Wall Street is heading into the close on Wednesday with two things on its mind: the Fed's favorite inflation gauge and Micron Technology. According to Bloomberg, US stocks paused ahead of both, with the inflation data key for interest rates and Micron's report key for the AI trade. Micron reports fiscal fourth-quarter results after the closing bell, and a big move in either direction could ripple into Asian chip stocks when markets open in the morning. The Numbers, Verified Across Sources What Micron guided (SEC filing): For the quarter ending in August, Micron told investors to expect revenue of $50 billion, give or take $1 billion, non-GAAP earnings of $31 per share, give or take $1, and a gross margin of about 86%. What analysts expect (Alphastreet, 33 analysts): Consensus sits at $31.56 per share on $51.20 billion in revenue, slightly above the top half of Micron's own guidance range. Estimates are wide, running from $28.04 to $37.44 per share for earnings and from...
Earlier this week, markets held their breath ahead of a high-profile meeting between President Trump and President Xi Jinping. We covered the buildup, the extended tariff truce, and what was at stake. Now that the state visit has wrapped, the verdict from most analysts is surprisingly blunt: it was a lot of pageantry, and comparatively little concrete progress. What Actually Happened The summit came with all the trappings of a major diplomatic moment extended meetings, ceremonial visits, a notable stop at the National Archives, and plenty of carefully staged optics designed to project warmth between the two leaders. What it didn't produce, according to most post-summit analysis, was a genuine trade breakthrough. The tariff truce extension into January 2027 which we covered earlier was essentially the one concrete deliverable to emerge from the broader visit. Beyond that, the hard issues that have defined U.S.-China tension for years chip export restrictions, technology transfer r...