Several Federal Reserve officials favored raising interest rates at the central bank’s July meeting, while many others said further tightening could be necessary if inflation fails to decline, according to minutes released Wednesday.

The Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to keep the federal funds rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% at its July 28-29 meeting.

Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari dissented in favor of a quarter-percentage-point increase.

Two other regional Fed presidents who were not voting members at the meeting, Kansas City’s Jeff Schmid and St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem, have since indicated they would also have supported a hike.

Inflation remains central to Fed debate

The minutes showed that inflation remained a major source of uncertainty for policymakers.

Most participants expected price pressures to ease through the rest of the year as the effects of tariffs and earlier energy price increases faded.

However, many officials warned that inflation could remain elevated for longer than expected.

Several policymakers who supported a rate increase argued that price pressures appeared broad-based and that a more restrictive policy stance was needed to maintain the Fed’s price-stability and employment objectives.

The minutes said some officials believed failing to tighten policy could result in “a steeper and potentially more costly sequence of tightening moves” later.

The Fed’s inflation outlook was described as “highly uncertain,” with the renewed escalation of the Iran war adding to concerns about energy prices and inflation.

The July meeting marked the fifth consecutive meeting at which the Fed left rates unchanged, following three rate cuts in late 2025. There was no mention in the minutes of support for cutting rates.

Weaker data complicate rate outlook

Economic data released since the July meeting have provided some relief for policymakers concerned about inflation while raising questions about the strength of the US economy.

Retail sales fell in July by the most in more than a year as consumers reduced spending at online retailers and auto dealers.

Core inflation was subdued during the month, while employers unexpectedly cut jobs and hiring figures for the previous two months were revised lower.

The softer data have reduced market expectations for a rate hike in September.

Federal funds futures pricing indicated about a 36% probability of an increase at the September meeting as of Wednesday morning, down from more than 70% at the end of July.

The Fed is currently expected to keep rates unchanged at its September 15-16 meeting, although investors are pricing in the possibility of a hike as soon as the October 27-28 meeting.

Warsh considers changes to Fed operations

The minutes also highlighted broader changes Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is considering.

Warsh asked policymakers for their views on reducing the number of scheduled policy meetings from eight to six each year.

The minutes said six meetings, held roughly every two months, would allow more economic information to accumulate between decisions and give policymakers more time to consider strategic issues.

No decision was made, and the 2026 meeting schedule will not change.

Fed officials also discussed an upcoming review of the central bank’s balance sheet.

While the review could lead to a broader discussion of how the Fed manages its assets, many policymakers reiterated that changes to the federal funds rate should remain the primary tool for adjusting monetary policy.

The minutes come ahead of the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole gathering, where Warsh is expected to deliver his first speech since becoming chairman in May.

His comments could offer investors further clues about the central bank’s approach to inflation and interest rates.

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Tempus AI (TEM) stock ripped higher on August 19 as third-party clinical breakthroughs triggered a technical short squeeze.

As investors cheered TEM, it broke decisively above its major moving averages (MAs), indicating bulls have taken back control across multiple timeframes.

Following their meteoric run on Wednesday, Tempus AI shares are trading nearly 50% above their July low.

Why Moderna news is significant for Tempus AI stock

The primary spark behind the explosive move in TEM shares today didn’t even originate from the health-tech firm itself.  

It actually came from landmark Phase 3 trial results released by Merck and Moderna Inc for their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine (intismeran autogene) paired with Keytruda.

Why? Because Moderna’s vaccine sequencing pipeline relies heavily on tech from Personalis Inc., a company Tempus AI agreed to acquire for about $1.5 billion last month.

When the acquisition was first announced, TEM suffered as investors worried about dilution and cost.

But Wednesday’s trial success has flipped that narrative – validating the strategic value of the Personalis sequencing infrastructure that Tempus is set to inherit.

Note that TEM’s relative strength index climbed into the mid-60s on August 19, indicating intense buying pressure that may sustain the upward momentum in the near-term.

Are TEM shares worth owning for the long-term?

Beyond third-party catalysts, Tempus AI stock’s recent “strength” is also anchored in fundamental momentum.

Just weeks ago, the company reported its first quarterly net profit of $5.6 million alongside a 22% year-on-year increase in revenue to $382.5 million – prompting management to raise its full-year revenue guidance to about $1.6 billion.

Confidence was reinforced earlier in August by a “Nature Medicine”study validating its PRISM2 pathology AI model, alongside a new oncology companion diagnostics partnership with CellCarta.

Combined with an elevated short interest at about 20% heading into August 19, the stage was set for a classic short squeeze that triggered a relentless increase in TEM share price today.

How to play Tempus AI at current levels?

From a chart perspective, Wednesday’s high-volume breakout cleared a major overhead resistance at $58, converting a former ceiling into fresh immediate support.

With the 50-day and 200-day MAs turning sharply upward, the broader technical structure favours continued upside toward the $65 mark, where profit-taking may temporarily cool momentum.

However, sustaining these multi-week highs will depend on “smooth” regulatory clearing for the Personalis transaction and flawless execution as revenue synergies materialize into late 2026.

If the broader market remains risk-on, TEM stock’s swing to profitability and expanding diagnostic footprint position it well to consolidate above $60 before testing its next leg higher.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the consensus rating on Tempus AI Inc sits at Overweight currently, with price targets going as high as $100 per share.

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Moderna stock surged after its personalized mRNA cancer vaccine produced positive late-stage trial results with Merck’s Keytruda.

Marvell Technology shares gained as Google received a potential $12.2 billion stake in the chipmaker through a warrant tied to their expanding AI partnership.

Bitcoin climbed above $68,000 as lower Treasury yields and renewed accumulation by large holders supported the cryptocurrency.

Gold jumped 3% as US Treasury bond buybacks pushed longer-term yields and the dollar lower.

Moderna stock surges 170% after cancer vaccine shows promise in trial

Moderna shares surged over 176% in trading on Wednesday after the company and Merck reported positive results from a late-stage trial combining Moderna’s personalized mRNA vaccine, Intismeran, with Keytruda for melanoma.

Merck shares also rose more than 12%.

The phase-three trial enrolled 1,137 patients with high-risk stage IIB to stage IV melanoma whose tumors had been surgically removed.

The companies said interim results showed that the treatment met its primary goal of reducing cancer recurrence and its secondary goal of preventing the cancer from spreading.

The treatment uses genetic information from a patient’s tumor to create a personalized mRNA vaccine designed to train the immune system to identify and attack cancer cells carrying specific mutations.

Professor Georgina Long, the study’s principal investigator, called the results “a landmark moment for adjuvant melanoma treatment.”

The trial remains ongoing, with Moderna and Merck planning to present the findings at a medical meeting and share the results with regulators.

Analysts at Barclays expect the melanoma treatment could eventually generate around $3 billion in annual sales by 2035.

Marvell stock jumps after Google deal

Marvell Technology stock gained 9% after the company expanded its relationship with Google amid growing demand for custom AI chips.

Under the agreement, Marvell issued Google a warrant to purchase up to 58.97 million shares at an exercise price of $206.58 per share.

If fully exercised, the warrant would be worth about $12.18 billion and represent roughly 7% of Marvell’s outstanding shares.

Most of the potential stake is linked to revenue generated through the partnership.

Only 1.36 million shares will vest during the first year, while the remaining shares are divided into 240 tranches. One tranche will vest for every $500 million in eligible custom-products revenue generated through Google’s business.

The partnership covers AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers and near-memory compute products.

Marvell is competing with Broadcom for a larger role in Google’s custom silicon requirements as technology companies increase AI infrastructure spending.

Bitcoin hits $68,000

Bitcoin climbed about 5.8% over 24 hours to $68,370, moving above $68,000 for the first time since June.

The cryptocurrency gained support from lower Treasury yields after the US Treasury announced plans to at least double its bond buyback operations to $4 billion or more per operation.

Large Bitcoin holders have also returned to accumulation.

CryptoQuant data showed that large holders accumulated about 43,000 tokens over the past 60 days, worth roughly $2.75 billion at current prices.

BlackRock described Bitcoin’s roughly 50% decline from its October 2025 peak as a “positioning correction rather than a change in its investment case.”

However, spot Bitcoin ETFs continued to experience outflows, with combined outflows reaching $267.2 million in the week through Aug. 14.

Gold reaches $4,500

Gold prices surged 4% to $4,509.54 an ounce, their highest level since June 4. US gold futures gained nearly 3% to $4,562.

The rally followed the Treasury’s decision to double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for longer-dated bonds.

The announcement pushed the 30-year Treasury yield down more than nine basis points to 5.19%, while the 10-year yield fell nearly six basis points to 4.645%.

The US Dollar Index also declined 0.8% to 98.84, making dollar-priced gold cheaper for buyers using other currencies.

Silver, platinum and palladium also advanced, gaining 4.3%, 5% and 3.1%, respectively.

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US stocks closed higher on Wednesday as falling Treasury yields improved risk appetite, while a sharp rally in Moderna shares boosted the healthcare sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.22%, or 119.71 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.22% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.16%.

The gains moderated during the session after the major indexes had climbed more sharply earlier in the day.

The Dow had been up more than 300 points at its session high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had gained as much as 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.

The initial rally followed the US Treasury’s announcement that it would at least double the size of its debt buyback operations targeting longer-term government bonds.

Treasury buybacks push yields lower

The increased buybacks will focus on Treasury securities with maturities between 10 and 30 years, including 20-year debt. The announcement helped reverse some of the recent increase in long-term borrowing costs.

The 30-year Treasury yield fell nine basis points to 5.195%, after reaching more than 5.33% in the previous session, its highest level in 19 years.

The 10-year Treasury yield declined more than five basis points to 4.653%.

Lower yields supported rate-sensitive stocks, with Lowe’s gaining around 3% and Home Depot rising more than 2%.

However, investors remained cautious about the broader interest-rate outlook.

Federal Reserve minutes released Wednesday showed that several policymakers favored raising rates at the July meeting, while many said further tightening could be necessary if inflation failed to decline.

The Fed held its benchmark interest rate at 3.5% to 3.75% in July, with three officials dissenting in favor of a quarter-percentage-point increase.

Moderna leads healthcare sector higher

Moderna was among the biggest individual gainers, with its shares more than doubling and rising over 176% after the company reported positive late-stage trial results for a personalized mRNA cancer treatment developed with Merck.

The treatment met the trial’s primary goal of reducing melanoma recurrence and its secondary goal of preventing the cancer from spreading. Merck shares also climbed more than 12%.

The Moderna rally lifted other healthcare stocks, including Novavax and US-listed shares of BioNTech.

The S&P 500 healthcare sector reached a record high and provided the biggest boost to the benchmark among its 11 major sectors.

Marvell Technology also gained, rising 9% after announcing an expanded relationship with Google related to custom AI chips. The company issued Alphabet a warrant to purchase up to $12.2 billion of Marvell shares.

Tech stocks face AI and rate pressures

Not all technology stocks benefited from the decline in yields. Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices fell around 4%, while the Philadelphia semiconductor index also ended lower.

The declines followed a report that OpenAI’s second-quarter results disappointed investors. Revenue increased 18% from the first quarter, but losses also widened.

Technology stocks remain sensitive to borrowing costs as companies continue to invest heavily in AI infrastructure. Rising yields had contributed to recent pressure on the sector, while Wednesday’s Treasury action provided temporary relief.

Investors also continued to monitor global inflation and geopolitical risks. Brent crude futures ended higher as uncertainty surrounding the Middle East remained elevated, with conflicting statements over the status of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Overall, the major US indexes ended modestly higher, although the retreat from their session highs indicated that investors remained cautious about the longer-term path for interest rates.

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Crypto companies raised $1.36 billion across 41 venture capital rounds in July 2026, with total investment falling just 6.8% from June even as the number of completed rounds dropped 28.1% to a 12-month low.

The headline figure was supported by a $400 million strategic investment in Crypto.com, which accounted for 29.4% of monthly VC funding. Excluding that transaction, investment would have fallen to $960 million, down 34.2% from June.

The data from CryptoRank MCP show that funding remained available for selected companies, but the broader financing pipeline weakened, with fewer investors and transactions contributing to the monthly total.

Large deals mask weaker fundraising breadth

July’s 41 VC rounds were the fewest in the 12-month period and 63.1% below the 111 rounds recorded in July 2025.

The average round size increased to $33.2 million from $25.6 million in June, but that increase was largely driven by Crypto.com’s $400 million deal.

Without that transaction, the average round would have been about $24 million across 40 rounds.

That suggests the rise in average deal size did not reflect a broad improvement in fundraising conditions.

The concentration was also visible among the largest transactions.

The 10 biggest rounds attracted $1.16 billion, or 85% of total VC investment, while the four largest deals accounted for 61.4%.

CryptoRank described the resulting market as one where headline investment remained resilient while “market breadth weakened.” The data showed that financing was increasingly concentrated among a smaller group of companies.

Series A and later-stage funding was a notable exception. Investment in these rounds rose 94.4% to $661 million from $340 million in June. However, Augustus, Prime Intellect and Gauntlet accounted for $435 million, or 65.8%, of that total.

Exchanges and AI attract major funding

Exchanges received the largest amount of funding among categories, attracting $543 million across seven rounds. Crypto.com contributed 73.7% of the category’s total.

Payments companies raised $244 million across four rounds, while AI companies attracted $232 million across eight rounds. AI therefore recorded the highest number of transactions despite ranking third by investment.

The AI category was also heavily concentrated. Prime Intellect’s $130 million Series A and Venice AI’s $65 million Series A combined for $195 million, representing 84.1% of total AI funding.

Other major transactions included EDX Markets’ $76 million Series C, Augustus’ $180 million Series B and Velocity’s $38 million Series A.

The funding mix indicates continued appetite for later-stage companies and businesses operating in exchanges, payments and AI, although the number of transactions remained limited.

Overall, venture and strategic financing accounted for most of the disclosed activity.

VC rounds represented 63.9% of the $2.13 billion in publicly disclosed investment across transaction types. Strategy‘s $466.7 million post-IPO raise and Alpaca’s $300 million debt facility made up much of the remainder.

Investor participation and M&A remain selective

Investor participation declined alongside the number of funding rounds. CryptoRank identified 140 unique institutional investors in July, down 30.7% from 202 in June and 66.1% from 413 in July 2024.

Coinbase Ventures was the most active fund, participating in five rounds. Nascent followed with three, while several other funds participated in two rounds each. Hack VC and Dragonfly led both of their recorded rounds.

M&A activity was more stable. CryptoRank recorded 17 acquisitions in July, matching June and slightly exceeding the 12-month average of 16.4. However, none of the transactions had a publicly disclosed value, preventing a meaningful comparison of acquisition spending.

Infrastructure led M&A activity with five targets, followed by exchanges with four and DeFi with three. Together, those categories represented 12 of the 17 transactions.

July’s fundraising data therefore point to a crypto financing market where capital has not disappeared, but has become more selective.

The next indication of market breadth will be whether round counts and institutional participation recover, rather than whether another small number of large transactions can keep total investment elevated.

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