Finance

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller indicated he would support holding interest rates steady at the upcoming September meeting, provided that August inflation data continues to show progress. Following his remarks, market expectations for a 25-basis-point interest rate increase fell to roughly 50%, prompting a widespread retreat across the Treasury yield curve.

Economic data from the Institute for Supply Management revealed that the US services economy expanded at its fastest rate in six months, with the index climbing to 55.4 in August. While new orders accelerated rapidly, the report highlighted ongoing challenges as employment indicators continued to contract and prices paid by businesses showed further acceleration.

Nvidia announced a major $12.93 billion acquisition of open-source platform Hugging Face, while Snowflake saw its stock jump 17% on AI-driven revenue gains. In contrast, Broadcom shares faced downward pressure after its forward revenue guidance failed to satisfy lofty investor expectations despite beating quarterly top and bottom-line estimates.