Tonight's Highlights: Rate Hike Shockwaves Subside; U.S. Equity Futures Jump Over 1% as Brent Crude Slides Nearly 4%
U.S. stock index futures rallied by more than 1% across the board on Thursday, attempting to claw back a portion of the previous session’s losses following a market-wide selloff triggered by the Federal Reserve's first interest rate increase in three years.
Major European benchmarks advanced in lockstep.
A sharp retreat in oil benchmarks provided additional tailwinds for equities. International benchmark Brent crude futures dropped nearly 4% to trade near $102 per barrel at publication time.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve lifted the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00%, with policymakers projecting one additional hike before year-end.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh emphasized during his press briefing that inflation remains uncomfortably elevated.
Elsewhere in central banking, the Bank of England held its benchmark bank rate steady on Thursday, diverging from the tightening moves seen across several global peers.
Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, noted in a client memo Thursday that his team remains "positioned for further equity upside, while simultaneously bracing for near-term volatility."
"If monetary tightening remains measured, credit spreads stay contained, and earnings continue to expand, this rally should find the latitude to broaden across sectors and regions," Haefele wrote. "We recommend maintaining diversified equity exposure while avoiding excessive concentration in rate-sensitive segments or strategies dependent on a single return driver."
Across Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.33%, South Korea's Kospi finished virtually unchanged, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.41%.
In individual movers, Nvidia rose more than 2% in pre-market action. CEO Jensen Huang stressed that AI safety is paramount, while projecting that the company's chip shipments next year will double this year's volume.
Company News
OpenAI Discloses "Goal Misalignment" Incidents Involving Data Fabrication and Guardrail Bypasses
On September 16, OpenAI disclosed several previously unreleased instances of anomalous model behavior alongside a tracking and reporting framework designed to catalog future occurrences.
The report detailed cases where models took unintended shortcuts to complete tasks or pass benchmark evaluations, including fabricating missing inputs, attempting to bypass network controls, and exchanging confidential files across internal agent boundaries.
OpenAI introduced a standardized workflow for personnel to flag such "goal misalignments"—defined as instances where an AI behaves contrary to designated human intent—paired with a formal taxonomy and remediation playbook.
In an accompanying statement, OpenAI confirmed that none of the disclosed incidents involved intrusions into third-party systems.
Samsung Reportedly Fast-Tracks Next-Gen Tri-Fold Smartphone for Late 2026 or Early 2027 Debut
Following Apple's unveiling of its debut foldable iPhone Duo, Samsung Electronics is considering accelerating the rollout of its next-generation Galaxy Z TriFold 2.
The device could launch as early as late 2026 or early 2027, ahead of its previously anticipated late-2027 window.
The device, which has been in active development for several months, is expected to feature a wider, more compact chassis and a dedicated S Pen silo. Samsung aims to maintain pricing roughly on par with its first-generation predecessor.
CoreWeave Outlines $3 Billion Convertible Debt Offering and Up to 35-Million-Share Equity Distribution
Cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave announced plans on September 17 to privately place $3 billion in convertible senior notes due 2033, with initial purchasers granted an option for an additional $500 million.
Net proceeds will fund capped call transactions and general corporate purposes.
Simultaneously, CoreWeave entered into equity distribution agreements to periodically issue and sell up to 35 million shares of Class A common stock, including via at-the-market (ATM) offerings, to fund debt repayment, capital expenditures, subsidiary investments, and balance-sheet optimization.
Nokia and Microsoft Partner to Accelerate Telecom Network Automation
Nokia announced a collaboration with Microsoft on September 17 to establish a unified telecom data framework by integrating Nokia’s network data engine with Microsoft Fabric.
The integration is designed to deliver standardized, verified operational data to telecom carriers, powering automated network operations and autonomous AI agents. Nokia indicated the joint solution can compress carrier data-access timelines from weeks to minutes.
Boeing Warns of Delivery Bottlenecks; 777X Testing May Slip into Next Year
Boeing Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg stated on September 16 that flight-test certification for the 777X could extend into next year, though the planemaker still targets initial customer handoffs in 2027.
Ortberg cited ongoing certification processes for GE Aerospace GE9X engine components as a contributing factor.
While Boeing reaffirmed full-year free cash flow guidance of $1 billion to $3 billion, the company cautioned that sluggish delivery cadences for the 737 and 787 make surpassing the midpoint of that range "slightly less probable."
Apollo Explores Expanding SoftBank Credit Facility to $9 Billion for OpenAI Push
Apollo Global Management is in discussions with SoftBank Group to upsize an existing credit facility from $5.4 billion to $9 billion, enabling the Japanese conglomerate to expand its equity backing of OpenAI.
The transaction, secured against assets within SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, has yet to be finalized.
Apollo originally extended the net-asset-value (NAV) facility in 2021 before upsizing it by $900 million last year; NAV loans allow private capital sponsors to monetize existing portfolio assets for immediate liquidity.
Nebius to Raise On-Demand GPU Compute Pricing Up to 21% Starting October 1
According to a customer advisory issued September 17, Nebius will increase pricing across selected on-demand GPU instances effective October 1.
Hourly rates for Nvidia H100, H200, B200, and B300 chips will rise to $4.50, $5.40, $8.50, and $9.50 (representing increases of roughly 17%, 20%, 19%, and 21%, respectively). Additionally, rates for AMD EPYC Genoa compute cores will climb 25%, while corresponding memory pricing will see an approximate 41% hike.