Stock Indexes Slip After S&P 500, Nasdaq Reach New Highs; Gold Hits Record $4,000

What Is the ‘Debasement Trade’ and Why Should You Be Paying Attention to It?

6 minutes ago

Fear of impending catastrophe is putting the shine on gold and things like it.

Investors have been piling into what is sometimes called the “debasement trade,” plowing into assets viewed as hedges against what they worry about most—including persistently high government debt and central bank independence—and panning what was once considered the safest place to park: the U.S. dollar.

That’s helped push gold, as well as digital gold—also known as bitcoin (BTCUSD)—to all-time highs. The price of the precious metal surpassed $4,000 per troy ounce on Tuesday, while the world’s largest digital currency topped $126,000 on Monday. The SPDR Gold ETF (GLD) and, to a lesser degree, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) have been climbing all year; the U.S. dollar index (DXY) has been in decline over the same period.

Investors are hedging their bets against dollar dominance in a “really concerning” development, pushing up the price of gold and crypto assets, according to Citadel’s Ken Griffin. “We’re seeing substantial asset inflation away from the dollar as people are looking for ways to effectively de-dollarize or de-risk their portfolios vis-a-vis U.S. sovereign risk,” he recently told Bloomberg.

JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou in a report last week observed year-to-date net inflows into gold ETFs and mutual funds that were much larger than to those for gold mining and refining companies. That suggests to Panigirtzoglou that retail investors, in particular, were leaning into the debasement trade “as a hedge against a catastrophic scenario,” because investing in gold miners would be less effective as one.

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

White House May Withhold Back Pay from 750,000 Furloughed Federal Workers, Report Says

18 minutes ago

President Donald Trump is raising the stakes of the ongoing government shutdown by threatening to withhold back pay from 750,000 federal workers currently on furlough.

That’s according to a legal analysis drafted by White House, first reported by Axios and confirmed by several other publications. The memo says the law does not require the government to pay employees who worked without pay or were furloughed during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1. It contradicts the White House’s Office of Personnel Management guidance on the issue from September, which said employees would receive back pay as they have in the past.

Democrats were quick to dispute the memo’s conclusions, arguing that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, passed in the wake of another government shutdown, requires workers to be paid retroactively. The memo contends the law requires Congress to approve any back pay when the shutdown ends.

“Federal employees are guaranteed back pay at the end of any shutdown by law,” Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, posted on social media. “This is not in question.”

Should Trump follow through with the threat, and it withstands legal scrutiny, it would deepen the financial strain for federal workers who are going without paychecks during the shutdown. It could also worsen the economic consequences.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Here’s How Much of Your Portfolio Ray Dalio Says You Should Have in Gold

44 minutes ago

Gold keeps rising. Some big-name investors say you should keep leaning in.

The latest is Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, who at an event on Tuesday said investors should allocate about 15% of their portfolio to the precious metal, citing its use as a source of downside protection. Gold futures recently traded at around $4,000 per troy ounce, reflecting a roughly 50% rise this year that has also lifted other metals.

“Gold is a very excellent diversifier in the portfolio,” Dalio said, according to a CNBC report. “If you look at it just from a strategic asset allocation perspective, you would probably have something like 15% of your portfolio in gold.”

Gold, he said, “is one asset that does very well when the typical parts of the portfolio go down.” He had in September suggested an allocation of 10% to 15%, saying he preferred gold to Treasurys as a safe-haven asset.

Read the full article here.

–David Marino-Nachison

Another Obscure Mining Stock Soars as Trump Administration Takes Stake

1 hr 10 min ago

Shares of Trilogy Metals (TMQ) skyrocketed on Tuesday after the Trump administration announced it would take a stake in the Canadian mining company, the latest in a string of government investments in industries deemed critical for national security. 

The White House on Monday afternoon said it was investing $35.6 million in Trilogy Metals “to support mining exploration in Alaska’s Ambler Mining District.” The investment will give the federal government a 10% stake in the Vancouver-based miner.

President Donald Trump also ordered federal regulators to move forward with permitting the construction of a 211-mile road to the Ambler Mining District to “enable access to large deposits of copper, cobalt, gallium, germanium, and more.”

Trilogy is one of several mining companies in which the federal government has taken a stake this year in an effort to shore up domestic supply of strategically significant resources. The White House last week said it would restructure an existing deal with Lithium Americas (LAC) to take a 5% stake in the company and a lithium mine it’s developing in Nevada. In July, the Department of Defense struck a deal to become the largest shareholder of rare earths miner MP Materials (MP).

Shares of Trilogy Metals jumped as much as 280% in early trading on Tuesday and were recently up 220%.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

NYSE Owner ICE Commits Up to $2B Investment in Betting Platform Polymarket

1 hr 33 min ago

New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said it is investing up to $2 billion in cash in Polymarket, in a deal valuing the crypto-based prediction marketplace at around $8 billion.

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan called the partnership a move that “marks a major step in bringing prediction markets into the financial mainstream.”

ICE said it would also distribute Polymarket’s event-driven data, “providing customers with sentiment indicators on topics of market relevance,” and will partner with the prediction market on tokenization initiatives.

“Our investment blends ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, which was founded in 1792, with a forward-thinking, revolutionary company pioneering change within the Decentralized Finance space,” ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said.

Read the full article here.

–Nisha Gopalan

Dell Says It Sees ‘Massive’ Growth Opportunity From AI

1 hr 57 min ago

Dell Technologies wants you to know it’s an artificial intelligence winner.

The maker of a wide range products from AI servers to PCs said Tuesday it sees a “massive” opportunity ahead from AI, and raised its long-term outlook, pointing to growth driven by the emerging tech.

Dell (DELL) projected its annual revenue could rise 7% to 9%, up from its prior outlook of 3% to 4%, and earnings-per-share growth of 15% or better, nearly double its previous forecast of 8% or more.

“Customers are hungry for AI and the compute, storage and networking we provide to deploy intelligence at scale. We’re successfully translating that demand into growth and strong cash flow that we’ve largely returned to shareholders,” CEO Michael Dell said in a release.

The company also committed to dividend growth of 10% or more annually through fiscal 2030, two years later than its prior commitment.

Shares of Dell jumped more than 6% to around $155 Tuesday following the news, before giving back those early gains and slipping into negative territory.

Read the full article here.

All-Cash Buyers Dominate the Housing Market

2 hr 36 min ago

There’s one way to beat the sky high mortgage rates: Pay in cash. 

A new report shows that’s what an outsize share of buyers are doing, extending a pandemic-era trend that’s contributed to the affordability crisis that has stalled the housing market. 

All-cash transactions made up nearly a third of home sales in the first half of 2025, a Realtor.com report found. While down slightly from last year, all-cash purchases are still well above pre-pandemic levels that made up 28.6% of transactions. 

The trend presents another challenge for buyers in an increasingly unaffordable housing market, especially first-time homebuyers. Pressured by mortgage rates that hovered above 6.5% over the first half of the year, buyers also encountered limited housing inventory that kept prices elevated. As a result, all-cash buyers are often winning bidding wars for houses, a problem that was particularly pervasive during the pandemic. 

“High-wealth buyers, investors, and those with significant equity can move quickly and often win out in competitive situations,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “For traditional, mortgage-reliant buyers, this can add another hurdle in an already challenging affordability environment.”

Read the full article here.

–Terry Lane

Watch These AMD Price Levels as Stock Continues Surging on OpenAI Deal

3 hr 17 min ago

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares rose Tuesday after soaring yesterday to a 19-month high on news that the chip designer and ChatGPT maker OpenAI have inked a multi-year supply deal.

Under the agreement, OpenAI is committing to buying several generations of AI chips from AMD in a long-term deal that could see it take a 10% stake in the Nvidia (NVDA) rival. AMD said it anticipates the ripple effect of the deal to net it more than $100 billion in new revenue over four years from OpenAI and other customers.

AMD shares, which jumped 24% on Monday, were up more than 5% at around $215 in recent trading, putting the stock on pace for a record closing high. The stock is up 77% since the start of the year, handily outpacing Nvidia’s 40% return over the same period. 

AMD shares staged a dramatic breakout from an inverse head and shoulders pattern on Monday, laying the groundwork for follow-through buying.

While the surge coincided with the relative strength index crossing into overbought territory, the indicator remains below peaks that preceded drawdowns in November 2021 and March 2024. However, the stock closed near its low for the day yesterday, indicating a short-term over-extension.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

Ford Leads Dow Decliners on Report of Fire at Major Aluminum Supplier

3 hr 40 min ago

A fire at a Novelis aluminum plant in upstate New York is dinging Ford Motor (F) shares Tuesday.

Ford stock fell more than 7% to pace S&P 500 decliners on a report by The Wall Street Journal that the fire “is going to disrupt business at Ford Motor and other automakers for months to come.”

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal added that the “setback is severe enough that Ford will likely flag potential implications to investors when it discloses quarterly financial results later this month.”

Despite today’s sharp declines, Ford shares are up about 20% year-to-date.

Some Low-Income New Yorkers Are Receiving $12,000 in Crypto as Part of a New Program—Here’s Why

4 hours ago

Select New Yorkers are set to receive $12,000 worth of cryptocurrency payments thanks to a collaboration between GiveDirectly—a nonprofit focused on alleviating poverty by giving cash directly to people—and Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange.

According to a recent Bloomberg report, this pilot program provides 160 low-income New Yorkers with $12,000 worth of USDC, a type of stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, and will be paid out in one lump-sum of $8,000 and five smaller payments of $800 each.

USDC is issued by Circle, a payments technology company. USDC is considered far less volatile than cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin because it’s intended to closely track the price of the U.S. dollar.

Recipients will have a few options for how they can choose to spend or hold on to their money. They can either leave it in their Coinbase account, transfer it to a traditional bank account (instant transfers have a 1.75% fee), use a Coinbase debit card or withdraw it from an ATM as cash.

Read the full article here.

–Trina Paul

Dell Stock Pops on Lifted Long-Term Revenue, Profit Forecasts

4 hr 59 min ago

Dell Technologies (DELL) shares surged 6% after it lifted its long-term annual revenue and adjusted earnings per share forecasts.

Dell now sees annual revenue growth of 7% to 9%, up from its prior outlook of 3% to 4%, and annual non-GAAP EPS growth of 15% or better, up from 8% or better.

The company also committed to dividend growth of 10% or more annual through fiscal 2030, two years later than its prior commitment.

Shares of Dell entered the day up 26% this year.

Constellation Brands Executives Warn of Hispanic Customers’ ‘Ongoing Elevated Concern’

5 hr 59 min ago

Constellation Brands (STZ) stock was up more than 3% in premarket trading after the beer maker reported smaller-than-expected quarterly sales declines, but the Modelo parent lowered its full-year profit outlook amid “ongoing elevated concern” by its Hispanic customer base.

The company lowered its fiscal 2026 GAAP profit forecast to $9.86 to $10.16 per share from the prior range of $10.77 to $11.07 given in early September. Last quarter, it had guided for $12.07 to $12.37.

In commentary accompanying the results after the bell Monday, executives said that “over 80% of surveyed Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers continued to express concerns about the socioeconomic environment in the U.S., and more than 70% are specifically concerned about their personal finances.”

The executives added that “these concerns continue to impact social occasions and shopping behaviors with respondents placing gatherings with friends and family in public spaces, gatherings with friends and family at homes, and shopping in convenience stores or gas stations in the top three activities they are doing less of during the quarter.”

Shares of Constellation Brands entered Tuesday down 37% this year.

Stock Futures Little Changed After S&P 500, Nasdaq Close at Records

7 hr 12 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were near flat.

S&P 500 futures were down less than 0.1%.

Nasdaq 100 futures also were fractionally lower.