Public Markets 3h Briefing

Last updated: August 13, 2026, 11:40 AM ET

Fixed Income

Bond investors are pressing the Fed to tighten further, according to a Wall Street Journal opinion, even as traders bloomberg.com have stopped fully pricing in a rate hike this year following a retreat in oil prices that improved the inflation outlook. The divergent signals underscore ongoing uncertainty about the central bank ft.com’s next move.

Equities

Foreign investors exited Brazilian equities on Tuesday at the fastest pace since 2021, spooked by presidential election risks. Meanwhile, a novel ETF strategy bloomberg.com known as the 351 conversion is pushing tax deferral to extremes, allowing investors to swap appreciated securities without triggering capital gains, further amplifying the tax efficiency of exchange-traded funds.

Commodities

U.S. natural gas futures wsj.com slipped ahead of the EIA’s weekly storage data, as traders weighed supply-demand balances. In the energy sector, AI’s biggest impact wsj.com may come from optimizing oil and gas extraction rather than powering data centers, potentially reshaping cost structures for fossil-fuel producers.