracts, $MRNA with 629K contracts, $WMT with 627K contracts, and $AMZN with 614K contracts. 10. The median value of U.S. consumers’ stock market investments has climbed to a record $350K, including holdings in individual stocks, mutual funds, 401(k)s, and IRAs, as per Schwab. That figure has more than doubled over the last two years and is up $150K, or 75%, since January alone. Before 2024, the median value had never meaningfully surpassed $150K. 11. Micron $MU is committing $10B over the next decade to build Micron Research Labs, a new long-term U.S. research hub based in Boise focused on advanced memory, compute architectures, chip packaging, and next-generation semiconductor manufacturing. The company expects to break ground in 2027, with the flagship facility designed to house hundreds of researchers. The investment is separate from the more than $250B Micron has already planned for U.S. manufacturing and R&D. 12. Broadcom $AVGO is reportedly seeking more than $60B in financing tied to its latest AI deal, with the full package potentially reaching nearly $100B. The structure could include $60B–$70B of senior secured debt plus roughly $30B of junior debt, while Broadcom is also discussing guaranteeing part of the senior-secured tranche. Apollo and Blackstone are in talks to participate, with the debt potentially issued through a special-purpose vehicle. The financing would help Anthropic and other AI companies secure Broadcom chips and infrastructure, and could be rolled out in stages rather than all at once. WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
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