U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, with the S&P 500 topping 7,600 as megacap technology overpowered another hot inflation print. Nine sectors finished green, led by technology and industrials.

Core CPI rose +0.3% versus +0.2% expected, pushing the odds of a rate hike next Wednesday to 90%. Brent finished above $104 after Saudi Arabia shut a 7M-barrel-per-day pipeline, and U.S. diesel reached a record $6.05 per gallon.

Stocktwits heat clustered around $SLS, $OKLO, $GME, $SMR, and $GT. Traders bought the nuclear selloff, celebrated Ryan Cohen’s GameStop purchase, and turned a third-party Sellas trial model into an afternoon food fight.

Today's Briefing: Powered by Stocktwits Community API.

SELLAS Life Sciences, a late-stage cancer drug developer, sank Friday after a third-party survival model circulated on social media and challenged the assumed odds of success for its Phase 3 REGAL trial. The company released no news, filing, or trial update alongside the move.

The RIP: $SLS fell -14.4% to $11.55 on 14.5M shares, 2.7 times normal volume. Reported short interest stood at 28.7% with 6.9 days to cover as of Aug. 31. The last confirmed trial count was 78 of 80 required events.

The Community Read: The $SLS room is bearish, see the fight over the trial model ->

Oklo, an advanced-reactor developer, fell Friday after opening a new $1B at-the-market stock-sale program one day after closing its previous facility. That earlier program sold 17,971,448 shares and raised roughly $1B in less than four months.

The RIP: $OKLO dropped -9.2% to $36.22 on 22.3M shares, 2.3 times normal volume, and touched a new 52-week low. The new program permits another $1B in sales and pays agents commissions of up to 1.5%.

At Friday’s closing price, raising the full amount would require roughly 27.6M additional shares before fees. Oklo said the proceeds may fund working capital, capital spending, general corporate purposes, and future investments.

The company needs heavy funding to commercialize its nuclear technology, but shareholders are paying for that runway one offering at a time. Every dollar the stock loses requires more shares to raise the same cash.

The Community Read: The $OKLO room is bearish, see who still wants the dilution dip ->

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For those that live and work in the New York City metro area, and frankly all Americans, this is a hard day. It always seems to be the most beautiful weather all year on September 11th, only making the loss hurt all the more. My family lost people, as everyone did that worked downtown.

My parents lost the best man of their wedding. My brother's godfather was supposed to be at a meeting that day at the World Trade Center but overslept. Many of my closest kindergarten friends lost their parents that day, and grew up without ever meeting them. Hundreds of our bravest, the first responders entering the towers, the heroes that brought down the fourth flight unarmed, the clean up workers that died of cancer, were lost. The wars that have followed, our loss of civil liberties, have since lasted my entire life.

My father walked through the clouds of dust that week, alongside millions of New Yorkers returning to work, and took the ferry home. Reporting from where he arrived on the other side of the Hudson in Jersey City, we will never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We are all so lucky to be here.

-kt

August inflation came in hot enough Friday to turn next week’s rate hike from a debate into the market’s base case. After five straight holds, Kevin Warsh is staring at his first increase as Fed chairman and the central bank’s first hike in three years. Not so easy now, is it, Powell critics? 🧓

The RIP: Core CPI rose +0.3% month over month versus +0.2% expected and +2.4% annually. Headline CPI climbed +0.4% monthly and +3.4% annually, while energy prices jumped +2.1%. Traders pushed the odds of a Wednesday hike to 90%.

“If inflation comes in hot, I would consider a rate hike,” Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said Sept. 3.

The monthly surprise was partly driven by a record increase in wireless phone services, which can reverse quickly. But oil around $100, tariffs, and the data center buildout allow the Fed less room to dismiss another hot print as noise.

Real hourly earnings fell -0.3% from a year earlier, leaving households caught between higher prices and weak purchasing power. Trump called for lower rates last week and threatened trade restrictions if the Fed refused, against… someone… but futures now price another hike by December.

“Friday's CPI print was in-line with expectations, but inflation is still too hot, and the Federal Reserve's hands are tied. A rate hike next week is all but assured.” Skyler Weinand, chief investment officer at Regan Capital told WSJ.

August inflation already showed rising energy and gas costs contributed a third of price increases. Then the bad news hit, like Cluade-coded missile hitting the side of a pipeline that should have been buried under the sand. Hours after the report, Saudi Arabia shut the 7M-barrel-per-day pipeline that had become its main escape route around the Strait of Hormuz.

The pipeline carries crude from the Persian Gulf side of the kingdom to Red Sea terminals. Tanker traffic through Hormuz had already slowed sharply. According to CBS, WSJ Houthi advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are threatening the pipeline’s Red Sea exit, squeezing both sides of Saudi Arabia’s exports. The estimated 26 million barrels a day, sourced from 20M through the strait and 4-7M through the pipeline, has trickled to less than 10%. Friday, that number dropped even more dramatically.

Brent finished the week above $104 after touching nearly $110 on Thursday; it somehow fell on the news. Saudi Arabia reached out to the U.S. for help, according to Axios, but it was a bad day to ask.

Analysts said significant pipeline damage could send crude toward $120. Meanwhile, U.S. diesel hit a record $6.05 per gallon, up more than +60% from a year ago.

The Falling Man

📺 Hugging Face CEO says asking Anthropic researcher ‘about AI extinction risk is like asking your AC guy about climate change’

📰 Record U.S. cyclosporiasis outbreak is over, CDC says

🛢️ Federal court rules against Trump order keeping Michigan coal plant running

🪙 Bitcoin Rises as Markets Digest Inflation Data Ahead of Fed Rate Decision

📊 Paramount To Reportedly Meet State AGs In Late October For Settlement Talks Around WBD Buy — $7M Daily Ticking Fee Edges Close

25.1K WATCHERS · BULLISH · HIGH ACTIVITY

UBS downgraded NuScale to Sell and cut its target from $10 to $6, citing a five-plus-year construction timeline, no firm customer commitments, and an estimated $700M cash burn through 2028.

685 WATCHERS · BEARISH · HIGH ACTIVITY

Alliance Entertainment’s fiscal 2026 revenue rose 8% to $1.15B as vinyl, CDs, movies, and collectibles grew, though net income slipped to $13.1M from $15.1M.

13.5K WATCHERS · BULLISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY

HPE and $DELL rallied after Oracle’s 121% cloud infrastructure growth reinforced server demand, while RBC launched Dell at Outperform with a $640 target and cited its $95B AI server backlog.

Bearish 🐻 | Bullish 🐮 | It’s Complicated 😵‍💫

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