Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving the needle today.
Treasury markets are flashing a quiet warning sign for Scott Bessent. Since inauguration day, U.S. government bonds have underperformed virtually every major sovereign debt market globally, Japan being the lone exception. That's a credibility problem for a Treasury Secretary who staked his early tenure on bringing long rates down.
Shifting to tech and semiconductors, Intel's foundry division posted revenue of five point eight billion dollars last quarter, a thirty-one percent jump year over year. But the unit burned through two point one billion dollars in operating losses doing it. The losses are narrowing — they were three point two billion a year ago — but Intel is still paying an enormous price to compete in contract chip manufacturing.
And on the ground level of the American economy, beef prices are rewriting the fortunes of everyone in the cattle chain — but not evenly. Ranchers are minting money while feedlot operators who fatten cattle before slaughter are getting squeezed by input costs. Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King told investors plainly last week that beef simply has not performed as expected, and the pressure is rippling across the entire supply chain.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
