Economy

Red on Wall Street – Fed announcement a disappointment

Wall Street was trading in the red for most of the day and the fall increased as the market digested the announcement from the Fed to leave the policy rate unchanged. Clear announcements on how the Fed will bring down inflation were not forthcoming.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 2.2 percent, the biggest decline since April 2025, CNBC noted.

The S&P 500 fell by 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq 100 by 2.0 percent.

Automotive giant Ford rose 1.7 percent after reporting higher-than-expected earnings in Tuesday night's interim report, where they also raised their full-year forecast for 2026.

Consumer products company Procter & Gamble reported slightly lower sales than expected for the fourth quarter (April-June) of the broken fiscal year 2025/26. The stock fell 1.8 percent.

Chip and memory card stocks continued to see big moves, with Sandisk and Micron falling around 7 and 10 percent respectively.

The defense boom
German defense giant issues reverse profit warning

The German defense group Rheinmetall publishes preliminary figures for the second quarter of 2026 as they are expected to be clearly higher than the market had expected.

The company's revenue grew provisionally by 69 percent to 3.3 billion euros compared to the same period last year. At the same time, operating profit was 562 million euros.

Rheinmetall's share price turned from minus to plus 3 percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after the announcement.

Middle East crisis  Strait of Hormuz
Oil price rises – back to $90

Oil prices have accelerated upward again after US President Donald Trump told Fox News that the US will strike back hard against Iran after it attacked US forces in Jordan.

Oil prices rose to around $90 in the afternoon after falling sharply earlier this week on hopes of a Middle East peace deal.

“We remain extremely skeptical that we are on the verge of a major diplomatic breakthrough,” writes Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital, in an analysis seen by Bloomberg and CNBC.
The chip battle
Chip giant Hynix plummeted on the stock market despite record profits

South Korean chip giant SK Hynix’s operating profit more than sixfold to just over 6.5 trillion won in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, according to the company’s interim report. The profit of the equivalent of 406 billion kronor is a new record, but lower than analysts had expected after the global sales boom of memory chips, news agencies report.

Sales of just over 79.3 trillion won, equivalent to 531 billion kronor, were also lower than expected.

Bloomberg notes that SK Hynix expects capital expenditures of the equivalent of SEK 300 billion this year, while investors worry about the rampant investment in the AI ​​boom.

SK Hynix shares plunged as much as 20 percent on the Seoul stock exchange after the report, but closed down 9.6 percent for the day. 

Stock market takeovers
Big airline deal underway in Europe

Both Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have submitted binding bids for a minority stake in Portuguese airline TAP, Bloomberg reports.

A purchase of the state-owned Portuguese airline provides coveted access to the Latin American market.

The Portuguese government plans to sell up to 49.9% of TAP.

Both Lufthansa and Air France-KLM emphasize their intention to expand TAP and invest in the business.

The company that wins the bidding war must promise to keep Lisbon as a key airport.

Spotify's future
Spotify buys private jet – for half a billion

The Swedish streaming giant Spotify has invested just over half a billion kronor in a private jet, which certain selected top executives are allowed to use. This is reported by Breakit.

It is a brand new Bombardier Global 6500 that was delivered to Spotify this summer. The aircraft model is supposed to be able to cross continents without having to stopover and can take around 15 passengers.

The investment does not jeopardize Spotify's financial well-being, the site notes. The company made an operating profit of 715 million euros, almost 8 billion kronor, in the first quarter of this year.