US stock futures point to lower Wall Street open; British grocery inflation slows to 3%, says Worldpanel, while heatwave boosts sales of suncare and syrups for water amid #WaterTok trendStock futures are pointing to a 2.7% fall on the tech-heavy Nasdaq when Wall Street opens later, amid concerns over imminent US interest rate hikes and debt-backed spending on AI.Valuations of AI stocks have ballooned but investors now worry that higher borrowing costs could make the buildout of AI infrastructure more costly.The Nasdaq was pulled lower by Big Tech stocks [on Monday] after news that SpaceX (which is not yet part of the index) was looking to borrow up to $20bn through a bond sale – investment-grade bond (uh-hum) – quite unusual for a company that is burning cash. Seemingly, the recent IPO did not suffice to assuage the company’s funding needs — a reminder of how much money may still be burned on the way to Mars. SpaceX shares fell more than 16% yesterday, reducing the post-IPO rally to less than 15% — still substantial given that the company’s valuation remains massive by traditional metrics.Again, SpaceX is not yet part of the Nasdaq indices, but the fact that it is jumping on the bond train to fund excessive AI and infrastructure spending revives earlier concerns that Big Tech may be spending too much on AI infrastructure and increasingly financing that spending through debt. Morgan Stanley expects global AI-related borrowing to surpass half a trillion dollars this year, meaning that corporate bond indices are increasingly becoming dominated by the AI theme as well.We need people with a vision, that’s what this is all about. Starmer is not a visionary, he’s not a bold leader. [Chancellor] Rachel Reeves is a rule pusher, she’s not a bold leader.Inward investment in the UK is lower today than it has been at any point in the last 20 years from abroad, so we need to fix that. Continue reading...

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