> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.sharespective.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Capacity Wanted - URL: https://www.sharespective.com/sharespective-2026-09-26/ - Published: 2026-09-26T00:22:35.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-26T00:22:35.000Z - Description: American households now expect prices to rise 4.6% over the next year. - Author: Shaun Botha - Tags: Daily | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/08/mark-light-3.png) | SharespectiveWall Street, before morning tea | Daily newsletterSat 26 Sep 2026 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | ![Today's edition](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/08/kicker-1.png)Capacity Wanted**Plus:** American households now expect prices to rise 4.6% over the next year. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | **Good morning.** US markets finished the week on a good day. The S&P 500 rose 0.51% on Friday to 7,743.41, the NASDAQ Composite gained 0.48% and the Dow added 478.64 points, or 0.93%. The S&P and the NASDAQ both finished the week higher, and the Dow ended a three-week losing streak. Oil did the lifting. WTI crude fell 2.3% to US$92.44 a barrel on reports that American and Iranian negotiators are discussing a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Bonds sold off regardless, and the 30-year Treasury yield closed at about 5.50%, still its highest since 2004\. Nobody told the stock market. In company news, Zscaler fell 10.1% after naming Ross Tackett its new chief revenue officer from 1 October. Elsewhere, Genius Sports jumped 11.0% after JPMorgan started covering the sports-data company with an overweight rating. Finally, People Inc rose 11.3% after The Wall Street Journal reported that MGM Resorts is weighing a bid for it, days after People dropped its own offer for MGM. A good week, somehow. ### Market snapshot | S&P 5007,743.41**▲ 0.51%** | ​ | NASDAQ27,068.72**▲ 0.48%** | ​ | NZX 5013,811.11**▼ 0.10%** | | -------------------------- | - | -------------------------- | - | -------------------------------- | | ​ | | | | | | ASX 2008,665.00**▼ 0.43%** | ​ | AkamaiUS$113.94**▲ 3.20%** | ​ | Atlas EnergyUS$12.47**▲ 13.47%** | US levels are Friday 25 September's closes in New York. The NZX 50 and ASX 200 are Friday's local closes. The Akamai and Atlas Energy rows are that session's closing share price and that session's move. | ​ | CLOUD | | - | ----- | ## Akamai signed a US$11.6 billion deal with Anthropic and kept a fifth of the rally Akamai closed at US$113.94 on Friday, up 3.20%. At the open it had been up as much as 16.4%, at US$128.46, after announcing a seven-year cloud contract with Anthropic late on Thursday. It finished ten cents above the day's low. **So what is Anthropic buying?** Computing capacity on ordinary processors, which TechCrunch reports is for AI agents that carry out tasks. The contract is worth US$11.6 billion and can grow by another US$9 billion, to about US$20 billion. That is large for Akamai. The company expects revenue of between US$4.445 billion and US$4.53 billion this year, and its cloud infrastructure line brought in US$99 million in the June quarter. It expects US$150 million to US$300 million from Anthropic in 2027, rising to a run rate of about US$1.7 billion a year in 2028. The spending comes first. Akamai puts the capital cost of the deal at about US$5.5 billion, and it is adding about US$1.7 billion to this year's budget to lock in components, memory included. Anthropic also gets warrants over up to 5% of Akamai at US$111.33 a share, unlocking as its spending grows. The same appetite reached the Texas oilfield. Atlas Energy Solutions, best known for frac sand in the Permian Basin, rose 13.47% after agreeing to buy about US$614 million of power equipment for data centres. An unnamed "frontier AI lab" is covering the cost. | Our readAI labs are now signing with whoever can deliver power and servers soonest. I'd want to see that 2027 revenue range met, because it is the first proof that Akamai can build to someone else's timetable. | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ​ | ECONOMY | | - | ------- | ## American households now expect prices to rise 4.6% over the next year The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index finished September at 48.1, down from 51.7 in August. That is a four-month low, and 15% below where it stood in January. The final reading was a touch better than the preliminary 47.8. **The Fed cares more about the inflation number.** Households expect prices to rise 4.6% over the next year, up from 4.0% a month earlier and the highest since June. Their five-year expectation went to 3.4%, after three months at 3.3%. Fuel is doing most of the damage. Joanne Hsu, who runs the survey, said the short-run outlook for business conditions plunged on worries about fuel prices and fresh trade disputes. Views on personal finances, both now and a year out, fell about 10%. That feeds straight into rates. The Federal Reserve lifted its target range to 3.75–4.00% last week, and the 10-year Treasury yield touched 5.225% on Friday, its highest since 2007. People who expect higher prices tend to ask for higher pay, and businesses that expect higher costs raise prices early. Central banks watch this survey for exactly that reason. | The tellthe mood index has been a poor guide to what Americans actually spend for years. The inflation expectation is harder to wave away, and a second month above 4.5% would make it much harder for the Fed to stop raising rates. | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ​ | TRADE | | - | ----- | ## Trump and Xi met for three days and moved the deadline to January Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington ended on Friday. The most concrete result came before the formal meeting. The trade truce agreed in Busan last October, due to expire on 10 November, now runs to 10 January 2027. **What does the truce hold in place?** Lower tariffs on Chinese goods, China's pause on rare-earth export controls, and a hold on higher port fees for ships. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the extension as Xi arrived, and said the two sides could reach a larger economic package by January. Beyond that, the list is short. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the countries would open an AI dialogue, with a first meeting within a month. They are also drawing up a "Board of Trade", lists of goods that get lower tariffs on both sides. China agreed to keep buying American soybeans under the existing truce. There was no new aircraft order. China confirmed 200 Boeing jets after Trump's visit to Beijing in May, and that deal has since snagged on engine parts and servicing. The two leaders meet again at APEC in Shenzhen in November. Trump has an invitation to Beijing in May 2027. | The short versionthe truce now outlasts the US midterms on 3 November, which takes one risk off the table for importers. China is the largest export market for both New Zealand and Australia, so a quiet January suits readers here as much as anyone. | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ### Newsworthy numbers | ​ | ​ | ​ | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | - | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | US$338.6 billionnew orders for long-lasting American goods in August, unchanged on July. Economists had expected a small fall, and orders outside transport rose 0.3%. | ​ | 28,700securities trades Donald Trump made between January 2025 and June 2026, by Bloomberg's count. Every member of Congress combined made about 22,200. | | ​ | | | | ​ | ​ | ​ | | A$2.70the price a litre of Australian petrol could pass if the fuel crisis drags on, according to AMP's Shane Oliver. It sits around A$2.39 now, with Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries cutting fuel exports. | ​ | 4.4 billionlitres of water a year that Equinix's proposed data centres in Cape Town would use, about as much as 18,000 homes. | ### Worth a read | ​ | | | -- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 01 | **[Home loan rates below 5 percent 'on borrowed time'](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/personal-finance/1564997/home-loan-rates-below-5-percent-on-borrowed-time?ref=sharespective.com)** — Susan Edmunds asks three economists and Squirrel's David Cunningham where fixed rates go as global bond yields climb. Westpac's Kelly Eckhold thinks two-year rates settle around 5.5%, and says the increases are arriving faster than expected. | | ​ | | | 02 | **[Spritz to the top: how a 107-year-old aperitif became a US$900m hit](https://thehustle.co/news/spritz-to-the-top-how-a-107-year-old-aperitif-became-a-900m-hit?ref=sharespective.com)** — Danny Jensen on Aperol, which Campari bought in 2003 for about US$160 million. The trick was a wine glass and a three-two-one recipe anyone could remember. | | ​ | | | 03 | **[South Africa joins the global resistance against American data centres](https://restofworld.org/2026/south-africa-ai-data-center-protests/?ref=sharespective.com)** — Danai Nesta Kupemba on the Cape Town groups asking for a moratorium on hyperscale builds. One activist describes residents who queue for water watching a data centre jump the queue. | | ​ | | | 04 | **[Archaeological 'breakthrough' could confirm origins of Paris](https://phys.org/news/2026-09-archaeological-breakthrough-paris.html?ref=sharespective.com)** — A charred stone-and-wood wall under the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre-Dame, may be a rampart of Gallic Lutetia. The fire damage could match Caesar's account of the Gauls burning their own town in 52 BC. | | ​ | | | 05 | **[Angry Anderson, Australian rock legend and Rose Tattoo frontman, dies aged 79](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-23/angry-anderson-rose-tattoo-frontman-dies/107028898?ref=sharespective.com)** — Melissa Brown on a pub rocker who ended up in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. His ballad Suddenly played at Scott and Charlene's wedding on Neighbours, which more than 20 million people watched. | ### Wrapping up America's September jobs report lands on Friday 2 October at 8.30​am in Washington, which is 1.30​am Saturday in Auckland and 10.30​pm Friday in Sydney. Employers added 162,000 jobs in August and unemployment was 4.1%. After Friday's inflation expectations, the wage figure matters as much as the headline. Nike reports after the US close on Thursday 1 October, early Friday morning here. The line to find is Greater China, where revenue fell 17% last quarter. The shares are down 44% this year. USD/NZD is at 1.77 and USD/AUD at 1.42, both little changed on the day. Fremantle and Brisbane meet at the MCG this afternoon. Enjoy the weekend. ​ General information and commentary only, not financial advice. It does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs, and reflects the author's own reading of public information at the time of writing, which may be wrong. Sharespective, its people and its clients may hold positions in the companies covered. Do your own research and talk to a licensed adviser.