Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and policy.
Equities are finding their footing this session, with the S&P five hundred up nearly four tenths of a percent and the Nasdaq one hundred outperforming, gaining over one and a quarter percent. The story there is chipmakers, which are rebounding after recent pressure and pulling technology broadly higher with them.
Shifting to Washington, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is raising the temperature on Chinese artificial intelligence, calling it unacceptable that open source models from China may have been built on stolen intellectual property from American companies. Bessent confirmed the administration is actively probing the matter and left sanctions squarely on the table, a signal that AI is becoming the next major front in the broader tech trade conflict.
On the insider activity front, ZeroStack's Executive Chairman Michael Heinrich made a three point four eight million dollar purchase of company stock on Monday. As the old floor wisdom goes, insiders sell for many reasons, but they buy for one — they expect the price to go higher. A purchase of that size from the executive chairman tends to get attention.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
