Market digest: what moved this week
A hotter-than-expected September CPI report midweek set the tone. Headline inflation rose 0.6% month-over-month — the fastest pace in five months — putting the year-over-year rate at 3.7%. Core CPI (excluding food and energy) rose 0.3% on the month, 2.6% year-over-year.
Treasury yields jumped on the print, with the 10-year pushing up to roughly 5.26%, and the move pulled money out of stocks, gold, and bitcoin alike the same day — spot gold fell 1.6% that session alone.
An AI/chip-stock selloff compounded the move. Semiconductor shares logged a multi-day losing streak as investors questioned whether current AI spending is generating enough return to justify the debt behind it — a heavily leveraged balance sheet at one prominent AI-infrastructure name became a particular flashpoint.
Consumer and healthcare stocks helped lift the Dow on Thursday, while technology stabilized, as the 10-year yield eased back from its post-CPI spike and chip stocks pared some of their losses.
WTI crude climbed toward $98 a barrel on supply concerns before easing back toward the end of the week.
By Friday morning, both gold and bitcoin had clawed back part of Wednesday’s drop, even as the week’s path stayed uneven across the board — inflation surprised to the upside, AI-related stocks came under pressure, and money rotated into other sectors. The market was unsettled this week, not uniformly bearish.
Net effect: SPY down 1.97% on the week. GLD down 0.67%. BTC down 1.12%.
So what flipped?
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