MARKET WRAPS

STOCKS: Stocks rose as fears about runaway inflation moderated in the wake of the Federal Reserve's rate increase.

TREASURYS: Treasury yields gave back some of their gains, as markets showed faith in Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh's plan to fight inflation.

FOREX: The U.S. dollar was more or less flat against rivals as traders weighed the outlook for further rate increases.

COMMODITIES: Oil futures ticked down amid optimism about a rapid return of Saudi oil exports to the market.

HEADLINES

U.S. Housing Starts Fell in August

Housing starts fell in August as home-building activity declined. Here

are the main takeaways from the Commerce Department's report released

Thursday:

Write to Jessica Coacci at jessica.coacci@wsj.com

U.S. Jobless Claims Tumbled Last Week

U.S. jobless claims sank last week, the latest sign of a resilient

economy that could force policymakers to hike rates further this year.

The number of people who filed for unemployment benefits was 196,000

in the week through Sept. 12, 10,000 lower than the unrevised 206,000

reported a week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists

surveyed by The Wall Street Journal were expecting to see the figure tick

up to 207,000.

Continuing claims, which scale with the total size of the unemployed

population, totaled 1.73 million in the week through Sept. 5, sliding by

39,000 from the downwardly revised total a week earlier. The data on

continuing claims lag the initial-claims data by a week.

Mastercard Joins Visa in Letting AI Bots Do Your Shopping

Big credit card companies that power the payments world see a time

coming soon where AI bots do your shopping-even without checking with you

before making purchases.

Mastercard rolled out an artificial-intelligence payment option

Thursday for everyday purchases, through a partnership with the startup

Alchemy, the companies said. The so-called agentic system would allow a

virtual credit card to be issued to a person's AI bot with set

restrictions, such as a cap on how much it can spend and on what type of

products. The bot can then buy things on its own, without consulting the

credit card holder or first seeking permission.

Agentic commerce is a hot topic in finance, where executives are

preparing for a new era of shopping bots that drive purchases. In theory,

a bot could find good prices and products and have them delivered to

their cardholder's front door. But it is a complex system that raises a

host of questions about customer protections and fraud risks that

merchants and payment processors have built over the years, industry

executives say.

Microsoft Is Preaching AI Transformation, Starting With Itself

Artificial intelligence has turned software development at Microsoft

upside down, and the changes reflect how technology is accelerating a

wholesale reconsideration of the way the entire company functions.

On Thursday, Microsoft is releasing a playbook detailing how it is

navigating the AI upheaval. It includes lessons that employees like Julia

Gao, a 23-year-old software engineer, have had to learn quickly as their

roles have radically changed in a matter of months.

"When I first joined Microsoft last year, we were using AI, but it

wasn't to the extent that we are now. I was still writing code by

myself," Gao told me last week over lunch at Microsoft headquarters in

Redmond, Wash.

GM to Produce Patriot Missile Parts as U.S. Faces Critical Arms Shortage

General Motors has entered the missile business.

The automaker is supplying parts for Lockheed Martin's Patriot

missiles, the military contractor said Thursday-a potential lift to U.S.

munitions supplies depleted by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle

East.

Lockheed, which faces Pentagon demands to sharply boost munitions

production, said GM delivered an initial batch of missile-housing

components for PAC-3 MSE interceptors in August.

Stellantis Could Face Strike Threat in Canada Over Factory Sale

OTTAWA-The union representing more than 9,000 Stellantis employees in

Canada said Thursday it could be in a strike position in the coming weeks

unless the carmaker changes course on its plan to sell a Toronto-area

factory to a defense firm.

Unifor officials are weighing their next steps, as the current labor

deal with Stellantis expires on Sept. 20, Lana Payne, the union's

president, said Thursday. The union's goal is to reach a tentative

settlement with Stellantis without a strike, she added.

"However, bargaining remains extremely challenging right now, and we

are at an impasse. Therefore, strike action remains a real possibility,"

Payne said.

Yeti Sees Long-Term Growth Driven by New Product Lines, International

Expansion

Yeti Holdings expects its growth to continue in the years ahead as it

looks to expand its product portfolio and international presence.

The cooler and drinkware maker on Thursday said it is targeting annual

net sales growth in the mid-single to high-single digits through fiscal

2030, with annual growth for adjusted earnings per share at a

low-double-digit to high-teens rate.

Yeti also backed the fiscal 2026 outlook it provided last month,

guiding for sales growth of 7% to 8% on adjusted earnings per share of

$2.94 to $3 for this year.

AI Startup Plaud Plans to File for U.S. IPO in 2028

AI startup Plaud plans to file for a U.S. initial public offering in

2028, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Nathan Xu.

The San Francisco-based company will be ready for an IPO once annual

revenue exceeds $1 billion, Xu said in an interview. Plaud is targeting

$500 million in global sales this year as it continues to grow rapidly.

The company said it reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue

and now serves more than 2.5 million users across over 170 countries.

Plaud was incorporated in 2022.

Salesforce Targets Fiscal 2030 Revenue at Over $63 Billion

Salesforce expects its annual revenue to top $63 billion by fiscal

2030, a forecast that comes in ahead of Wall Street estimates.

The company, which sells software with which companies manage their

sales and marketing functions, had been projected to hit annual revenue

of $60.66 billion by that time, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

Salesforce's long-term outlook comes after the company's guidance

raise last month, when it also posted higher second-quarter profit and

revenue driven by accelerating demand for its artificial-intelligence and

data products.

TALKING POINT Rising Rates Will Make Private Equity's Bad Year a Lot Worse

The zombie nightmare haunting private-equity firms isn't ending anytime soon.

The Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates on Wednesday will deepen problems in their portfolios from a generation of buyouts that are stuck. Investors have been clamoring to recover a record $349 billion in these "zombie funds," but higher rates will make deals even more difficult, meaning that number is likely to grow.

The bigger the logjam gets, the harder it will be to raise new funds, reducing the fee income private-equity firms rely on, a cycle that can spiral.

"I do think you will see a squeezing of the number of managers and maybe some managers that grew really rapidly over the last decade will have to contract back down," Apollo Global Management Co-President Scott Kleinman told analysts at a conference Monday. Apollo continues to attract private-equity investors because its recent funds have delivered stronger returns than the average, he said.

Private-equity firms came into 2026 hoping for relief. President Trump appointed Kevin Warsh as the Fed's new chairman and the expectation was for rates to be cut. Deals were picking up.

This month, the stocks of big alternative fund managers like Apollo, Blackstone and KKR have dropped while talk of rate increases picked up.

--Matt Wirz and Mark Maurer, The Wall Street Journal

Expected Major Events for Friday 06:00/GER: Aug PPI

06:00/UK: Aug Retail sales

08:30/UK: 2Q Bank of England statistics on UK banks' external claims

08:30/UK: Aug Monthly Insolvency statistics

08:59/JPN: Japan Monetary Policy Meeting decision

09:00/ITA: Jul Balance of Payments

13:15/US: Aug Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

14:00/US: Aug Leading Indicators

14:00/US: Aug State Employment and Unemployment

All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Friday Bloomia Holdings Inc (TULP) is expected to report for 4Q.

Progressive Corp $(PGR)$ is expected to report.

Southern Banc Co Inc (SRNN) is expected to report for 4Q.

Starcore International Mines Ltd (SAM.T) is expected to report for 1Q.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.