Fed’s Waller signals rate pause, tech stocks surge

Waller's signal shifts the market's focus squarely onto upcoming inflation data, making next week's CPI the decisive catalyst across equities and crypto alike. The broad rally, including gold and bitcoin, suggests rate-sensitive assets are pricing in a prolonged hold, yet the lag in AI hardware hints at sector rotation rather than uniform risk appetite. The open question is whether this pause stance holds if CPI surprises, which would likely reprice the entire complex quickly.