MARKET SNAPSHOT

U.S. stocks climbed on comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller. Treasury yields slipped all along the curve, and oil futures finished little changed. Gold and silver settled higher, while the dollar weakened.

MARKET WRAPS EQUITIES

U.S. stocks rallied after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he would support holding interest rates steady if August inflation data supports it.

The move was broad, with eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors in the green. Consumer discretionary stocks led gains, up around 1.6%. The S&P 500 rose 1.1%, while the Dow industrials added 1.2%.

Tech stocks also performed well, with the Nasdaq composite adding 1.4%. Software stocks were in the spotlight after Snowflake reported better-than-expected results, which its CEO attributed to growing adoption of its AI products. Its shares jumped 17%.

Stocks in Asia were mostly lower earlier Thursday.

In China, the Shanghai Composite, Shenzhen Composite and the ChiNext Price Index each ended flat. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 0.4% lower.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed 0.2% lower, dragged by retail and metals stocks.

Stocks in Australia rose, as the S&P/ASX 200 Benchmark Index increased 0.5%, while New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 0.6%.

COMMODITIES

Oil futures ended the session little changed as the market sees the U.S.-Iran conflict going on for longer with this week's resumption of military strikes.

"Iran is trying to constrain the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. is trying to open it," said Simon Wong, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds. "There's a dispute about how much oil is coming out, but I don't think Iran wants to let that card go because that's all the leverage they have at this point."

WTI for October delivery rose 0.3%, to $91.30 a barrel, in a fourth consecutive gain. Front-month Brent for November delivery slipped 0.1%, to $95.52 a barrel, snapping a three-session winning streak.

Gold futures rose for a second session as Treasury yields eased and the dollar weakened, with the market waiting to see Friday's August employment report and its implications for the Fed's mid-September meeting.

Gold traders were also keeping a wary eye on events in the Middle East, where renewed fighting is pushing up oil prices, risking inflation pressures that could in turn lead to higher interest rates.

Front-month gold settled up 2.9% in New York at $4,491.70 a troy ounce. Silver rose 3.5% to $66.973 a troy ounce.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

Fed's Waller Hints at September Rate Pause-If August Inflation Plays Along

Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said Thursday that August inflation data will heavily guide his decision on whether to raise or keep interest rates steady at the upcoming September meeting. But he laid out a compelling case for why cooling inflation could keep him on hold.

In prepared remarks for an event in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Waller said that while inflation is still "meaningfully" above the Fed's 2% target, he's seeing signs of cooling in recent data. That could push him to vote to keep rates steady at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that takes place Sept. 15-16.

"If this [disinflation] continues in the data due over the next two weeks, I would be inclined to support holding the target for the federal funds rate at its current setting," Waller said, adding that his decision hinges on what the August inflation data show.

Investors Still Want Out of Private Credit Funds Like Blackstone's and Cliffwater's

Sentiment remains sour on private credit.

That's apparent from the first reports on redemption requests at non-trading credit funds this September quarter. Blackstone and Cliffwater said that they will be limiting redemptions to 5% of overall shares in the large funds they run after receiving exit requests for much larger amounts.

In a Thursday morning letter to investors, the $77 billion Blackstone Private Credit Fund-popularly known as BCRED-revealed that it got redemption requests this quarter that amounted to about 10% of its shares outstanding. That would have amounted to $4.3 billion of equity, or net asset value, at the fund, which leverages the loan assets it can hold by borrowing money.

U.S. Trade Deficit Widened in July

The U.S. trade deficit widened in July, according to data published by the Commerce Department Thursday.

U.S. imports were higher than exports by $88.6 billion, versus $71.2 billion in June. Analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting a $90 billion deficit.

The gap is the result of imports increasing 2.8% in July from the previous month, to $399.3 billion, while exports decreased 2.1% to $310.7 billion.

Nvidia Agrees to Buy AI Platform Hugging Face for $13 Billion

Nvidia has agreed to buy New York-based AI startup Hugging Face in a deal worth roughly $13 billion, the latest acquisition by the chip giant at the center of the artificial-intelligence boom.

The deal accelerates Nvidia's push to promote open-weight AI models and services that challenge both proprietary models from big U.S. AI companies and open models developed in China.

Unlike proprietary models developed by companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, open-weight models are public, enabling users to download, customize and run them on their own or third-party hardware.

OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok Operational After All Experienced Outages At the Same Time

Artificial-intelligence models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Grok were up and running again after all experienced outages at the same time on Thursday.

Users reported issues starting around 9:15 a.m. EDT, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks internet outages.

The cause of the outages wasn't immediately clear, but the simultaneous nature of the disruption was notable.

Expected Major Events for Friday 01:00/PHI: Aug CPI

02:00/JPN: Aug Imported Vehicle Sales

07:30/THA: Weekly International Reserves

08:20/TAI: Aug International Reserves

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