Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and markets.
Five years of persistent inflation have left a measurable mark on American consumers, and new data out today puts that in stark relief. From six-dollar eggs to fifty-thousand-dollar cars, price pressures have eroded purchasing power across virtually every category, keeping consumer confidence well below pre-pandemic levels and complicating the Federal Reserve's path forward.
Turning to equities, Western Digital has been one of the most remarkable stories on the tape this year, up one hundred sixty-three percent year to date and more than three hundred thirteen percent over the past twelve months. The storage hardware giant has ridden the AI infrastructure buildout hard, but the question investors are wrestling with now is whether that extraordinary run leaves much upside on the table or whether the secular demand story still has legs.
And staying in the energy transition space, GE Vernova has climbed forty-five percent in two thousand twenty-six alone, comfortably outpacing the broader S-and-P five hundred. The power equipment and grid technology company continues to benefit from surging electricity demand tied to data centers and industrial electrification, and analysts are divided on whether this valuation reflects the opportunity or has simply gotten ahead of earnings delivery.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
