This preview of weekly data examines USOIL and XAUUSD, with economic data expected later this week as the primary market drivers of the near-term outlook. 

Highlights of the week: US inflation & PPI, Chinese industrial production, UK GDP

Tuesday

• US Inflation rate at 12:30 GMT, where the expectations are for a decline of around 0.3%, reaching 3.9% for June. If this is broadly accurate, then it might influence a more dovish stance by the Federal Reserve at their next meeting in July and therefore create minor losses for the Dollar at least in the short term. 

Wednesday

• Chinese GDP growth rate at 02:00 AM GMT. Market participants are expecting the figure to come out at 4.4%, 5% of the previous reading for the quarter. If this is confirmed, then we might see some short-term losses on the yuan against its pairs. 
• Chinese industrial production at 02:00 AM GMT. Industrial production from China for June is expected to increase from 4.5% to 4.7%. If this is broadly accurate, we might see some support in the production-related instruments like crude oil, silver, and copper.

• U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) at 12:30 GMT. Market participants are expecting the figure to come out at 0.2% for June, compared to 1.1% in the previous month. If this is confirmed, then it could potentially hint at lower inflation figures in the coming months.
• Bank of Canada Interest rate decision at 13:45 GMT is expected to remain stable at 2.25%. In the event of a surprise hike in interest rates, it would support the loonie in the short term. Conversely, a rate cut might create some turmoil for the currency.

Thursday

• British GDP growth at 06:00 AM GMT. The market consensus is that the figure will increase from -0.1% to 0.1% month over month.  This might not have a major effect on the pound since it is for May; however, it would provide some hints on the overall economic performance of the British economy. 

USOIL, daily

Oil prices rose after the US carried out another wave of strikes against Iran, increasing concerns over potential disruptions to global energy supplies. West Texas Intermediate climbed toward $75 a barrel as tensions escalated, with Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz and launching retaliatory drone and missile attacks against US allies in the Middle East. The renewed conflict has reintroduced a geopolitical risk premium into oil prices, reversing some of the losses seen earlier in the year. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed significantly, although key shipping lanes remain open. Oil prices are expected to remain supported while military strikes continue and uncertainty over the waterway persists. Concerns have also grown after an offshore drilling platform in Kuwait was damaged, raising fears that a broader attack on energy infrastructure could push oil prices even higher.

From a technical perspective, crude oil remains under bearish pressure despite a modest rebound from recent lows. Price continues to trade below both the 50-day and 100-day SMAs, confirming that the broader trend remains negative. The recovery has stalled below the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement at $76.45, which now acts as the first key resistance, while the 38.2% Fibonacci level near $81.80 represents a stronger upside barrier. The Stochastic oscillator has recovered from oversold territory but has yet to enter overbought levels, suggesting there is still room for further upside if momentum improves. Meanwhile, the Bollinger Bands have started to contract, indicating that volatility is easing following the recent sharp decline. Overall, the technical outlook remains cautiously bearish unless crude oil breaks above the $76.45 resistance, with the broader downtrend remaining intact while prices trade below the key moving averages.

Gold-dollar, daily

Gold prices fell after renewed US-Iran strikes over the weekend heightened geopolitical tensions and drove oil prices higher, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve may keep interest rates elevated for longer to contain inflation. Higher interest rates reduce the appeal of non-yielding assets such as gold, while a stronger US dollar and rising Treasury yields add further pressure. Investors are now awaiting the latest US inflation data and comments from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh for fresh clues on the outlook for interest rates and the precious metal.

From a technical point of view, gold remains in a broader downtrend, with the price trading below both the 50- and 100-day SMAs, reinforcing the bearish outlook. The recent rebound has lost momentum, with prices struggling to hold above the $4,100 level and remaining below the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement at $4,311, which continues to act as the first key resistance. The Stochastic oscillator has turned lower after exiting overbought territory, suggesting bullish momentum is fading and increasing the risk of renewed selling pressure. Meanwhile, the Bollinger Bands have started to narrow, indicating that volatility is easing following the recent sharp decline. Overall, the technical outlook remains bearish unless gold breaks above the $4,311 resistance, with stronger resistance located near the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement at $4,504.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this article are personal to the writer and do not reflect those of Exness.

The artificial intelligence boom has a people problem, and it is getting worse faster than most investors have noticed.

While Wall Street has spent the better part of three years fixating on chip stocks, hyperscaler spending, and the relentless march of AI valuations, a less glamorous drama has been unfolding in suburban town halls, county commission meetings, and online petitions from New Jersey to Michigan.

Ordinary Americans, armed with electricity bills, noise complaints, and a generalised anxiety about what artificial intelligence is doing to their lives, are pushing back against the physical infrastructure of the AI boom — and they are beginning to win.

In the first quarter of 2026, 75 data-centre projects worth a combined $130 billion were blocked or delayed by local opposition, according to Data Center Watch, a research firm backed by AI security company 10a Labs.

That is as many projects as faced that fate across the entirety of 2025.

The pace of resistance is accelerating precisely as the pace of construction is accelerating, creating a collision that the industry has been slow to take seriously.

Why communities are saying no

The grievances are varied, but they cluster around a handful of recurring concerns.

Power consumption sits at the top. Between 2018 and 2023, the share of total US electricity consumption represented by data centres rose from 1.9% to 4.4%, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Projections for what comes next are stark: by the end of the decade, national average wholesale electricity costs could rise between 6% and 29%, with the increase driven primarily by data-centre expansion.

In Virginia, one of the epicentres of the country’s data-centre boom, electricity generation costs could spike by as much as 57%.

Water usage is a second flashpoint.

Data centres use enormous volumes of water for cooling, and in communities already managing drought risk or ageing infrastructure, the addition of a facility consuming millions of gallons annually is not an abstraction.

Residents have also cited the constant low-frequency hum emitted by large facilities, which critics argue could fundamentally alter the character of surrounding neighbourhoods and pose health concerns with prolonged exposure.

Then there is something harder to quantify but no less real.

A general psychological resistance to artificial intelligence has fused with the more concrete grievances, giving the movement an ideological dimension that purely economic arguments cannot easily address.

About 44% of Americans now oppose data-centre construction in the United States, against just 21% who support it, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in June.

The gap widens sharply when the question becomes personal: asked whether they would support a data centre in their own community, 57% said no, while only 14% said yes.

“Something that has changed right now is that now we have people that are against data centres even though they don’t have a data centre in their backyard, because they see data centres as the embodiment of AI,” Miquel Vila, lead analyst at Data Center Watch, told Fortune.

“What they oppose is AI. They consider that stopping data centres is the way to stop AI development.”

Why Wall Street is beginning to pay attention to the protests

To appreciate why the financial stakes are significant, it helps to understand how thoroughly the data-centre buildout has underpinned the broader economy and equity markets.

Morgan Stanley estimates that hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and others will spend $800 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 — roughly the same amount that all non-technology S&P 500 companies combined spent on capex in 2025.

The Semiconductor Industry Association projects that government and industry will spend a further $4 trillion on data-centre infrastructure through 2028.

Data-centre construction spending has already topped $50 billion in a single month, surpassing total US public spending on transportation infrastructure including airports and subways, as Bloomberg reported.

AI enthusiasm has been almost entirely responsible for the S&P 500’s 84% rise since ChatGPT’s public launch in November 2022.

Goldman Sachs expects the AI investment theme to account for roughly half of all earnings growth over the next two years.

The lofty valuations of companies across the AI supply chain rest, to a significant degree, on the assumption that planned capacity will materialise.

A large portion of it may not.

“A lot of the commitments and the build-out of data centers where it’s easy has kind of been done, so you’re getting marginally more difficult,” said Todd Castagno, a managing director at Morgan Stanley in a New York Times report.

“From a markets perspective, expectations might be, maybe not reset, but realigned with the fact that it’s hard to put a couple trillion dollars in the ground in a short time.”

Cities including Tulsa, New Orleans, Birmingham and Ypsilanti Township in Michigan have implemented temporary bans on permitting or construction, as have dozens of other counties and towns, according to a database maintained by hedge fund Interconnected Capital.

Democrats and Republicans in 14 states have proposed construction pauses.

Maine’s legislature passed a temporary statewide moratorium in April, though it was subsequently vetoed by Governor Janet Mills.

Why the tech industry’s charm offensive may not be enough

The technology industry has responded with a concerted public relations effort.

Late last year, Meta spent more than $6 million on an advertising campaign across eight states and Washington DC, promoting the economic benefits of data centres to local communities.

OpenAI and Microsoft have publicly pledged to absorb the energy costs their facilities generate, a gesture aimed at defusing consumer anxiety about rising electricity bills.

Nvidia, Amazon, and Google have each announced technological advances they claim will significantly reduce data-centre water consumption.

Whether any of this is sufficient is genuinely unclear.

“The AI boom is fast approaching a moment of truth, as rapid growth and soaring valuations collide with ballooning capital expenditure, a public backlash and the challenges of real-life adoption,” Deutsche Bank analyst Cox wrote in a recent report.

The resistance, as Vila and others have noted, is no longer purely local.

It has taken on the character of a broader social movement, and social movements are not easily neutralised by folksy advertising.

Analysts debate magnitude of risk to AI-related stocks

For investors, the distribution of risk matters as much as its existence.

“Data-centre opposition is more of an emerging risk than an immediate pressure on AI-related stocks,” Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson, said in a Barron’s report.

The largest hyperscalers — Microsoft, Google, Amazon — have global footprints and enough redundancy to route investment around hostile localities. They are inconvenienced, not threatened.

The same cannot be said for smaller operators dependent on a handful of large projects.

“The smaller AI clouds are small enough, and have projects that are big enough, that losing a few projects is material,” Luria says.

CoreWeave, for instance, is facing organised resistance to a proposed facility in Kenilworth, New Jersey, that would draw 250 megawatts of electrical capacity — roughly a quarter of the company’s active capacity today.

An online petition calling for the project’s cancellation has gathered more than 11,000 signatures.

Logan Purk, a technology industry analyst at Edward Jones, believes that already extended construction timelines will lengthen further, ultimately reducing the total amount of capacity built.

The ripple effects would travel up the supply chain. “I do think the difficulty is not fully baked in,” Purk said in a New York Times report.

“If we assume tomorrow that data-centre construction stops because there’s no access to new power, the ripple effects across the semiconductor industry would be pretty substantial.”

The picks-and-shovels companies — the equipment and infrastructure suppliers whose fortunes are pegged to the volume of construction — are the most directly exposed.

The resistance might also create some winners

The backlash, however, is not without its beneficiaries.

Mark Guberti of The Motley Fool argues that operators who already have data centres built and generating revenue are quietly positioned to benefit.

“The presence of fewer data centers helps these companies charge higher prices for their AI infrastructure,” he says.

Among the names he points to are Iren and Terawulf, both of which have operational sites and a revenue base that a construction freeze would only make more valuable.

Edge data centres represent a separate category of potential winner.

“These types of data centers are much smaller than large-scale AI data centers that eat up multiple gigawatts of energy,” Guberti says.

“Protesters are less likely to rally against these types of data centers, and zoning requirements for them are less complex.”

These facilities consume far less power and water, present a significantly smaller target for organised opposition, and are considerably less likely to trigger the kind of community mobilisation that is stalling larger projects.

One Stop Solutions, which designs the hardware that forms the backbone of edge data-centre sites, is among the companies analysts have identified as a direct beneficiary of that shift.

Honeywell offers exposure to the same theme through its building automation division.

The business grew 8% year over year in the fourth quarter and accounted for roughly a fifth of the company’s total sales.

However, Honeywell is diversified across multiple industrial businesses, making it a less concentrated play on the edge data-centre theme than One Stop Solutions, which carries more risk but offers purer exposure for investors seeking growth.

The post Americans' revolt against data centers is growing: how it could disrupt the AI trade appeared first on Invezz

US stock funds saw their biggest weekly exit since March, raising fresh questions about the strength of Wall Street’s rally.

Investors pulled $17.2 billion from US stock funds in the week through July 1, according to Bloomberg, citing Bank of America strategists led by Michael Hartnett and EPFR Global data.

The move does not signal a market crash, but it does show investors are turning more cautious after a strong run in US equities.

The key question now is simple: is this routine profit-taking, or an early warning that confidence in the AI-led rally is starting to fade?

Wall Street’s rally loses its flow cushion

Fund flows work like a sentiment gauge as they show whether investors are adding fresh money to equity funds or quietly taking some risk off the table.

A $17.2 billion weekly exit does not mean the S&P 500 is collapsing, but it indicates that investors are becoming more cautious after a powerful run in US equities.

That matters because this rally has leaned heavily on megacap technology, AI optimism and confidence that corporate earnings can keep absorbing higher rates.

When money is still pouring in, expensive markets can keep climbing, but when flows turn patchier, valuations become more exposed to bad news.

The shift did not appear from nowhere as US equity funds already saw $3.5 billion of outflows in the week to June 24, as worries over debt-funded technology spending and hawkish Federal Reserve expectations weighed on sentiment.

Technology sector funds saw nearly $20 billion of withdrawals that week, reversing the previous week’s inflows.

That makes the latest BofA number less of a surprise and more of a continuation and a signal that investors are no longer buying every dip with the same confidence.

Tech fatigue is becoming harder to ignore

The pressure point remains technology. The AI trade has been the engine of Wall Street’s advance, but it is also where concentration risk is highest.

The MSCI World Index fell 2.07% last week amid worries over concentration risks and hyperscalers’ spending plans.

Those concerns matter because investors are watching whether cloud giants can turn massive AI capex into durable profits, not just bigger bills.

BNY’s Bob Savage told Reuters that the AI-led equity rally was showing signs of fatigue.

That is the kind of line that lands because it captures the market’s current mood: still bullish on AI in principle, but less willing to ignore every valuation warning.

Oliver Shale, investment specialist for the US at Ruffer, made the positioning risk clearer.

He said that through the lens of valuations, positioning and sentiment, risk measures are “flashing amber.”

Rotation, not full retreat

The more balanced reading is that investors are rotating, not giving up on equities altogether.

LSEG data showed global equity funds pulled in $10.4 billion in the week to July 1. Asian equity funds attracted $7 billion, their biggest inflow in seven weeks, while US funds saw a smaller $1 billion inflow.

Technology funds also rebounded with $8.9 billion in inflows after the previous week’s heavy selling.

That complicates the bearish case. Investors may be trimming crowded US exposure while still buying technology and other regional equity opportunities.

William Bratton, head of cash equity research for APAC at BNP Paribas, struck that tone in a note cited by Reuters.

He said the bank’s tech analysts saw “no reason” for the sector’s earnings momentum to slow or reverse in the near term, with the coming second-quarter earnings season expected to be supportive.

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Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF has bought back into SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) just as the beaten-down fintech stock is trying to recover from a difficult first half of the year.

ARKK bought 299,753 SoFi shares across June 29, June 30 and July 1, worth about $5.5 million based on SoFi’s July 1 close of $18.44, according to ARK trade data.

The move stood out because Wood had sold 114,664 shares earlier in June, making the fresh buying look like a renewed vote of confidence rather than routine portfolio trimming.

Cathie Wood’s $5.5 million bet on SoFi stock

The latest purchase does not make SoFi a top holding in ARKK, as the fund remains led by names such as Tesla, Tempus AI, AMD, CRISPR Therapeutics and Robinhood, while SoFi is more of a top-up position than a flagship bet.

Robinhood data showed ARKK’s top 10 holdings made up nearly half of the fund as of July 1, with Tesla alone accounting for more than 10% of assets.

Still, Wood’s timing is notable as SoFi stock was recently trading around $18.24, after dipping toward the mid-$15 area during its spring sell-off.

The stock is still down roughly 32% year-to-date, but it has begun to recover from recent lows as investors revisit the fintech’s growth story.

SoFi stock: What’s fuelling the rally

Part of the renewed interest comes from product momentum.

On June 23, SoFi launched Composer by SoFi, an AI-powered investing platform that lets users build, test and automate investment strategies using plain English.

The move is seen as a deeper push into AI-driven trading tools after SoFi’s acquisition of Composer Securities.

That puts SoFi in the middle of a broader fintech AI race.

SoFi’s push follows similar efforts from rivals such as Robinhood and Coinbase, as financial apps try to make investing tools feel more personalised and easier to use.

The company has also moved beyond consumer lending.

SoFi introduced small-business loans on June 30, offering fixed loans of up to $250,000 with quick decisions, fast funding and no application or origination fees.

As per industry reports, funding can arrive as soon as 24 hours after approval.

There is also an insider-confidence angle as CEO Anthony Noto has repeatedly bought SoFi shares in 2026, including 56,000 shares in March for about $1 million and another 28,900 shares later that month.

Barron’s said he had acquired about $1.5 million of SoFi stock in 2026 by March, while later filings showed further open-market purchases.

Fundamentally, SoFi’s latest quarter was strong, though not flawless.

The Q1 adjusted revenue rose 41% year-over-year to $1.1 billion, while profit doubled to 12 cents per share. Members rose 35% to 14.7 million and loan originations hit a record $12.2 billion.

The weaker spot was the technology platform business, where revenue fell after the loss of a large client.

What analysts are saying

Wall Street is not as enthusiastic as Wood.

TipRanks shows SoFi with a Hold consensus, based on six Buy ratings, 10 Holds and three Sells. Its average price target stands at $20.69, with forecasts ranging from $16 to $30.

The bull case is that worries over SoFi funding more loans on its own balance sheet are already reflected in the stock.

William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey wrote after the first-quarter report that investors would dislike management’s decision not to lift full-year guidance, but he still saw limited downside.

The cautious camp is focused on valuation and execution. Truist cut its target to $17 from $20 in May, citing weaker loan-platform sales and softer technology-platform trends.

KBW has also held an Underperform view on SoFi, reflecting concern that the stock still prices in a lot of future growth.

The post Why Cathie Wood is doubling down on this $18 stock appeared first on Invezz

Investor Michael Burry, best known for his successful bet against the US housing market portrayed in The Big Short, has reportedly opened a short position in Micron Technology (MU), arguing that the memory chip maker’s recent rally has been driven by speculative enthusiasm rather than fundamentals.

According to a post published on his Substack, Burry shorted Micron shares at $1,051.87 on July 1 while simultaneously adding to five existing long positions.

The move comes as Micron remains one of the best-performing semiconductor stocks of 2026 despite a recent pullback.

Micron shares have gained more than 240% since the start of the year, although the stock has declined around 10% over the past month after reaching a high of $1,255 following its June 25 earnings report.

Burry questions Micron’s valuation and cyclical history

In his Substack post, Burry argued that Micron’s rally reflects investor psychology rather than long-term business fundamentals.

Burry said he shorted the stock because of “fear of missing out, greater fool theory, [and] public commitment bias.”

He also highlighted the company’s long history of volatility.

“Micron defines cyclical like no other,” Burry wrote, noting that the company has experienced 34 drawdowns of more than 30% over the past 42 years.

He added that Micron shares are now trading further above their 200-day moving average than at any time since 1984, “not even during the dot-com peak.”

Burry also criticized the company’s historical profitability, stating that Micron’s median return on invested capital of 4% and median return on equity of 7% are “frankly terrible.”

He further argued that “one quarter in every three, Micron is a destroyer of capital,” pointing to decades of uneven returns and periods of negative free cash flow.

Although options could have provided another way to express a bearish view, Burry said, “the puts seemed expensive,” adding that he “will look to add puts should the stock settle down and bring volatility down.”

Bearish view extends across semiconductor sector

The Micron position forms part of Burry’s broader negative outlook on artificial intelligence-related semiconductor stocks.

Earlier this week, he disclosed short positions in Nvidia, Applied Materials and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), saying AI-related chip stocks could face a 30% correction.

In a separate June 30 Substack post, Burry expressed concern over plans by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to invest more than $500 billion in a new semiconductor hub.

“The proximate cause of today’s rally is big spending announced out of Korea,” Burry wrote. “Well, I see that as the beginning of the end.”

Market sentiment toward memory stocks has also weakened more broadly.

Micron shares fell 5% on Thursday after falling nearly 11% on Wednesday alongside sharp losses in SanDisk.

Some market participants linked the decline to reports that Meta is considering selling excess cloud capacity, while another report indicated that Apple is seeking additional memory supply from China.

Commenting on the industry, Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said, “China makes up around 15% of Apple’s sales and other companies could follow these steps as they also see their profits being squeezed by an unreasonable jump in memory chip prices.”

Burry adds to long positions

While increasing his bearish exposure to semiconductors, Burry also disclosed that he added to several existing investments.

According to his Substack post, he increased holdings in PayPal, Sprouts Farmers Market, Zoetis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Summarizing his latest positioning, Burry wrote: “Yesterday I shorted one stock even though it was down a good amount because I think I have a pretty good idea how this resolves. I also added to five positions. This time may be different, but not nearly different enough.”

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