How should investors navigate a world of simultaneous geopolitical shock, a hawkish Federal Reserve and relentless innovation in artificial intelligence? And with growth stocks down 50 to 80% while indices remain relatively resilient, is the worst of the selling behind us or is there more pain ahead? In this episode of AlphaTarget PULSE, host Puru Saxena and the panel assess the compounding pressures facing global equity markets, from US-Israel strikes on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, to the Fed's decision to hold rates and signal only one cut in 2025. Against this backdrop, the team examines Nvidia's landmark GTC event, the unravelling of Meta's Metaverse ambitions and the emergence of agentic commerce as the next frontier in AI-driven retail. The panel explores: Geopolitics, oil and inflation: How US and Israeli military action against Iran, the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on Gulf energy infrastructure are driving oil price volatility, stoking inflationary pressure and complicating the Federal Reserve's path to rate cuts and what this means for consumer economies dependent on imported energy. Federal Reserve and macro outlook: Why the Fed's decision to hold rates and signal only one cut this year, combined with stalling private sector job creation, raises the risk of stagflation and how equity markets, particularly large-cap technology, are beginning to price in a more challenging macro environment. Nvidia GTC and the AI infrastructure buildout: What Jensen Huang's one trillion dollar visibility figure for AI infrastructure spending through 2027 signals about the durability of the capital expenditure cycle, why the Vera Rubin architecture's power efficiency gains matter for data centre operators, and why the market's muted reaction to record-breaking numbers may itself be the most telling signal of all. Agentic commerce and the evolving AI ecosystem: What Walmart's decision to embed its own Sparky agent inside ChatGPT, and potentially Gemini and Claude, reveals about how large language models are being repositioned as distribution platforms, and what this emerging handoff model means for monetisation across the AI stack. Meta, the Metaverse and capital reallocation: Why the shutdown of Horizon Worlds on Quest headsets marks a definitive end to one of the most expensive strategic miscalculations in technology history, and how the reallocation of tens of billions in Reality Labs capex toward Llama and AI infrastructure reflects a broader industry reckoning with where durable value is actually being created. Portfolio strategy and hedging in a fragmented stock market: Why the historic decoupling between growth stocks and major indices has rendered traditional index-based hedges ineffective, and how the team is evolving its approach toward individual stock put options to achieve a true and meaningful hedge in today's deeply uncorrelated market environment. -- AlphaTarget PULSE brings you timely, institutional-grade insights on markets, business, technology and investing. Every other Friday, our Founder Puru Saxena (veteran money manager and Founder of money management firms in Hong Kong) and our highly experienced analysts (ex-Citibank, Societe Generale, Peel Hunt, Berenberg, Motley Fool) cut through the noise and dissect markets, disruptive business trends, technological developments and opportunities, revealing where the smart money is investing. AlphaTarget PULSE is a production of AlphaTarget, a premier research firm which specialises in uncovering disruptive, rapidly growing companies in the public markets, equipping investors with actionable insights to stay ahead in today's ever-evolving business landscape. Our firm is trusted by a wide range of investors including individuals, family offices, financial advisers, funds and wealth managers and our research subscription educates and empowers investors to make smarter decisions.

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