Markets — Nasdaq +1.5% before the open even as TLT breaks 78; Tokyo +3.3% on Micron's record quarter
The fourth quarter opens on a green screen — even though long bonds just broke a key level. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 1.5% before the US open, Tokyo's Nikkei closed up 3.29% at about 68,950, and Seoul's Kospi rose about 1%. The spark was Micron's report: a record quarter and a guide well above estimates, read as proof that AI spending is still accelerating. Chip-equipment makers in Tokyo and memory makers in Seoul led.
The six weeks that usually hurt stocks the most are behind us, and the Nasdaq 100 did not get hurt: it rose 4.2% in August and 3.2% in September and closed Wednesday at 30,408.50, just 1.05% below its record of 22 September. Futures point to a gain of about 1.5% at Thursday's open, enough to set a new high. History says the next nine months are the best stretch of the four-year cycle: since 1986 the Nasdaq 100 rose from the end of September of a midterm year to the following June in all ten cases, by 31% on average. The question is whether 2026 is a normal midterm year. The two midterm years with a bad final quarter, 2018 and 2022, were years when the Fed was raising rates — and two Fed voters are talking about a hike again.