Overall momentum in AI moderates after a sizzling run, but semiconductors keep going. Tech continues to dominate the market. Comments by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang have been very powerful, most recently when he referred to Marvell (MRVL) as the next trillion-dollar company. The shares rose 27% on the comment (+70.4% in a month, +307% LTM) but still has a market cap of only $244B.Comments by Trump have also been closely followed. He called Dell (DELL) a great company and a few days later, Dell announced a new $9.7B pentagon contract, then reported massive beats top and bottom, and the shares soared to a new all-time high (+111% in a month, +291% LTM). Involvement in the build-out of data centers has been the Midas touch for dozens of companies. Hewlett-Packard is having its best day ever today after its biggest earnings beat since 2018 on the back of data center involvement. The shares are up 26% today, +30.5% in a month, +88.6% LTM. The companies paying for the data centers aren’t doing as well as the companies supplying the picks and shovels. The Magnificent 7 are up 4.7% in the month, and flat LTM. Part of the reason for this is that the big spend has not only absorbed most of their massive free cash flow, but they have also slashed their huge share repurchase programs. There is a clear belief that the first mover/leader advantage is critical in global tech markets, as seen in search with Alphabet and online commerce with Amazon. Playing catch-up is difficult and expensive. The costs of the AI build-out are daunting. Year to date, AI-related companies have issued $140B in investment-grade debt, 49% of total issuance. It also accounted for 38% of High Yield debt ($21B), and 87% ($220B) of venture capital funding. The combined total of $380B reflects 64% of all capital flows. Today, Alphabet (GOOG) announced a secondary offering of $80B in new equity to help fund their AI spending, their first equity raise in two decades.There remains little news about progress on the Iran front, which should be troubling given shrinking reserve inventories, especially in distillates. Crude oil prices are modestly lower today, with July WTI at $91.7/bbl, up 4.4% in a week but down 9.9% in a month.Despite the inflation risk of higher-for-longer energy prices, interest rates are lower today, with the US 10-year yield below 4.5%, the 30-year below 5%, and the 2-year at 4.04%. All are lower for the trailing week but remain higher for the trailing month. The trend remains positive, with the catalyst for further material gains possible with a resolution with Iran.