Public Markets 8-Hour Briefing
×Market Performance
Wall Street posted its worst month since March amid geopolitical tensions, trade concerns, and AI fears. The S&P 500 fell sharply after investors reacted to AI disruption possibilities, marking its first two-week loss since June. Treasuries had their best month in a year, while gold capped an historic February with an 11% gain, its best dollar performance ever. The dollar strengthened for its first monthly gain since October.
AI Market Impact
AI fears have driven leveraged loans to their steepest monthly decline since 2022, with JPMorgan warning that up to $150 billion in loans packaged into CLOs face AI-related disruption. Wall Street's quant investing strategies have been upended as AI reorders market dynamics. Despite concerns, OpenAI reached a $730 billion valuation after securing $110 billion in funding from Amazon, NVIDIA, and SoftBank. Anthropic faces being cut from government contracts within six months amid a Pentagon feud.
Geopolitical Tensions
Oil prices rose on increased risk of U.S.-Iran conflict, with crude heading for a 3% monthly gain. US-Iran nuclear talks are viewed as a sham by some analysts, as Trump faces over 2,000 tariff lawsuits following a Supreme Court loss. Houston is selling $1 billion in municipal bonds to fund a convention center expansion as the city seeks to boost downtown economic activity.
Corporate Developments
SpaceX is weighing a confidential IPO filing as soon as March, while Honeywell received an upgrade on its aerospace spin plans with a $293 sum-of-the-parts valuation target. Paramount-Warner combination is seen as a formidable competitor to Netflix, despite concerns about the strain on Paramount's credit rating. Bank stocks are on course for their biggest slide since April market ructions as investors worry about growing strains in private credit.