Semiconductors are on fire after the AMD/OpenAI announcement.The AI narrative continues to gain momentum. Today, AMD shares surged after announcing they have a multi-year agreement with OpenAI to supply AI chips. The arrangement includes OpenAI getting penny options for up to 10% AMD equity. This gives some competition for NVIDIA, which currently dominates AI chips, and accelerates the timeline for data center buildouts. It’s only taken 1.5% out of NVIDIA shares, and the overall semiconductor sector is up 3.8%. As we enter the 6th day of the federal government shutdown, we’re still seeing little concern in the stock market that there will be any long-term damage. What we are seeing is a surge in gold and crypto buying, purportedly as safe-haven trades. Gold continues to march toward $4,000/oz, hitting $3,974 this morning, a new all-time high, now up 9.1% in the trailing month. Silver is also at a new high, up 17% for the month. Bitcoin finally broke $125K, up 9.6% in the trailing week, now with a market cap of $2.5 trillion. Ethereum, the 2nd largest cryptocurrency (though less than 25% of Bitcoin’s market value), is up 2.5% today, up 10.8% for the trailing week. Geopolitical risks continue to rise, as Japan has elected its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, considered to be very dovish, pushing for more spending, tax relief, and lower interest rates. The Nikkei surged 4.75% today. The French CAC is down 1.3% and bond yields jumped as the new prime minister resigned after 12 hours on the job. There are also more concerns about the Gaza situation as Israel rejected Trump’s proposal for a peace settlement. The lack of economic data due to the government shutdown will complicate the Fed’s job, but it could end at any time. Interest rates have moved higher today, with the US 10-year up more than 2 bps to 4.15%, and the 2-year back up to 3.59%, well above the 3.51% on the day of the Fed cut. Bets for more Fed cuts in October and December remain at 97% and 80%.Momentum clearly remains positive.