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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) found some room to move higher on Tuesday, despite a general malaise setting into other major stock indexes as the AI tech rally continues to sputter. The Dow has launched itself back toward the 48,000 region as investors bank on a resolution to temporarily fund the US government and resume the flow of critical labor and inflation data.

Investor hope for a government closure solution remains high

The US government has pivoted to finding the necessary votes to pass a temporary funding bill that will see federal services resume operations, at least through the end of January before the cycle of political standoffs and government services hostage-taking can begin again.

A near-term reopening of the federal government following what has become the longest US government shutdown in American history will bring a deluge of official labor and inflation figures, which are necessary datapoints for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to continue delivering the market’s much-desired interest rate cuts.

AI operational costs likely to run much higher than everyone thinks

Renowned bear speculator Michael Burry noted on X-nee-Twitter earlier this week that most of the growth expectations surrounding the ongoing AI tech rally may be built on faulty accounting. According to the legendary investor, AI “hyperscalers”, or companies that provide compute power and rent data access to AI projects, are intentionally understating the depreciation costs of constantly upcycling data warehouse infrastructure to meet ever-growing data-crunching demand. According to Burry, the bulk of the investment cash being sunk into the AI space will continue to be burned at a faster-than-expected rate as AI demand chews through data infrastructure, and tech providers are overstating their future income expectations by drastically understating their equipment replacement costs.

Dow Jones daily chart

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