Finance

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index revealed that underlying inflation in the United States remains stubborn, holding at 3.7% annually and coming in slightly ahead of economists' forecasts. The hotter-than-expected data has amplified debate inside the Federal Reserve regarding the necessity of further interest rate hikes later this year, keeping equity markets flat ahead of the upcoming central bank economic symposium.

Bitcoin recently surged past the $80,000 threshold for the second time this week, driving a sharp recovery throughout the broader cryptocurrency market. Digital assets continue to benefit from an expansion of the U.S. Treasury's long-term debt repurchase program, which injected liquidity into financial networks and decreased long-term bond yields.

CrowdStrike shares experienced a sharp increase after the enterprise security provider reported record net new annual recurring revenue of $333 million in the second quarter. Corporate leadership attributed the strong demand to accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence tools, which is driving a widespread market realization that enterprise AI deployments require concurrent enhancements to network security.