Evening digest: Gold hits 2-month high, Supermicro jumps on earnings

Markets delivered another eventful session on Wednesday as investors reacted to softer-than-feared US inflation data, fresh developments in artificial intelligence, and corporate earnings.

Gold climbed to a more than two-month high after inflation matched expectations, while Bitcoin weakened despite easing rate-hike bets.

Super Micro Computer surged after delivering stronger-than-expected earnings and an upbeat outlook, while SpaceX shares rebounded as Elon Musk outlined ambitious plans for the company's AI business.

Gold price climbs as inflation supports Fed pause hopes

Gold rose to its highest level in more than two months after US consumer inflation came in line with expectations, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve could leave interest rates unchanged in September.

Spot gold gained 1% to $4,412.68 per ounce after earlier touching its strongest level since June 5. US gold futures settled 0.73% higher at $4,473.

July consumer prices rose 0.1% month over month and 3.4% annually, matching economists' forecasts following June's 0.4% decline.

According to CME FedWatch data, traders reduced the probability of a September rate hike to around 40% after the inflation report, down from 46% before the data.

Geopolitical risks also remained in focus after separate attacks on shipping involving the US and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis added to uncertainty surrounding the Iran conflict.

Bitcoin price slips despite easing rate-hike expectations

Bitcoin traded below $63,300 despite inflation data that broadly supported expectations for a steady Federal Reserve policy.

The cryptocurrency erased earlier gains even as softer inflation and weaker labor-market data strengthened the case for rates remaining unchanged.

Attention has now shifted to Thursday's Producer Price Index report.

Meanwhile, market participants also remained cautious about Bitcoin's technical outlook. Analyst Rekt Capital warned that repeated rebounds from the $63,000 level have continued to weaken.

"The progressively weakening support at ~$63k (orange) is clear. 6.27% --> 5.83% --> 3.18% --> and now 1.15% thus far," he wrote.

"At some point the bounces will become so weak that the floor will simply break."

Super Micro earnings boost AI infrastructure stocks

Super Micro Computer shares jumped 19% in trading after the AI server maker reported quarterly earnings that exceeded Wall Street expectations and issued stronger-than-anticipated revenue guidance.

Adjusted earnings reached $1.70 per share while adjusted gross margin improved to 17.6%, well above the company's earlier forecast.

Revenue nearly doubled to $11.1 billion from a year earlier, although it narrowly missed analyst estimates.

The company forecast first-quarter revenue of $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion and fiscal 2027 revenue of $65 billion to $72 billion, comfortably ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Management also said the company secured more than $60 billion in new orders during the June quarter and entered fiscal 2027 with a record backlog, although some revenue was delayed because customers were still securing power, cooling and networking infrastructure.

Investors also continued to assess the impact of Supermicro's previously announced $7 billion financing programme, which includes common equity and equity-linked securities to help fund AI-related component purchases.

The upbeat results lifted broader AI hardware stocks, with Micron, SK Hynix, SanDisk and Western Digital all posting strong gains.

SpaceX stock rebounds after Musk outlines AI vision

SpaceX shares rose about 9% after CEO Elon Musk presented an ambitious vision for artificial intelligence during an employee meeting, helping the stock recover above its IPO price.

Musk argued AI could soon become the company's largest source of revenue.

"Probably our AI revenue — not probably, definitely — our AI revenue will exceed all other SpaceX revenue probably in September, like next month," Musk said.

"And will significantly exceed all other SpaceX revenue in the fourth quarter," he added.

Musk also discussed plans for integrating Grok into SpaceX's operations.

"We're going to be training Grok on the sum total of all SpaceX information," Musk said. "So in a way, it'll be trained on you."

He added that SpaceX employees would be "the parents of the AI."

The comments came as Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and $300 price target on SpaceX. Analyst Adam Jonas said additional progress around the company's AI initiatives could significantly increase its valuation.

"As investors see more breadcrumbs on the Cursor/Grok story, we see potential for the implied valuation discount on SpaceX's AI business to lift, driving potentially substantial appreciation of the stock," Jonas wrote.