Spot gold steadied around $4,514, up 3.2% for the week and set for a third consecutive weekly gain. The U.S. Treasury said it will double buybacks of longer-dated securities next quarter to at least $4 billion per operation. Markets are pricing a 64% chance the Federal Reserve will keep rates unchanged in September. Elsewhere, silver was flat, platinum edged up and palladium was steady.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna disclosed eight days before the earnings call that results would fall short, sending the stock down more than 25% in the company’s worst one-day performance. IBM cut its full-year revenue growth outlook by more than $600 million. Krishna attributed part of the reduction to customers delaying IBM projects as the cost of storage, servers and other data-center infrastructure rose.

An AI investment boom among the five largest hyperscale tech companies has pushed up perceived credit risk in their bonds. Hyperscalers’ outstanding bonds maturing in 2035 now yield 5.7%, with the spread over the 10-year U.S. Treasury widening to 1.05 percentage points from 0.44 percentage points a year earlier, according to LSEG data. Credit default swap costs for Oracle and Alphabet have also risen sharply, even as U.S. Treasury yields climbed to their highest level since 2007.

DigiCo Infrastructure REIT reported FY26 underlying EBITDA of $127 million, beating its $125 million guidance. The REIT declared a 12.0 cents per security distribution, representing a 94% payout of Adjusted Funds From Operations. Following the sale of its US assets, it said proforma liquidity was about ~$1.2 billion.

Guzman y Gomez reported FY26 results showing network sales up 17.9% to A$1.38 billion and underlying EBITDA up 28.7% to A$85.0 million. Statutory NPAT rose 31.6% to A$40.6 million. The company said it has completed its exit from US operations and ended the year with A$171 million in cash and no debt. It also announced a new A$100 million share buyback programme.

Hedge fund Coatue Management opened a new position in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), buying about 95,987 shares valued at roughly $55.8 million. In Q2 2026, AMD reported revenue of $11.5 billion, up 50% year over year, with data center sales more than doubling to 58% of total revenue. CEO Lisa Su said she expects server revenue to rise more than 80% year over year in the second half of 2026. Analysts’ average price target is $621.73, implying about 32% upside.

U.S. stocks fell across the board on Thursday, with the S&P 500 down 0.87%, the Dow off 1.32%, and the Nasdaq lower by 0.72%. Higher crude prices stoked inflation concerns and weighed on risk appetite. Walmart slid more than 9% after weaker-than-expected second-quarter comparable store sales and full-year profit guidance below consensus, dragging on consumer names. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose 4 basis points to 4.69%, and the Philadelphia Fed’s August business outlook survey jumped to a five-year high of 47.4.

AI infrastructure company IREN has recorded its first revenue tied to a five-year $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft and has completed $3.65 billion in investment-grade debt financing. The company also has a five-year $3.4 billion cloud contract with Nvidia, giving it a second long-term contracted revenue stream. Over the past 12 months, IREN shares have climbed 114%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s roughly 20% gain. Investors are focused on the company’s ability to convert capacity into revenue after it reported fiscal 2026 third-quarter results on May 7.