A week of AI doubts and $117 oil; a super week comes next

It's Sunday, so here's a look back at the week. The Nasdaq had its biggest drop since June on Thursday, and while Friday's selling eased, the index still closed lower. The Dow fell 1.25% on Friday as the selling spread beyond tech. It was a week when inflation worries and AI worries pressed on the market at the same time.

The AI story came down to money. Meta's capex jumped 80% and its free cash flow turned negative, while credit risk at neoclouds like CoreWeave grew, fueling talk of cracks in the data-center boom. Still, forecasts of data-center spending more than doubling to $2.1 trillion by 2028 haven't gone away. Korea felt the shock too: the KOSPI fell 2.8% in a day and SK Hynix pulled the U.S. IPO of its NAND unit.

WTI climbed above $117, back to its Iran-war high, on talk that the U.S. and Israel could strike Iran again right after the midterms. Ship attacks in the Strait of Hormuz hit a record in October. The Trump administration invoked the Defense Production Act to boost domestic refining and is bringing in its first Russian diesel cargo, but that's a sliver of U.S. demand.

Next week is a super week. Big-tech earnings, including Alphabet and Amazon, a Fed meeting and pre-midterm positioning all land at once. The consensus is for a hold now and a hike in December, though a few even float a surprise cut on financial-stability grounds. One more wrinkle: Treasury bill settlements could drain about $100 billion in liquidity.