Equities are trading in the green today despite a hotter than expected CPI print this morning. The August Core CPI print came in at +0.29% m/m vs +0.2% est, with notable increases in telephone services and travel. This has increased the likelihood of a September hike to ~85%, which could lead to a “rip the band aid” moment by pricing in certainty for next month.

In the tech sector, semis and the AI space are seeing strength with the SMH, NDX, and GSTMTAIP Index all up over 1%. However, under the hood, ORCL and ADBE are unchanged after a bullish tone from yesterday’s meetings. The macro “wrong-way” positioning tape is driving these moves rather than idiosyncratic headlines from this morning.

Today marks the conclusion of Goldman’s Communacopia and Technology conference in SF, where NVDA’s Huang reinforced his outlook for AI infrastructure spending of $3-4tn by 2030.

From a technical standpoint, the ETF as a percent of tape is elevated at 32%, and top of book liquidity is normalizing to $10.11mm. CTAs are now modeled to sell $30mm in a 1-week flat tape and $39mm in a 1-month flat tape.

Overall, flows are balanced with LOs skewed 12% better for sale and HFs skewed 1.7% better for sale in macro products, communication services, and information tech.