The market has been quite active lately, with several major moves happening in the AI space alone. Last week, Anthropic announced a partnership with Intapp to launch enterprise-grade AI agents, and it also developed a range of plugins with partners such as FactSet—deeply integrating AI tools into areas like investment banking, accounting, and law. After the news broke, the software sector overall rebounded, suggesting that the market’s concerns about AI disrupting industries have eased somewhat.

Meta also wasn’t idle. It signed a massive agreement with Super Micro Semiconductor to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD computing chips—equivalent to a multi-year order worth $60 billion. The deal also includes an equity subscription provision: Meta can buy up to 160 million shares of AMD stock at a price of $0.01 per share, representing about 10% of the company’s equity. On the day of the announcement, AMD’s stock price rose 8.77%, indicating that the market still has high confidence in this collaboration.

On the U.S. stock market front, there was a broad rebound. The Dow Jones rose 0.76%, the S&P 500 gained 0.77%, and the Nasdaq surged 1.04%. The VIX fell by nearly 7%, and consumer confidence came in above expectations at 91.2, versus the expected 87.1. In crypto, Bitcoin is currently around $77.65K, and Ethereum is at $2.32K, with things still relatively steady overall.

One particularly interesting development concerns the payments industry. Stripe, according to reports, is considering either a full acquisition of PayPal or a partial buy-in. After the news broke, PayPal’s stock jumped 6.7% to $47.02. It’s worth noting that PayPal has had a tough time in recent years: compared with its July 2021 high of $308.53, its stock price is down more than 85%. Now it faces intense competition from emerging payments players like Stripe. If Stripe really makes a move, it could bring new changes for PayPal users—especially in withdrawal and payment experiences.

Another point worth watching is the short-selling firm Xiangfeng Capital’s surprise move against SanDisk, establishing a short position. Xiangfeng Capital believes the market is pricing NAND storage manufacturers as long-term AI assets with a “moat” valuation, but there is a clear mismatch here. They argue that NAND, in essence, remains a commodity industry that is highly dependent on supply, and historically it has hit peaks multiple times during periods of high gross margins. Once a leading player like Samsung restores capacity and improves yields, the so-called “tightness” could disappear quickly.

On the macro front, recent comments from officials at the Federal Reserve are also worth noting. Cook said that AI has already triggered a generational shift in the labor market, which may raise unemployment in the short term, and that the AI investment boom could push neutral interest rates higher in the near term. Goolsbee said it’s too early to bet that betting on productivity improvements will lower inflation now; only when inflation genuinely declines would it be appropriate to cut rates. Bank of England Governor Bailey also said that the March rate-cut decision remains undecided.

From the commodities market perspective, gold ended a four-day rally, falling 1.59% to $5,142.4 per ounce. However, Citi still remains bullish on copper, expecting it to rise to $14,000 per ton over the next three months. The rationale is that dip-buying in both physical and financial markets should stay strong, along with the push from China’s seasonal inventory drawdowns. Overall, the market currently feels like it’s waiting for more clear signals—especially regarding the U.S.-Iran situation, the yen exchange rate, and the direction of inflation.