After a tech-led selloff last week, stocks are stabilizing in early trading. Crude oil is slightly lower, while gold and silver are modestly higher. The dollar is flat.
Rioting in France has become the latest problem to bedevil global government bond markets. French bond yields rose today, while the spread between yields on French 10-year debt and benchmark German debt climbed another eight basis points to 146 bps.
French 10-Year Yield (Red), US 10-Year Yield (Blue), German 10-Year Yield (Black)
Source: TradingView
The move follows widespread protests over inflation and government proposals to cut the nation’s onerous deficit. But the rising-rate trend isn’t unique to France, or even Europe. Yields have been rising all year in virtually every advanced economy – even as US Treasuries caught a break in the last week amid safe haven buying fueled by the AI stock rout.
Could SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTBY) be pivoting away from pure AI plays to...security? Reports suggest the Japanese tech conglomerate could buy Allied Universal for up to $18 billion. The private company offers armed and unarmed security personnel and technology in more than 100 countries worldwide. SoftBank is headed by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son. Most of its previous investments have been in the tech and AI industries.
Finally, more planned Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are facing valuation pushback from potential investors. Nscale Ltd. is a data center developer that Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and firms like Third Point and Apollo Global Management Inc. (APO) are backing. It was hoping to sell shares in the US that would value the firm around $30 billion...but investors are reportedly saying it’s only worth $16 billion to $19 billion. A handful of foreign listings have been postponed recently over similar concerns. We'll see if Nscale manages to go public - and at what price.