Christine Idzelis

The bond market has a reputation for being boring. But lately, it has been the source of much of the action in the U.S.

As U.S. stocks head into September, a key trading level suggests the S&P 500 could dodge a big loss in what is historically a turbulent month.

Investors’ intense focus on AI is at times adding to the might of a small club of Big Tech stocks with mega market values to potentially make or break a single trading session for the S&P 500.

Bitcoin was rising Monday near the $80,000 level that it last touched in May, after the cryptocurrency surged last week on the Treasury Department’s plans to buy back longer-dated Treasurys.

Cryptocurrencies and precious metals shot higher, while the U.S. dollar weakened, after the Treasury Department said it planned to double its bond buybacks.

Individual investors just recorded “their largest net selling of single stocks since the COVID crash,” according to Vanda Research.

So far, the selloff hasn’t done much to dent the S&P 500, as other stocks and sectors have picked up the slack

Investors are increasingly borrowing to buy stocks, a reflection of greed in the stock market as they seek to amplify returns with margin debt. The growing pile of borrowed money has some on Wall Street nervous.

While SpaceX is due to join the Nasdaq-100 on Tuesday, it won’t become part of the S&P 500 for at least another year — likely furthering the volatility spread between those two indexes.

Momentum trades tend to struggle in July — but this year may be particularly volatile, says one strategist. The rumblings have already started.