• A steady market. Stocks had a mixed trading day on Tuesday and closed the day relatively to where they started.  Investors are on pins and needles waiting for the highly anticipated Fed meeting this week.
• The Feds are expected to cut interest rates TODAY! The FOMC meeting is set to officially bring an end to a years-long tightening campaign to cool inflation. Wall Street has been guessing at the odds of a 0.5% Fed rate cut. As of Tuesday, afternoon traders see odds of 65% on a 50 basis point reduction in rates, compared with 62% a day ago. The chances of a 25-basis point cut stand at 35%, per the CME FedWatch tool.
• Intel shares popped. Intel stock saw upward movement after its foundry secured Amazon as a multibillion-dollar customer for AI chips. 
• Microsoft revealed a buyback plan. Microsoft's new plan is to buy back up to $60 billion in shares and a 10% boost to its dividend. 
• JPMorgan Chase is in talks with Apple. The bank is in discussions to take over the iPhone maker's credit-card program from current issuer Goldman Sachs (GS), the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Sam's Club announced a pay increase for many employees. Sam's Club, the Walmart-owned warehouse retailer, said on Tuesday it would raise average hourly wages for nearly 100,000 of its workers, which will bring starting pay from $15 to $16. 
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise saw gains after an upgrade. The IT company rose nearly 5% Tuesday afternoon following an upgrade from Bank of America to a BUY based on the view that profit margins will improve from the acquisition of Juniper Networks (JNPR). 
• The idea of a Fed rate cut left gold at a record high. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $2,580.24 an ounce after touching a record high of $2,589.59 on Monday. 
• Oil climbed higher. U.S. crude oil rises more than 1%, closes above $71 per barrel amid Fed rate cut optimism.
• Bitcoin reclaimed $60,000 on Tuesday. The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 4.3% at $60,394.41, according to Coin Metrics.

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From Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer:

"Investors are growing increasingly confident that the global economy can achieve a soft landing, in which inflation retreats without a large drawdown in economic activity. In Bank of America's August Global Fund Manager Survey, released on Tuesday, 79% of respondents said a soft landing is the most likely outcome for the global economy in the next 12 months. This marked the highest percentage of respondents projecting such an outcome since May 2023."

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In the Spotlight

Microsoft and Others Form Group to Raise $100B Towards AI

Microsoft and BlackRock as well as a group of other companies are collaborating to pull together up to $100 billion to develop data centers for artificial intelligence and the energy infrastructure to power them. The Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership is first looking to raise $30 billion for new and existing data centers. The fundraising, which could total $100 billion, will also be used to invest in the energy infrastructure needed to power AI workloads. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the initiative brings “together financial and industry leaders to build the infrastructure of the future and power it in a sustainable way.”

Apple is in Discussions with JPMorgan

Apple is in talks with JPMorgan Chase for the bank to take over the iPhone maker's flagship credit card program from Goldman Sachs said a person with knowledge of the negotiations. The discussions are still early and could falter, and key elements of a deal — such as price and whether JPMorgan would continue certain features of the Apple Card — are yet to be decided, said the unidentified source. JPMorgan is seeking to pay less than face value for the roughly $17 billion in loans on the Apple Card because of elevated losses on the cards.