Alphabet was the market’s story. Its shares fell 12.64 percent to 283.82 dollars after third quarter capital spending hit a record 51.4 billion dollars and free cash flow swung to negative 9.07 billion dollars, erasing roughly half a trillion dollars of market value despite cloud revenue more than doubling (see today’s Alphabet story). Amazon fell 4.25 percent to 243.79 dollars in the same repricing of AI spending, even as its own AWS story today is a trillion dollar revenue ambition funded by 220 billion dollars of 2026 capital expenditure.
Oil tonnage was the strongest bid in the tables. Tanker freight rose 5.62 percent to 949.43 dollars, extending the record product tanker bookings in yesterday’s Scorpio coverage, while dry bulk eased, so the strength is specific to oil shipping (see today’s commodities roundup). WTI crude rose 2.00 percent to 104.04 dollars a barrel as banks raised oil forecasts on a tightening physical market (see today’s oil forecasts story); Brent’s table close eased 1.47 percent to 113.19 dollars, though Friday session reporting put it nearer 116 dollars.
Precious metals and their miners went the other way. Gold fell 0.84 percent to 3,997.40 dollars an ounce, below 4,000 dollars for the first time in this run of tables, on a hot September PCE print and rising December hike bets, and silver fell 2.71 percent to 50.78 dollars. Gold miners and Rio Tinto each fell 3.12 percent, following the metals rather than any company news of their own.
Bonds rallied through the noise. The US five year yield fell 7 basis points to 4.80 percent and the ten year fell back below 5 percent (see today’s Treasury yields story), as the mix of 3.4 percent third quarter GDP growth and a cooler quarterly price run rate left the December Fed decision open in both directions.
The synthesis is a stagflation flavoured tape rather than a simple risk off day: growth data strong, monthly inflation hot, the AI complex being repriced on cash rather than revenue, and the physical oil market, crude, freight and refining margins together, still tightening.