Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and markets.
Big Tech is losing its grip on the broader rally. After artificial intelligence names carried the S and P through September, October has been a different story, with rotation accelerating away from mega-cap growth and into sectors that spent most of the year in the shadows. The AI trade isn't dead, but it's clearly resting.
Shifting to chips and credit, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan spent nearly two months working banks to commit more than forty billion dollars to a financing deal backing Anthropic's chip ambitions. When lenders wavered, Broadcom effectively co-signed, with Tan telling investors capital is available. That's a significant commitment from one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies, and it signals how seriously the industry is treating AI infrastructure buildout.
And on the consumer side, a tale of two fast-food giants and their soda loyalties. KFC is walking away from a nearly forty-year relationship with PepsiCo, while Taco Bell is doubling down, locking in an eleven-year extension that keeps Mountain Dew Baja Blast in the cup through two thousand thirty six. For PepsiCo, the net read is complicated — one marquee account lost, another secured for over a decade.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
