Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the broader economy.
In credit markets, stress is building at the bottom of the capital stack. Spreads on the riskiest junk debt have climbed to their highest levels since last year's liberation day tariff shock, as the ongoing Treasury sell-off squeezes the weakest U.S. borrowers hardest. When yields rise and risk appetite fades, it's the triple-C names that feel it first.
Staying in tech, Zscaler posted fiscal fourth-quarter twenty twenty-six results that beat on both revenue and margins, with top-line growth coming in just under twenty-five percent. Analysts moved price targets higher in response, but the stock's reaction was measured — investors are still watching closely for clarity on a sales leadership transition that remains an open question heading into the new fiscal year.
And on the nuclear trade, NuScale Power holds a distinction no other company in the U.S. can claim — its small modular reactor design is the only one fully certified by federal regulators. But certification and revenue are two different things, and NuScale's second-quarter revenue came in at just seventy-five thousand dollars, a reminder that the distance between regulatory approval and commercial scale remains considerable.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
