Morning Highlights: Global Stocks Fall; Anthropic Reports Revenue Growth Ahead of Its IPO

Global stock markets were hit by a sell-off amid concerns over further Fed rate hikes and rising financing costs for AI infrastructure. Anthropic, which is preparing for an IPO, reported a 45% increase in quarterly revenue to $16.8 billion. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of October 15.

Futures on U.S. stock indices fell amid concerns about accelerating inflation and the Fed tightening monetary policy, according to CNBC. S&P 500 futures lost 0.5%, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.1%, and Dow Jones futures dropped 0.1%. The previous day, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.9%, marking its worst performance since July 23, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.1% and the Dow Jones fell 0.1%. The sell-off also affected Asian markets: South Korea’s Kospi plummeted 7.8% amid declines in SK Hynix and Samsung shares; Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 4.4%; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng by 1%, and China’s CSI 300 by 1.4%.

Pressure on the markets intensified following the release of U.S. inflation data, which came in higher than analysts' expectations in September, the TV channel reports. Investors fear that the Fed may accelerate its policy tightening before the end of the year.

Shares of Nvidia-backed cloud provider CoreWeave fell 15% during trading on October 14 amid a rise in its bond yields to 15% and concerns about a bubble forming in the private lending market, according to CNBC. Shares of other AI infrastructure providers also came under pressure: Nebius Group and Iren lost up to 10%.

Investors are actively betting on a further decline in CoreWeave: trading volume in the company’s options has exceeded the 30-day average by more than seven times, the TV channel reports. One trader spent $1.9 million on put options that will pay off if the stock falls another 42% or so by mid-December, CNBC notes.

The sell-off of tech stocks in Asia intensified on October 15 amid concerns over further Fed rate hikes and rising financing costs for AI infrastructure, according to CNBC. Shares of South Korea’s SK Hynix plummeted by more than 10%, Samsung Electronics lost 7.1%, and LG Innotek fell 8.1%. In Japan, SoftBank Group shares dropped 7.9%, Advantest fell 6.9%, and Tokyo Electron declined 5.4%.

Investors fear that if yields on U.S. Treasury bonds rise above 5%, large-scale data center construction will become too expensive, the TV channel explains.

Revenue for Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, rose by approximately 45% in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter, reaching $16.8 billion, according to The New York Times, which cited sources familiar with the company’s investor presentation. In the second quarter, the figure was $11.6 billion. Anthropic also reported that it became profitable on an adjusted basis, and its adjusted gross margin reached 85%.

Anthropic is preparing to go public as early as November. According to bankers' estimates, the company could raise more than $100 billion at a valuation of $2 trillion, which would make the offering the largest in history, the publication notes.

Apple is preparing to launch its Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence platform in mainland China in December alongside the iOS 27.3 update, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. The company received preliminary approval from Chinese regulators back in July, but the launch has been postponed several times.

To enter the market, Apple had to agree to additional restrictions: the system will use content control mechanisms developed in collaboration with Alibaba, and Chinese authorities will be able to approve updates to AI models, the agency notes.

In the first phase, users will have access to the basic features that were introduced in the U.S. back in 2024, including emoji generation, brief summaries of notifications, and text-editing tools. However, the updated Siri AI assistant powered by Google Gemini, as well as image generation tools, will not be available.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index fell 2%, while the Nikkei 225 fell 4.4%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.3%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 1.9%.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI fell 6.9%, and the KOSDAQ fell 7.2%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1%.

— Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.8%, S&P 500 futures were down 0.3%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were virtually unchanged.

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