Good Afternoon. On this day in 1789, Alexander Hamilton took the oath as America’s first Treasury secretary. His assignment included restoring confidence in a young nation’s finances—a reminder that trust in money depends on what institutions actually do.

Today’s inflation report puts that trust back in focus. Stocks are recovering as oil eases, but household prices haven’t stopped climbing. Meanwhile, cloud companies and grocers are showing two different ways to grow: sell more capacity, or work harder to protect each dollar of profit.

—Rosie, Wyatt, Evan & Conor

🔥 What’s Hot: 🔥

🥶 What’s Not: 🥶

🔢 Big number: 3.4% — the annual increase in consumer prices in August. It’s unchanged from July, but that means prices are still rising from an already higher base; it doesn’t mean the cost of living stood still.

August’s consumer-price report delivered a familiar headache: the drive to work got more expensive. Prices rose 0.4% from July and 3.4% from a year earlier, according to Friday’s Labor Department release. The annual rate didn’t accelerate, but the monthly increase did, after July’s 0.1% gain.

The news: Gasoline rose 3.9% during the month and accounted for more than a third of the overall increase. Strip out food and energy, and core prices rose 0.3% monthly and 2.4% annually; that annual core rate eased from 2.5%. Groceries were unchanged for the month, while shelter rose 0.3%, so this wasn’t an across-the-board jump in every household expense.

What’s next: The report leaves policymakers weighing a faster monthly pace against a slower annual core reading. It’s also a reminder that August’s average doesn’t yet capture every September energy move. A family’s experience will depend on its mix of rent, driving, food, and other expenses; a cooling inflation rate still leaves prices above their earlier level.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wall Street’s Friday rebound is giving the week a less bruising finish. The S&P 500 was up close to 0.9% in afternoon trading as oil retreated and the inflation release landed near economists’ expectations. That’s relief from a feared surprise, even though the report itself hardly counts as a cheaper-living announcement.

The news: Brent crude fell roughly 2.8% to settle at $104.61 a barrel, easing some of Thursday’s energy pressure. Yet the two-year Treasury yield rose to around 4.64%, reflecting stronger expectations for a Federal Reserve rate increase next week. Stocks and short-term bonds aren’t necessarily telling contradictory stories: lower oil can help earnings while stubborn inflation keeps borrowing costs elevated.

Big picture: A rebound doesn’t establish that the inflation problem is solved. The useful distinction is between a change in today’s expectations and a durable change in business conditions. Companies still have to finance projects and move goods, and an afternoon gain won’t erase the costs already embedded in their plans.

Source: Associated Press

Monday’s Oracle preview now has actual results behind it. The company reported $19.3 billion in fiscal first-quarter revenue after Thursday’s close, up 30% from a year earlier. Its cloud infrastructure business grew 121% to $7.4 billion, so the demand story isn’t confined to a list of future orders.

The news: Oracle said it delivered 850 megawatts of additional data-center capacity during the quarter. That matters because a signed computing contract doesn’t become revenue simply by sitting in a backlog: customers need functioning servers, power, and network connections. Total cloud revenue reached $11.6 billion, as infrastructure expanded much faster than the company’s cloud applications business.

Bottom line: The results answer part of the execution question we raised earlier this week, but they don’t eliminate the financing question. Oracle reported roughly negative $5 billion in first-quarter free cash flow as investment consumed more than operations generated after capital spending. Growth can be real and still demand substantial cash before shareholders see the payoff.

Source: Oracle Investor Relations

Adobe’s latest quarter offers a useful check on the idea that AI automatically replaces established software. Revenue reached $6.76 billion, up 13% year over year, in results released after Thursday’s close. The creative-software company is growing while trying to make its own AI tools part of customers’ everyday work.

The news: Adobe reported $27.50 billion in annualized recurring revenue and $2.52 billion in quarterly operating cash flow. Its AI-first annualized recurring revenue grew more than 150% year over year, but that percentage doesn’t describe the entire company. Nor should its reach of more than 1 billion monthly active users across offerings be mistaken for a billion paying subscribers.

What’s next: Management expects fourth-quarter revenue of $6.80 billion–$6.85 billion. The question isn’t simply whether people try an AI feature; it’s whether those tools help retain paying customers and support more valuable subscriptions. The current results show a growing business, while the next forecast provides a concrete benchmark for how that transition is progressing.

Source: Adobe Newsroom

Kroger’s Friday results show why a grocery receipt and an earnings report can tell different stories. Identical sales excluding fuel grew just 0.2% in the second quarter, and the company lowered its full-year growth forecast for that measure. Yet it didn’t cut its adjusted earnings-per-share outlook.

The news: The new identical-sales range is 0.2%–0.8%, down from 1.0%–2.0%. That outlook includes an approximately 1.4-percentage-point unfavorable effect from the Inflation Reduction Act, so the entire slowdown shouldn’t be read as shoppers abandoning stores. Management also cited improving online profitability, pharmacy and fuel performance, and cost savings; adjusted earnings guidance remains $5.10–$5.30 per share.

Big picture: Kroger’s adjusted ecommerce sales grew 20%, excluding specified business exits and disposals. The more consequential test is whether delivery and other services make money while the core sales pace stays modest. An October 20 investor update should add detail to the plan, but efficiency gains alone don’t prove that sales momentum has recovered.

Source: Kroger via PR Newswire

Canadian household debt became a little less heavy relative to income in the second quarter. Friday’s national balance-sheet release put credit-market debt at 176.4% of disposable income, down from 178.6%. That’s progress in the ratio, though households still owed roughly $1.76 for each dollar of disposable income.

The news: Income grew faster than debt, while the portion of income needed for required principal and interest payments declined to 14.52% from 14.68%. The improvement didn’t mean payments fell: they rose 1.0%, while disposable income increased 2.1%. Mortgage borrowing also slowed, helping explain why the growth in new obligations moderated.

Bottom line: A stronger denominator can make a debt ratio look healthier without shrinking the actual bill. That’s why this release is more informative when the income, borrowing, and payment measures are read together. It describes the household sector in aggregate; it doesn’t establish that the families facing the largest mortgage resets or weakest wage growth feel the same relief.

Source: Statistics Canada

Britain’s economy expanded 0.4% in July, following 0.3% growth in June, according to Friday’s official release. That’s an encouraging monthly reading, with services doing much of the work. It also gives the earlier business-survey improvement a firmer companion: an estimate of output actually produced.

The news: Services increased 0.4% in July, while production rose 0.2% and construction edged up 0.1%. Over the three months to July, however, services grew 0.6% while both production and construction fell 0.5%. The broader economy grew 0.4% across that three-month comparison, so one stronger month doesn’t mean every industry has found its footing.

What’s next: The next monthly estimate can show whether July’s improvement persisted, and these early figures remain subject to revision. It’s worth separating a healthier output trend from any claim that households suddenly have more spending room. GDP measures activity across the economy; it doesn’t directly measure how far a particular paycheck stretches after bills.

Source: UK Office for National Statistics

India’s finance minister wants its technology companies to coordinate before foreign regulations become obstacles to expansion. Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a forum for engaging overseas governments and regulators in remarks Friday in Mumbai. It’s a policy proposal, rather than an already operating service or a new trade agreement.

The news: The idea is to help firms address emerging rules around technologies such as agentic AI and asset tokenization. Sitharaman also described potential work on licensing, partnerships, compatible standards, data, and cybersecurity. A startup doesn’t have the same resources as a multinational to follow different rulebooks in every market it hopes to enter.

Big picture: Shared regulatory knowledge could reduce a practical barrier to selling software abroad, but it wouldn’t give Indian companies an exemption from local laws. The commercial value will depend on how a forum is organized and whether foreign authorities engage with it. For now, the announcement identifies the problem and a proposed response; it doesn’t guarantee access to another market.

Source: Reuters via Yahoo

Q: How does the moon cut his hair?

A: Eclipse it.

Real income: it’s income adjusted for changes in prices, showing what your earnings can actually buy rather than just the dollar amount received.

In a sentence: If a paycheck rises more slowly than inflation, real income falls even though the number on the pay stub hasn’t shrunk.

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