Finance

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller indicated he would favor leaving interest rates unchanged at the upcoming September policy meeting, provided that approaching inflation figures show signs of cooling. Following his statements, market probabilities for a 25-basis-point rate hike dropped to roughly 50%.

Artificial intelligence demand boosted enterprise software names, with Snowflake surging over 16% on robust full-year revenue guidance. Meanwhile, Nvidia announced a major $12.93 billion acquisition of open-source AI platform Hugging Face, further bolstering market sentiment.

The domestic international goods and services deficit expanded to $88.6 billion in July, marking a significant $17.4 billion increase from the previous month. The widened gap was driven by a drop in exports alongside a multi-billion dollar rise in imports.