Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and policy.
Kansas City Fed President Schmid is putting rate cut hopes back on ice, calling inflation stubborn and sticky and stopping just short of calling for an outright hike. His comments signal that the Fed's restrictive posture may not be restrictive enough, which will keep rate-sensitive equities and Treasuries under pressure heading into the next policy window.
On the semiconductor side, ASML is quietly becoming the defining infrastructure play of the memory boom, with system sales to the memory industry up seventy-five percent this year. As AI workloads demand faster and denser memory at scale, ASML's lithography monopoly positions it as the picks-and-shovels winner that neither Micron nor Sandisk can replicate, making it worth serious attention from growth and tech-oriented portfolios.
Shifting to travel and aviation, American Airlines is expanding aggressively for summer two thousand twenty seven, adding six new European routes including its first-ever service to Porto and Vienna, all leveraging the fuel-efficient Airbus XLR narrowbody. The moves come two days after United announced its own European expansion, signaling that transatlantic demand remains robust and the legacy carriers are competing hard for premium leisure dollars.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
