Live Markets-US company comments suggest AI buildout showing no signs of letting up

S&P 500 and Nasdaq were modestly lower, while the Dow was roughly flat.

Communication services led S&P 500 sector gainers, while utilities were the weakest group.

The dollar rallied about 0.6%; U.S. crude dipped; bitcoin fell more than 2.5%; and gold fell about 3%.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.73%.

They note that Morgan Stanley economists think that soft payrolls numbers may be able to keep the Federal Reserve on hold in 2026.

After Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's comments at the annual Jackson Hole symposium on Friday, bets that rates would be raised at the September meeting rose to a 55.7% probability from 35.4% on Thursday, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

The second-quarter earnings season for S&P 500 companies is nearly done, with results in from 483 of the companies, according to LSEG data on Friday.

Earnings are now on pace to rise 34.5% year-over-year on an adjusted basis for the quarter, the highest quarterly growth since 2021, says Tajinder Dhillon, head of earnings and equity research at LSEG Data and Analytics.

Based on what U.S. companies are saying this earnings season, the AI buildout is showing no signs of letting up, Morgan Stanley strategists write in a note this week.

"The majority of mentions center around capacity, but there’s a growing number of discussions around ROI and monetization of capex spend," they write.

What's more, they note that data center and energy mentions are still increasing, with power availability becoming the constraint on buildout.