Global financial media focused on these top stories overnight and this morning: 1. U.S. small business optimism fell to a three-month low, with business expectations and expansion willingness weakening. 2. Micron Technology (MU) and SK hynix shares plunged, and the chip sector selloff intensified after South Korean stocks tumbled. 3. NVIDIA (NVDA) plans to invest an additional $2 billion in Europe, and Jensen Huang called for accelerating AI deployment. 4. Bank of America (BAC) is suspected of money laundering violations and was fined $1.2 billion, with shares falling more than 2% after hours. 5. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) banned external AI agents such as Muse and Instinct from directly accessing accounts. 6. JPMorgan Chase's stock buyback scale shrank by nearly 90%, and CEO Jamie Dimon said capital has better places to go.

U.S. small business optimism drops to a three-month low, with business expectations and expansion willingness weakening

U.S. small business optimism fell to a three-month low in September as firms' expectations for future business conditions weakened and the share of businesses saying now is a good time to expand declined. Data released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business showed the small business optimism index fell 0.8 point to 97.9. Of the 10 components making up the index, six declined, three rose and one was unchanged. The uncertainty indicator also edged higher. The net share of owners expecting business conditions to improve fell 4 percentage points to 6%, a four-month low.

Micron Technology and SK hynix shares plunge, chip sector selloff intensifies after South Korean stocks tumble

Dragged down by a sharp drop in South Korea's KOSPI index, the chip sector selloff intensified, with Micron Technology (MU) and SK hynix (SKHY) shares falling 5% on Tuesday. In the South Korean market, SK hynix and Samsung Electronics fell 10% and 7%, respectively, with both companies closing lower for five consecutive trading days. The combined market value of these two chipmakers accounts for more than half of the total market value of South Korea's stock market.

NVIDIA plans to invest an additional $2 billion in Europe, Jensen Huang calls for accelerating AI deployment

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said Tuesday at an event in Paris that the company plans to announce $2 billion in European investment in the coming week. Paris is the first stop on Huang's European trip, which will also take him to London and Berlin. Huang said the investment builds on the $8 billion NVIDIA has already invested in Europe over the past year. He also announced new investments in French startups Doctolib, Genesis AI, Pigment and Entalpic. Huang leads the world's most valuable company, and NVIDIA is also the chipmaking giant at the center of the artificial intelligence boom. Huang has pledged hundreds of billions of dollars globally to accelerate the adoption of the technology and its products.

Bank of America suspected of money laundering violations, fined $1.2 billion, shares fall more than 2% after hours

Bank of America (BAC) was fined more than $1.2 billion by federal authorities on Tuesday. Regulators said the second-largest U.S. bank failed for years to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions and failed to resolve long-standing anti-money laundering issues. The Treasury Department said in a news release that more than $1 billion of the unreported activity involved national security and other high-priority risks, including money laundering networks and activity tied to the southwest border. The action came less than a day before the bank was due to release quarterly earnings on Wednesday morning.

JPMorgan Chase bans external AI agents such as Muse and Instinct from directly accessing accounts

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that the bank will not allow external artificial intelligence agents to access customer accounts and act on customers' behalf, citing risks to the company and its clients as technology companies such as Meta release autonomous assistants. "We will not allow any external agents inside the company because it is too dangerous for customers and for JPMorgan," Dimon told analysts on the bank's third-quarter earnings call. "You don't want rogue agents, and there could be thousands of them," he added, describing the potential threat to customers. In July, an OpenAI model breached the servers of AI company HuggingFace.

JPMorgan Chase's stock buyback scale shrinks by nearly 90%, CEO Dimon says capital has better places to go

Dimon said Tuesday on the analyst call: "This is different from what we told you in the past. We currently believe we can redeploy this capital over time on very favorable terms. That is far better than buying back stock now and getting a 6% earnings yield or whatever it may be." Dimon did not specify where the capital would be deployed, but JPMorgan Chase increased equity capital attributed to the commercial and investment banking division by $2.8 billion in the third quarter, while equity capital for other operating divisions remained unchanged.