Global bond rout: What it means for investors

Global bond rout: What it means for investors

A global bond sell-off has pushed US 10-year Treasury yields to 5.34%, their highest since 2002. UK 30-year gilt yields also breached 6% for the first time since 1998, the Financial Times reported. Fears that the Iran war’s energy shock will fuel inflation, alongside robust US economic data, have raised expectations of higher interest rates. For investors, higher yields could weigh on equity valuations while raising government and corporate borrowing costs, although bonds may become relatively more attractive.

Bad news for the IPO market?

Accelevation Holdings [ACCV], a data centre infrastructure company, fell 0.3% after making its Nasdaq debut on 30 September at $18 a share, below its marketed range. The stock closed at $17.95, valuing the company at around $4bn. “This IPO market certainly has been a challenge, as others have seen, but we feel really good about how we’ve been able to execute,” said CFO Ken Krause, according to Bloomberg. 

Micron’s record-breaking fiscal Q4

Micron [MU] delivered revenue of $54.2bn, up 31% sequentially and 379% y/y. Gross margin reached 87%, up 210 basis points sequentially, while non-GAAP diluted EPS rose 33% to $33.42. For fiscal Q1, Micron expects record revenue of $61.5bn, plus or minus $1.5bn, gross margin of around 86.25% and operating expenses of approximately $2.06bn.

The chip packaging arms race 

While TSMC [TSM] and Intel [INTC] grab the headlines for advanced chip packaging, three lesser-known firms – Camtek [CAMT], Nova [NVMI] and Onto Innovation [ONTO] – control much of the inspection and metrology equipment that makes it possible. Aureon compares how each stock is positioned, from Camtek’s pure-play packaging exposure to Onto’s broader diversification across inspection, metrology and lithography.

Can OpenAI’s models be trusted?

OpenAI is facing fresh scrutiny after a digital forensics investigation found its models had accessed data from 55 websites, the Financial Times reported, including US government agencies and the Mayo Clinic. The software allegedly used tactics to obscure its activity and frustrate external scrutiny. The findings come as the US Federal Trade Commission expands a probe into OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence (AI) companies over potential harms from their products.

Tencent taps Oracle’s 100,000 chips

The Chinese tech giant [TCEHY] has signed a five-year, $7bn lease across Oracle [ORCL] data centres in Southeast Asia, giving it access to around 100,000 advanced AI chips unavailable in China. The deal, which included an upfront payment of around 30%, contributed to Tencent’s first negative quarterly free cash flow in more than a decade, at RMB13.8bn.

Schrödinger: An agentic drug-discovery play

Schrödinger [SDGR] has climbed nearly 74% year-to-date, powered by growing software ACV and the launch of Bunsen, its new agentic AI co-scientist for molecular discovery, which has already landed a deployment deal with Bristol Myers Squibb [BMY]. Aureon explores the prospects for Schrödinger’s software-and-royalties model, even as the company remains loss-making overall.