Highlights of the week: Fed rate, Alphabet grows to $3 trillion, Nvidia and Intel alliance

The US Federal Reserve has cut its policy rate by 25 bps to 4-4.25% for the first time in 2025 and forecasts further monetary easing. Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel and become its largest shareholder. Alphabet broke the $3 trillion capitalization bar amid an antitrust victory and optimism around the Gemini platform. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping discussed the fate of TikTok in the U.S. by phone and agreed to meet. The main events from September 15 to 19 - in our review.

The US Federal Reserve on September 17 cut its key rate by 25 basis points, to 4-4.25% for the first time in 2025, after five consecutive unchanged meetings. Stephen Miran, a new member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) nominated to the committee by US President Donald Trump, was the only one to vote in favor of a 50 bps rate cut, while the other 11 FOMC members supported a cautious cut.

The regulator forecasts two more downgrades - 50 bps this year and 25 bps. - in 2026. In the release, the Fed noted that economic growth has slowed, job growth has declined, unemployment has risen slightly but remains low, and inflation is above target.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes rose immediately after the Fed's decision, but then reversed, with the S&P 500 sagging 0.3% and the Nasdaq up nearly 1%, while the Russell 2000, which follows small-caps stocks that are more credit-sensitive, accelerated to 2% and hit a new record since 2021, Bloomberg noted. The dollar index fell to its lowest level since 2025.

Analysts at JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Oppenheimer warned that the soft policy could be perceived as a signal of weakness in the economy and increase the risks of a market pullback in a traditionally weak September. Nevertheless, Citigroup and UBS note that lower rates will support growth stocks and create opportunities for long-term investors.

What else is there to read about it?

- Barron's pointed out eight small-caps that have the greatest potential for growth on the back of the key rate cut. Which companies were included in the list - in the article of Oninvest correspondent Maria Dranishnikova "Barron's named eight small-cap stocks that can benefit from the Fed rate cut".

Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel, becoming one of the largest shareholders with a stake of about 4%. The companies have agreed to jointly develop processors for PCs and servers: Intel will use Nvidia's graphics technology in its chips and supply its processors for data centers based on Nvidia's hardware. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed, but representatives of both companies emphasized that this is a commercial arrangement for the exchange of chips, without licensing.

"This historic collaboration tightly integrates Nvidia's AI (neural network solutions - Oninvest) and accelerated computing stack with Intel's processors and extensive x86 ecosystem - merging two world-class platforms," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is quoted as saying in a press release. - Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing."

The market perceived the deal with a boom: shares of Intel on September 18 at the moment soared by 30%, ending the trading session up 22%, Nvidia securities added 3.5%. The partnership opens Intel new prospects after a long period in the crisis and carries risks for TSMC and AMD, which compete in the production of chips and data center segment, noted Reuters.

Experts differ in their assessments of the scale of the cooperation. Wedbush believes it is a "game changer" and puts Intel at the forefront of the AI sphere. "It remains to be seen whether this is a gesture of formal cooperation for political purposes or the beginning of a broader collaboration that will bring significant benefits to Intel," said Wolfe Research analyst Chris Caso.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held talks on the fate of TikTok in the US on Friday, September 19. According to the White House, the parties made "significant progress," but there is no final agreement, CNBC reports.

Trump called the conversation with the Chinese leader "very productive." "We made progress on many important issues, including trade and the TikTok deal," Trump said. He also announced plans to meet Xi at the APEC summit in South Korea on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 this year and to visit China in early 2026.

"We hope the U.S. will ensure open, fair and non-discriminatory conditions for Chinese investment," China's state-run Xinhua news agency wrote following the talks.

TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, must either sell the U.S. business or exit the U.S. market under federal law. Trump has repeatedly extended the deadline for selling the business, set back by Joe Biden, with the deadline now set for December 16, 2025.

The market capitalization of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, for the first time exceeded $3 trillion in trading on Monday, September 15. On this day, the company's shares rose by 4.3%: the driver of growth was the completion of the antitrust case, in which the regulator demanded the sale of the Chrome browser, and the increase in the target on shares from Citigroup, he assumes their growth by about 10% of the current value. Shares of the company in recent days were also helped by the publication of a strong second-quarter report Alphabet, showing that demand for products with artificial intelligence supports the company's sales, Bloomberg noted.

Alphabet has become the fourth company in the world after Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple to reach a capitalization of $3 trillion. Since the beginning of the year, Alphabet's securities have risen by more than 30%. For comparison, the index of shares of companies in the technology sector Nasdaq Composite for this period rose by about 16%. Analysts are generally positive: more than 80% of Bloomberg experts recommend buying the stock, and the consensus target price on Wall Street is $237.2. According to Citi, Gemini's accelerating adoption of advertising and cloud, as well as reduced regulatory risks, create a base for further growth.

What else is there to read about it?

- Record spending on AI by Alphabet, Amazon and Meta could pose risks for the tech giants, Bank of America analysts have warned. Their concerns are discussed in the article "Invisible risk: how expensive investments in AI may hit Alphabet, Meta and Amazon".

Early data showed that demand for the new generation of iPhones is higher than for the smartphones of the previous series. JPMorgan recorded a faster set of applications for the new generation of Apple smartphones compared to the start of sales of the previous lineup. The highest interest is observed in the basic version of iPhone 17, as well as in the thin Air model, analysts of the investment bank noted.

According to an analysis by BofA Securities, the iPhone 17's delivery time has become the longest since the iPhone 11, and in China and Japan it is a week ahead of other markets. This is a signal of strong demand, analysts said.

Apple shares throughout the week remained below the level recorded before the presentation of the iPhone 17, but analysts are generally positive: most experts advise to buy the company's securities. A strong start to pre-orders could support Apple's results in the third quarter, said TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Moody's warned of Oracle's growing debt burden due to rapid expansion of its AI business and a $300 billion contract with OpenAI, but left the company's rating unchanged (Baa2). Analysts note that dependence on a single customer increases counterparty risk, and negative cash flow can persist for a long time before new projects start to generate revenue. The contract with OpenAI involves the delivery of 4.5 GW of computing power and puts Oracle among the key players in AI infrastructure alongside Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.

The deal with OpenAI has become a growth driver for Oracle shares: since the beginning of the year they have risen by more than 80%, including 36% - last week, when the company reported a record volume of future contracts ($455 billion vs. $138 billion a quarter earlier). According to TipRanks, the securities have a Strong Buy rating, and Jefferies analysts call Oracle "a new force in the cloud wars" and expect growth of 20% from the current value - up to $360.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor