Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk, your close of business briefing on the stories moving markets and money.
The AI capital spending debate is heating up at the executive level. Alphabet's chief investment officer pushed back this week against a Jefferies warning that the most likely outcome of the current AI buildout is massive capital destruction across the United States. With Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta collectively deploying over seven hundred twenty billion dollars, the stakes of getting that call wrong are enormous.
Turning to JPMorgan Chase, the bank came in below analyst estimates on both revenue and earnings per share in its third quarter — a rare miss for the country's largest lender. Shares are sitting roughly eight percent below their record high, and investors are now weighing whether that gap represents a buying opportunity or a fair reflection of a more uncertain rate and credit environment ahead.
And on the energy and policy front, record fuel prices tied to the Iran war and global refinery outages have dominated midterm election conversation, but surging utility bills and the data center buildout are quietly reshaping the political map. Electricity and natural gas costs were already climbing before the conflict began, and those kitchen-table numbers may prove more decisive than crude prices come November.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
