Presidents Day closure puts Fed policy, xAI and Tesla China risk in focus

U.S. markets were closed for Washington's Birthday, leaving QQQ and SPY unchanged at Friday's regular close. Fed officials stressed patience. Harker backed steady rates, Bowman wanted more confidence on inflation, and Waller said cuts could resume if inflation follows its 2024 pattern. South Korea's plan for 10,000 GPUs and xAI's Grok 3 DeepSearch launch added AI investment and product updates. Tesla's reported China self-driving approval delay highlighted trade-policy risk.