A daily market update from FS Insight — what you need to know ahead of opening bell

“Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable.” — August Strindberg

Overnight

U.S. job openings fall to lowest level since 2021 FT

Harris to pare back Biden’s capital-gains tax proposal RT

Trump to adopt Elon Musk’s proposal for government efficiency commission WSJ

U.S. accuses Russia of spending millions to influence American voters WSJ

America’s Space Force is preparing for the risk of war WSJ

OPEC+ members consider delaying production increase, delegates say WSJ

France’s Macron taps former Brexit negotiator as Prime Minister WSJ

Bank of Spain gets new governor as ECB prepares to cut rates again WSJ

ECB’s Schnabel: headline inflation understates scale of challenge WSJ

Bank of Canada signals further cuts as interest rates fall to 4.25% FT

High rates expose global banking’s multi-trillion-dollar weak spot BBG

Nvidia says it has ‘not been subpoenaed’ by Justice Department as part of an antitrust investigation BBG

Verizon strikes deal to acquire Frontier Communications WSJ

Would-be corporate dip buyers armed with fresh $107 billion YF

Intel stock drops further as silicon wafers reportedly fail Broadcom’s tests YF

Johnson & Johnson wins over longtime holdout for talc settlement WSJ

Illumina’s antitrust vindication WSJ

U.S. homebuilders face credit crunch as banks cut lending FT

U.S. Steel warns of plant closings if sale collapses WSJ

Biden set to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel FT

Jeep cuts output of Wranglers and Grand Cherokees WSJ

OpenAI co-founder Sutskever’s new safety-focused AI startup SSI raises $1 billion RT

Sen. Warren wants answers about declining FINRA enforcement activity Barron’s

ENRC seeks $290 million over botched U.K. probe WSJ

In an increasingly manic market, this slow-and-steady fund has broken out MW

Vanguard slashes minimum investment for robo-advisor to just $100 Barron’s

Schwab’s swept cash helped pay for TD Ameritrade, suit claims FA

Anthropic launches Claude Enterprise plan to compete with OpenAI TC

Companies’ AI bets are reaching astronomical heights; why the C-suite likes its odds anyway WSJ

Investor doubts about Wegovy copycats weigh on health startups FT

Volvo backtracks on plan to sell only electric vehicles by end of the decade MW

In partial course reversal, Elon Musk’s Starlink agrees to block X in Brazil FT

Uber raising $4 billion in its first sale as blue-chip firm BBG

Topgolf Callaway Brands intends to split into two companies WSJ

Nordstrom gets proposal from Nordstrom family and Mexico’s Liverpool, valuing company at 3.76 billion WSJ

Bankruptcy court approves sale of Steward Hospitals in Massachusetts WSJ

California Senate passes bill to clamp down on private-equity healthcare deals WSJ

Australian economy posts weakest growth since early 1990s WSJ

Blackstone buys Australian data-center operator for $16.1 billion WSJ

Star manager Rob Arnott launches ETF to buy up index ‘rejects’ FT

Palo Alto Networks aims to gain IBM security customers in deal BBG

Should you include REITs in your portfolio – and, if so, which ones? WSJ

Abu Dhabi to invest billions in Exxon’s Texas hydrogen project FT

Can Oman’s $2.6 billion ‘Smart City’ break the Dubai archetype? WSJ

Ukraine’s foreign minister resigns in major leadership ‘reboot’ NBC

Russia built covert trade channel with India, leaks reveal FT

A new crime-tracking tool tries to improve on slower FBI data Semafor

The new recruitment challenge: filtering AI-crafted résumés WSJ

How immigration remade the U.S. labor force WSJ

The crushing financial burden of aging at home WSJ

Turkey applies to be first NATO member to join Russia’s G7 rival TT

Three years ago, their boat nearly sank; now a pair of U.S. tycoons are taking aim at sailing’s top prize WSJ

Specialist ‘carbon nanotube’ AI chip built by Chinese scientists is first of its kind and ‘1,700 times more efficient’ than Google’s LS

Robot controlled by a king oyster mushroom blends living organisms and machines CNN

Chart of the Day

MARKET LEVELS

MORNING INSIGHT

Good morning!

Our work shows that, during election years, August lows are the most probable. October lows tend to occur more commonly during recessions.

More in today’s Macro Minute, Video linked HERE.

TECHNICAL

Despite some signs of risk-off type behavior in other asset classes outside of Equities, which have exhibited some above-average volatility of late, the actual Equity selling pressure proved far more muted Wednesday than what was seen Tuesday. Trends and momentum from early-August lows remain in pretty good shape, with not much deterioration.

While this early-week decline has been somewhat unsettling for market bulls and has been cited by the bears as the start of larger volatility for Equities, we just don’t see that yet from our work. As discussed in Flash Insights yesterday afternoon (kindly review if you missed this) a few option-related trades very well may have helped exacerbate Tuesday’s decline, as opposed to this representing any meaningful fundamental shift for U.S. risk assets.

Click HERE for more.

CRYPTO

Polygon has initiated its token migration from MATIC to POL, with POL becoming the new native gas and staking token on the Polygon PoS network. POL will maintain MATIC’s tokenomics with a total supply of 10 billion tokens, which can be converted from MATIC at a 1:1 ratio. Additionally, there will be 2% annual emissions, with 1% going to validators and 1% to the community treasury. Users holding MATIC on Polygon PoS do not need to take any action to migrate their tokens into POL, but holders on other chains will need to utilize Polygon’s migration contract. The token migration will support Polygon 2.0 and its efforts to become a zk-powered network and integrate with AggLayer, its chain aggregation layer. POL will have enhanced utility in Polygon 2.0, including supporting block production, ZK proofs, and data availability committees (DACs).

Penpie, a defi project built on top of Pendle, was exploited yesterday for approximately $27 million. Penpie allows users to deposit Pendle yield tokens into the protocol and optimize rewards. The exploit was caused by a malicious contract used to inflate the hacker’s staking balances, which consequently led to outsized rewards being allocated. Pendle confirmed that the vulnerability was due to the permissionless nature of Pendle token listings on Penpie and that its in-house security system immediately detected the malicious contract. In response to the exploit, Pendle froze multiple of its contracts, preventing an additional $105 million from being drained from Penpie. All funds on Pendle were kept safe and contracts have been unfrozen, although Penpie remains paused. Penpie stated they would negotiate with the hacker, offering a percentage of stolen funds as a bug bounty and no legal action pursued in exchange for returning most of the funds. PNP, the native token of Penpie, fell more than 33% following the exploit, and PENDLE fell marginally but has gained over 4% today.

Click HERE for more.

First News

Don’t Farm Out Your Pharma. A group called Four Thieves Vinegar, describing itself as an anarchist collective, has taken on a controversial mission: teaching people to create do-it-yourself pharmaceuticals. Their goal is to drastically reduce drug costs through what amounts to homemade, bootleg medications. This approach essentially applies the ‘right to repair’ concept to human health.

The collective has targeted high-cost drugs for their efforts. For example, Sovaldi, a hepatitis C medication, typically costs $84,000 for a 12-week treatment ($1,000 per daily pill). Four Thieves Vinegar initially estimated their DIY version would cost $300 for the entire course ($3.57 per pill), but ultimately outdid themselves, achieving a cost of just $70 ($0.83 per pill).

Taking on Kalydeco, a cystic fibrosis treatment that costs $311,000 per patient annually, the collective claims that, with the right equipment, the two necessary precursors could be obtained for $1 and $28 per gram, potentially reducing the daily cost of raw materials to $10 – a roughly hundredfold savings. 404 Media

A Curse in Disguise. The containership NewNew Star has set a record as the largest non-ice-class vessel to navigate the Arctic Ocean, a milestone that may just ram through the concerning effects of climate change into readers’ collective consciousness. The 3,534 TEU ship, measuring 231 meters in length and weighing 35,975 tons, departed Nansha, China, crossed the Bering Strait, and entered the Northern Sea Route above Russia on September 4, bound for St. Petersburg.

Why ‘ram through’? Historically, the Arctic route has been impassable for most ships due to extensive ice coverage – even during summer months. It’s rising temperatures that have opened this pathway for an increasingly extended period each year. Already there’s competition, and the NewNew Star’s record may be short-lived. Another vessel, the Flying Fish 1, is currently docked in St. Petersburg with an Arctic permit. If it proceeds, it could become the first Panamax-sized ship to traverse the Arctic route. gCaptain

They’re Out There, All Right. Public belief in UFOs as evidence of extraterrestrial life has grown significantly on these shores. A survey shows that 34% of Americans in 2022 believed UFO sightings were proof of alien visitations, up from 20% in 1996. What’s more, nearly a quarter of Americans claim to have personally witnessed a UFO.

A recent academic paper argues that this shift from fringe belief to mainstream acceptance poses a concerning societal issue. Conspiracy theories about government UFO cover-ups have gained traction, with a 2019 Gallup poll revealing that 68% of Americans suspect the government is withholding information about UFOs. One potential factor in this trend is the influence of popular media. The History Channel’s entertaining but stridently scientific-method-agnostic series Ancient Aliens, now in its 20th season, has amassed 13.8 million YouTube subscribers, potentially contributing to the widespread acceptance of the once-fringe beliefs. The Conversation