AFS Markets Blog: Morning 09/11/2026

• Meanwhile in markets, the AI trade appears to be finding some grip again after a bruising week. Bonds are largely treading water this morning, with US Treasury yields hovering near Friday’s closing levels;

• Our AI dashboard – which tracks roughly 20 names active across the AI ecosystem – clearly illustrates the damage inflicted on the trade. Not a single player is trading higher than it was a month ago, and on a week-to-date basis, only the mega-cap hyperscalers (Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft) remain in the green. Losses across semiconductor names range from two and a half percent for TSMC to 22 percent for memory maker SanDisk. Overnight in Asia, while South Korea's Kospi was down marginally, memory heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung held their ground with gains of around half a percent. Meanwhile, Nasdaq futures are slipping slightly below Friday’s close this morning, though they remain more than one percent above last week's lows;

• In bond markets, US Treasury yields are down marginally from Friday’s closing level by a basis point across the curve. Bund yields are down 2bps on the short end while holding steady at the long-end. Le Spread sits at 152bps at pixel time – slightly above Friday’s closing level;

• Over in energy, Brent crude is holding near Friday’s closing level amid mixed messaging on the Iran war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed prospects of an imminent breakthrough over the weekend, while President Trump suggested that a continuation of the war remains unlikely – though not out of the question;

• Looking ahead, it promises to be a relatively quiet session today, with a handful of Fed and ECB speakers are on the schedule. Attention will also be on today’s Eurogroup meeting, where Eurozone finance ministers begin evaluating the two-horse race between Klaas Knot and Pablo Hernández de Cos for the ECB presidency.

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