Good morning, you're listening to Markets Desk.
The AI infrastructure trade is running into a credibility problem, and the IPO market is where it's showing up most clearly. A South Korean data-center flotation flopped this week, and October alone saw three separate offerings shelved — all backed by heavyweights including Nvidia, Blackstone, and SoftBank. Investors are pushing back hard on whether the capital expenditure cycle is actually sustainable.
That skepticism is bleeding into broader tech sentiment this morning, with Nasdaq futures slipping ahead of the open. The data-center disappointments are weighing on the sector just as traders brace for SpaceX-related updates and Netflix earnings later in the session — two prints that could either steady nerves or deepen the selloff.
Shifting to defense, smaller contractors have taken a harder hit than their larger peers in the recent sector pullback, and some analysts are now flagging that divergence as a potential entry point. The argument is straightforward — the underlying demand picture for defense spending hasn't changed, but valuations on the smaller names have compressed enough to warrant a closer look for patient capital.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
