Fed Rate Hike Expected, AWS Gulf Data Loss, and OpenAI Valuation Talks
Stock index futures were mixed on Wednesday as investors focused on the Federal Reserve's upcoming interest-rate decision. Treasury yields edged higher ahead of the policy announcement. The Fed is widely expected to raise its benchmark rate by a quarter-point at its September meeting due to strong employment data and elevated core CPI figures, despite some cooling in service-sector price increases shown in recent PPI reports. Amazon Web Services (AMZN) reported it cannot restore access to resources hosted exclusively in its Bahrain region after Iranian drone strikes damaged infrastructure. The damage affected multiple Availability Zones beyond the system's design capacity for redundancy. A data zone in the UAE also remains impacted, raising concerns about cloud service reliability and regional geopolitical risks. Meanwhile, SoftBank Group (SFTBY) credit default swaps approached a three-year high as investors evaluated its $64.6 billion commitment to OpenAI. Separately, OpenAI is reportedly discussing with large investors a capital raise that could value the company at around $1.2 trillion ahead of an IPO, potentially delaying it by one or two quarters.
Topics: AWS outage EPA ruling Federal Reserve OpenAI valuation SoftBank CDS Treasury yields