Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving.
Cognitive Credit has closed a forty million dollar growth round led by Summit Partners, with ETFS Capital also participating. The raise is aimed at scaling the firm's data and artificial intelligence tools specifically for corporate credit markets, a corner of finance where institutional-grade analytics have historically lagged behind equities in sophistication.
Shifting from credit to the factory floor, Volkswagen is reportedly exploring a deal that would give workers access to Microsoft's artificial intelligence tools in lieu of traditional wage increases. The move reflects a broader reckoning inside one of Europe's largest industrial employers, where labor costs have been a persistent drag and management is betting that productivity technology can substitute for the kind of pay growth unions have long expected.
And in the grain complex, wheat closed lower across all three benchmark markets Thursday, with Kansas City hard red winter futures off as much as nine and a half cents. Corn also faded after midweek gains, settling two to nearly four cents lower. Soybeans offered the lone bright spot, with front months finishing mostly higher on continued export demand, and the national cash price climbing more than eight cents to close near eleven dollars and ninety-seven cents.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
