The "panic index" has dropped to a year-to-date low, while technology stocks are experiencing high-level volatility.

This week, the major indices of the US stock market exhibited mixed performance. While the S&P 500 reached the milestone of 7,800 points, the Dow Jones ended the week with two consecutive weekly gains. The combination of US inflation data and declining retail sales has increased the probability of the Federal Reserve pausing interest rate hikes in September. Meanwhile, signals from the Trump administration regarding the situation in the Middle East have served as a reason to dampen risk appetite. In the coming week, as the earnings season approaches its conclusion, geopolitical factors and expectations of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy may once again dominate the market. Additionally, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's "Fear Index" VIX, which measures market volatility, has dropped to its lowest level of the year, potentially foreshadowing a new round of volatility risks. Bob Schwartz, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, stated in an interview that the greatest uncertainty variable for US prices remains energy prices, and the Middle East conflict could push inflation in a completely different direction. Core inflation has already fallen to 2.5%, but since 2021, it has been challenging to drop below this level, which provides support for hawkish views at the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates. He believes that in the long term, the productivity gains brought by AI are expected to help suppress inflation; however, in the short term, the huge demand for data centers, semiconductors, and storage chips has already driven up prices in certain segments of the tech sector, creating a short-term hedge against AIs long-term anti-inflation prospects.