Nora Melinda

We're seeing a lot of whipsawing in the market and a lot of conversation here about a potential AI bubble.

But when you think about valuations from the S&P 500 more broadly, we haven't even seen a 5% decline in the S&P 500 since April.

So we do have folks over at Truist Securities really talking about the fact that maybe this is time for a correction because this is a longer period than we've seen opposed to normal here as we haven't seen a correction here for the broader market.

Well, a lot of activity happening here in the options market.

As you mentioned, Nvidia, of course, being the Super Bowl event for the market next Wednesday post-market.

But we are seeing call options here on the VIX, which strikes around 60 here and set to expire right before the Nvidia earnings come out.

So it really is showing you a bit of a glimpse into the options market and what that means as we think about volatility more broadly and what that means for the broader market.

Right.

And he is talking about the fact that potentially a lot of these tech companies are using it to pad artificially their earnings here.

So when we think about tech companies and the fact that we do see them flying high, we're seeing valuations super intense here.

We're seeing them very high.

It just really begs the question more broadly as to whether or not these tech companies are running further beyond what fundamentals will actually allow.

It's regularly called a K-shaped economy.

So you're absolutely right.

We have AI valuations that are really driving business investment and overall economic growth.

R&D spending, for example, it was up 15% in Q2.

That is the highest it's been since the dot-com era.

Right now, you know, we saw an immediate de-escalation when we had the U.S.-China trade talks back in October.

And so that removed an immediate headwind.

Now, what that does, and in broader sense, what tariffs do is they create a situation where companies don't have quite the forward guidance that they would like.