Market Beats | OpenAI Unveils Misalignment Incident Tracking Framework; CleanSpark Seeks $2.23 Billion Junk-Bond Offering for Meta-Tied AI Infrastructure; US Pending Home Sales Picked Up Slightly in August; US Weekly Jobless Claims Drop to Lowest Since July; CoreWeave Launches $3 Billion Convertible Bond Sale and Shares Offering; China’s US Treasury Holdings Drop to Lowest Since 2008; HSBC Phasing Out $38,000 School Fee Subsidy for New Hires in Hong Kong

—— OpenAI Unveils Misalignment Incident Tracking Framework; CleanSpark Seeks $2.23 Billion Junk-Bond Offering for Meta-Tied AI Infrastructure; US Pending Home Sales Picked Up Slightly in August; US Weekly Jobless Claims Drop to Lowest Since July; CoreWeave Launches $3 Billion Convertible Bond Sale and Shares Offering; China’s US Treasury Holdings Drop to Lowest Since 2008; HSBC Phasing Out $38,000 School Fee Subsidy for New Hires in Hong Kong

1. OpenAI Unveils Misalignment Incident Tracking Framework

US retail sales rose by the most in five months in a broad advance, showing consumers continued to spend despite rising gas prices.

The value of retail purchases increased 1.2% in August after a revised 0.5% decline in July, according to Census Bureau data released Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.8% advance. The figures are not adjusted for inflation. Consumer spending has been resilient this year, helping power overall economic growth. While the boost from tax refunds has faded, low unemployment and stock market gains are supporting households. Twelve of 13 retail categories in the report posted increases, including gasoline stations and online retailers. Back-to-school shopping likely supported outlays at general merchandise stores as well as spending on clothing, electronics, sporting goods and other hobbies.

So-called control-group sales — which feed into the government’s calculation of goods spending for gross domestic product — increased 1.4%, the most in nearly two years. The measure excludes food services, auto dealers, building materials stores and gas stations.

Sales at nonstore retailers, primarily online shopping, climbed 2.6% in August — the most since February 2025 — after falling the prior month. Amazon.com Inc. moved its Prime Day sales event to June this year from July the year before, a shift that likely distorted data and dragged down July’s headline retail sales numbers.

The value of gasoline station sales rose 3.1%. The nationwide average price of a gallon of gasoline held above $4 a gallon through August, according to American Automobile Association data. Prices have since climbed above $4.30 this month as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine limit fuel supplies.

The retail data showed sales at motor vehicles and parts dealers rose 0.6%. Industry data earlier this month showed auto sales climbed in August to the strongest pace since April 2025. Excluding autos and gasoline, sales also rose 1.2%.

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2. CleanSpark Seeks $2.23 Billion Junk-Bond Offering for Meta-Tied AI Infrastructure

CleanSpark Inc. is seeking to borrow roughly $2.23 billion through a junk-bond offering to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure tied to Meta Platforms Inc..

The five-year notes will help finance construction of a data center in Sandersville, Georgia, according to a regulatory filing. Morgan Stanley is leading the offering, said a person familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

The Sandersville facility has been fully leased to Anviran LLC, a Meta subsidiary, under a $6.6 billion, 20-year contract, according to a CleanSpark presentation. Meta will serve as the guarantor of rent and operating expenses, the firm said. It’s the first junk-bond offering tied to a Meta data center, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Meta’s commitment to CleanSpark gives the junk-rated borrower a predictable revenue stream to support borrowing for a costly project. Data center developers have sold roughly $39 billion of high-yield bonds so far this year, making technology the biggest issuing sector in the market, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

Las Vegas-based CleanSpark is among a growing number of public Bitcoin mining companies that are becoming data-center operators to support artificial intelligence applications. The company has a market value of roughly $3.29 billion.

The CleanSpark transaction is expected to price on Friday, said the person familiar with the offering. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. are also participating as underwriters.

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3. US Pending Home Sales Picked Up Slightly in August

Pending sales of existing US homes picked up slightly in August, though they remained subdued as high mortgage rates continue to suppress demand.

An index of contract signings increased 0.3% to 71.2 last month, rising for the first time since May, according to National Association of Realtors data released Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the index to fall by 0.1%.

“Buyers steadily entered into contracts in August even though mortgage rates increased,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “However, the housing market is still sluggish, with contract signings below last year.”

Compared to a year ago, pending home sales are down nearly 5%.

The figures point to lingering pent-up demand for previously owned homes, as buyers who may have been waiting for lower mortgage rates finally gave in and purchased a home. However, there is little evidence the housing market is picking up.

Mortgage rates have been climbing since the start of the war with Iran and nearly hit 7% in the week ended Sept. 11, according to Mortgage Bankers Association figures. Rates could go even higher. Home borrowing costs closely track the 10-year US Treasury yield, which climbed earlier this week to the highest level in almost two decades.

Contract signings generally occur a month or two before closings and historically have provided a forward look at existing-home sales.

Across the US, pending sales in the South, the nation’s biggest home-selling region, increased 2.3%. Sales also rose in the West. The Midwest and Northeast posted declines.

Separately, federal government data released Thursday showed US housing starts fell last month to one of the weakest paces since the pandemic, reflecting a plunge in multifamily construction.

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4. US Weekly Jobless Claims Drop to Lowest Since July

Applications for US unemployment benefits fell to the lowest since July and recurring claims dropped to a more than two-year low, adding to signals of labor market stability.

Initial claims fell 10,000 to 196,000 in the week ended Sept. 12, one of the lowest readings since 1969, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. That period included Labor Day, and the data can fluctuate around holidays. The four-week moving average of new applications, a metric that helps smooth out volatility, fell to 203,250 — a five-week low. The decline in initial claims could reflect seasonal swings related to Labor Day and the start of the school year. Even so, the broader trend highlights how subdued layoffs are across the economy outside a few high-profile announcements.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, fell to 1.73 million in the week ended Sept. 5, the lowest since 2024. Despite limited job cuts, Americans remain hesitant to leave their jobs amid uneven hiring, reinforcing a low-hire, low-fire labor market.

Unadjusted for seasonal fluctuations, initial claims fell sharply. That was led by declines in California, Texas, Michigan and New York.

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5. CoreWeave Launches $3 Billion Convertible Bond Sale and Shares Offering

CoreWeave Inc., a provider of computing that powers artificial intelligence systems, kicked off a fresh round of fundraising that includes a $3 billion convertible bond issue and a vehicle for potential share sales.

The artificial intelligence cloud firm agreed a so called at-the-market offering program that allows it to sell as many as 35 million shares from time to time, according to a statement Thursday. The program will provide financing flexibility and help CoreWeave migrate its credit profile toward investment grade, the statement showed. CoreWeave’s senior convertible bonds will be due in 2033 and the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, with a portion set aside for a series of derivative agreements related to the offering, according to a separate statement on Thursday. There is an option to increase the size of the offering by $500 million, the statement shows.

The company’s shares fell 1.7% to $81.97 each in pre-market trading on Thursday in New York.

The relentless drive to fund AI infrastructure has prompted companies involved in the rapid buildout to tap a wide range of potential sources of cash. Investors have begun to show signs of fatigue after companies borrowed about $419 billion in global debt markets this year alone, according to Bloomberg-compiled data, driving funding costs higher for some as demand dipped.

In July, CoreWeave had to sweeten the pricing on a $2.6 billion leveraged loan deal to help get it over the line.

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6. HSBC Phasing Out $38,000 School Fee Subsidy for New Hires in Hong Kong

China’s holdings of US Treasuries have fallen to the lowest since August 2008, underlining a shift in Beijing’s management of its reserves and a deepening rift between the world’s two largest economies.

The value of US government debt held by Chinese investors, as recorded by US banks and custodians, fell to $618bn in July, according to data released by the US Treasury. At its peak in November 2013, China held more than $1.3tn in US sovereign debt.

The 18-year low in official Chinese holdings underscores a widening divergence between the two countries, which are grappling with starkly different economic pressures. The US is running huge fiscal deficits in the face of higher inflation, while China is battling slowing economic growth and deflationary pressures as it registers record trade surpluses.

In the past, such surpluses were in large part rolled into US Treasuries.

China’s falling US Treasury holdings were part of “a global trend of diversification into gold . . . and agency bonds, as well as other assets like equities, especially with the AI boom,” said Wei Li, head of multi-asset investments for BNP Paribas Securities in China.

Analysts believe China also holds a growing proportion of its US assets through third-party custodians including Euroclear in Belgium and Clearstream in Luxembourg, which obscures the true level of its holdings.

But the official Treasury data released on Wednesday nonetheless points to China’s gradual reduction of its official holdings as it diversifies into assets including gold and US agency bonds, which are mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the American government.

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7. US House Panel Votes to Hold Apollo Co-Founder Leon Black in Contempt Over Epstein Subpoenas

Former senior Bank of America Corp. investment banker Jason Satsky was accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of providing an insider-trading tip to a friend who allegedly made $18.5 million in illegal profits.

Satsky, who was previously Bank of America’s head of energy and power infrastructure banking, was sued Friday by the SEC along with the friend, Gavin Wolfe. According to the SEC, Satsky tipped Wolfe off on an acquisition offer for South Jersey Industries Inc. during a November 2021 basketball game.

Between November and December 2021, Wolfe bought at least $53 million in stock and the pair continued to converse, the SEC said.

The SEC suit doesn’t name Bank of America as Satsky’s then-employer, but Bloomberg has previously reported that federal prosecutors were probing trades around the deal.

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