1. Wall Street's AI records

The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,818.93 on Tuesday, its first close above 7,800 and its first record since 13 August, while the Nasdaq Composite also finished at a record. Nvidia set its fourth record close in a row, at $239.24, edging closer to becoming the first company ever worth $6 trillion. The rally is narrow: Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft now make up more than 21% of the S&P 500, the highest share ever for three stocks, according to Creative Planning data cited by Yahoo Finance. Goldman Sachs expects Nvidia and Micron alone to deliver a third of the index's earnings growth this quarter. Stocks slipped on Wednesday as bond yields climbed, with the S&P 500 down 0.22% at 7,801.77.

2. Yemen's government pushes back the Houthis

Forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government say they have retaken the Red Sea port of Mocha and positions around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which the Iran-backed Houthis seized in a lightning offensive last month. The operation, dubbed "Dawn of Yemen" and announced on Sunday by Presidential Leadership Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi, aims to retake all Houthi-held territory, including the capital, Sanaa. On Tuesday, pro-government forces launched an assault on the mountainous district of al-Waziiya, east of Mocha, and fighting has spread north along the coast toward Hodeidah. The Saudi-led coalition says 100 of its fighter jets are providing air cover, while Saudi Arabia intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile aimed at Khamis Mushait.

3. The Fed wants more, and the US pays more

Federal Reserve officials expect to raise interest rates again before the end of the year, according to the minutes of their September meeting released on Wednesday, without saying when. All participants backed September's quarter-point hike, the first since 2023, which lifted rates to 3.75%-4.00%, as inflation has run above target for more than five years. Earlier in the day, the US Treasury sold $39 billion of 10-year notes at a yield of 5.3%, the highest at such an auction since 2000. Demand was "much stronger than feared", one analyst told CNBC, and the 10-year yield eased afterwards.

4. Spain mourns Maricarmen

Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction from her Madrid home of seven decades sparked nationwide housing protests and ultimately an early election, died on Wednesday in hospital, Madrid's tenants' union said. An agreement that would have allowed her to return home "came too late", the union said. Protesters camped in Madrid's Puerta del Sol held a minute of silence, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sent his condolences to her family. Trade unions announced a general strike over housing next month, ahead of the snap election on 29 November.

5. SpaceX seeks $40 billion of debt to buy Nvidia chips

SpaceX is in talks to raise about $40 billion to buy AI chips from Nvidia, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, combining about $10 billion of bank loans with $30 billion of investment-grade debt. Apollo is expected to lead the deal, and bond giant Pimco is among the lenders in talks, according to Bloomberg, which said talks were at an early stage. SpaceX absorbed Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, in February. It could be one of the biggest debt financings of the AI boom, at a time when Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio calls AI a "classic bubble".

6. A French Nobel at 95

French chemist Henri Kagan, 95, of Université Paris-Saclay in Orsay, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday, shared with Japan's Kenso Soai of the Tokyo University of Science, "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis". Their work explains how chemical reactions can favour one of two mirror-image forms of a molecule, a question at the heart of how medicines are made. They "have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old," said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.