Explore every episode of the podcast Capital Currents - Daily Business News and Stock Market Updates

Business news update for Friday, August 29th

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Business news update for: Thursday, August 28th

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Business news updates for: Wednesday, August 27th

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Business news update for Tuesday, August 26th

Business news update for Monday: August 25th

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Business news update for Friday, August 22nd

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Business news update for Thursday, August 21st

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Business news update for Wednesday, August 20th

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Business news update for Tuesday, August 19th

Business news update for Monday, August 18th

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Business news update for: Friday, August 15th 🇮🇳

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Business news update for Thursday, August 14th

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Daily business news update: Wednesday, Aug 13th

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Daily business news update for Tuesday, August 12th

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Business news update for Monday, August 11th

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Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Tesla. Tesla announced that they're pulling the plug on its Dojo supercomputer program, which is a project that Elon Musk once hyped as the crown jewel of Tesla's AI ambitions. The Dojo supercomputer was Tesla's own custom-built computer for training AI. It was designed from the ground up, made specifically to process the massive amounts of video data from Tesla's cars. That data helped improve autopilot, full self-driving, and even the Optimus humanoid robot.

Morgan Stanley saw this as a key competitive advantage for Tesla, predicting that it would add \$500 billion to Tesla's market cap. But now that's all over. The Dojo team is being disbanded, and the guy who was leading the team, Peter Bannon, is leaving Tesla. The rest of the crew is getting reassigned. You know, before all this was even happening, the Dojo team was losing engineers. About 20 Dojo engineers recently left Tesla to start their own AI company called Density AI.

Now let's stick with the AI theme and talk about OpenAI, because they launched their latest AI model on Friday called GPT-5.

OpenAI is trying to improve their user experience by getting rid of all the old models in the dropdown menu and letting GPT-5 decide which model to use based on the prompt. 

There's a lot of pressure on OpenAI these days to continue to innovate and have the leading edge model. Competition is heating up. Gemini continues to put up impressive benchmarks. Claude has a loyal fan base, especially amongst coders. Grok is showing impressive capabilities. And then you have Meta, which is on a hiring spree, poaching OpenAI engineers with massive paychecks, so I'm sure they're cooking up something too. But as of right now, I think the crown still belongs to OpenAI.

They have the most users and the most hype. ChatGPT is on track to hit 700 million weekly active users and process 3 billion messages a day. And that kind of dominance is pushing up their valuation pretty quickly. Bloomberg reports that the company is in early talks for a stock sale that would let current and former employees cash out at a valuation of about \$500 billion. What's crazy is the company was just valued at \$300 billion four months ago. And it was at \$157 billion last October. 

Instacart shares are jumping this morning after the grocery delivery company reported that its profit growth nearly doubled in Q2 to \$116 million. Revenue also jumped 11% to \$914 million, beating analysts' expectations. Instacart makes money in two big ways. First is the fee it charges on grocery deliveries. And the second way is advertising revenue from brands promoting products on their app. Last quarter delivery fee revenues jumped 11%, which is a slowdown from a 17% growth a year ago. But their ad revenue was up 12%. And advertising is a highly profitable business model. So investors are pretty excited about the company and shares are up more than 9% this morning.

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Now Sweetgreen, on the other hand, is having a rough day. Shares are tanking after the salad chain company admitted that fewer people want to pay \$16 for a bowl of kale. The company slashed its 2025 sales outlook. They're now expecting revenues to drop between 4% to 6% this year versus the earlier forecast where they expected sales to be flat. Now just focusing on Q2, same store sales dropped by 8%, which is much worse than what Wall Street was expecting. But to be fair, Sweetgreen isn't the only food chain to blame the economy of slumping sales. Chipotle cut its forecast for same store sales after traffic declined for the second straight quarter. And then there's Kava, whose shares are down 20% in 2025 and down nearly 50% from its 52-week highs. It was down 60% year-to-date heading into earnings, and it's down another 25% this morning.

Business news update for Friday, August 8th

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Daily business news for Thursday, August 7th.

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Business news update for Wednesday, August 6th

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Business news update for Tuesday, August 5th

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In today's episode, I’ll tell you about Elon Musk's new pay package from Tesla, then let's go over Berkshire Hathaway's earnings results.

The markets are coming off their worst week of the summer with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both dropping more than 2% last week. The main driver? The disappointing jobs report. Not only did that report show July’s jobs numbers were weak, but it also revised May and June’s numbers down, meaning the economy added just 35,000 jobs on average over the last three months—a sign the labor market is losing steam.

Now, looking ahead to this week, we’ve got a ton of big earnings on deck: Palantir, AMD, Uber, Airbnb, Disney, and more. It’s another packed week, and we might even see a couple of trade deals, with new tariff rates going into effect August 7th. We’ll stay on top of all that, so make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast!

Let’s run through some headlines, starting with Elon Musk. The Tesla board just approved a massive $29 billion pay package for Elon, aiming to keep him locked in and motivated. This deal includes 96 million shares that will only vest if Musk remains a key executive through 2027. It’s essentially a two-year, $29 billion deal, and a way for Tesla to make good on the $50 billion package from 2018 that was struck down by a Delaware court earlier this year. In a shareholder letter, Tesla’s board said this is the first step toward a long-term comp plan, which will go to vote at the November 6th annual meeting. This package could also gradually increase Elon’s voting power, which is currently around 13%. The board wants him focused on Tesla, not distracted by SpaceX or xAI, especially since Tesla’s core business is struggling—vehicle sales dropped 14% last quarter and revenue growth has flatlined. There have been rumors of a possible CEO switch, but for now, the board and investors still believe Musk is the guy to lead Tesla into its next chapter: full self-driving, robo-taxis, and humanoid robots.

Switching gears to Berkshire Hathaway: The Warren Buffett-led giant reported disappointing earnings with operating profits dropping 4% in Q2, dragged down by insurance underwriting losses. Other segments like railroads and energy were flat or only slightly up, but the biggest hit was a $3.8 billion write-down on their Kraft Heinz stake—a rare L for Buffett. Berkshire now values its 27% Kraft Heinz stake at just $8.4 billion, less than half of what it was worth in 2017.

Buffett also took a jab at Trump’s trade policy, warning that escalating tariffs could hurt most of Berkshire’s businesses and investments. The company was a net seller of stocks for the 11th straight quarter, unloading $3 billion worth of equities in Q2 and $4.5 billion in the first half of the year. And with Buffett set to step down as CEO at the end of 2025, the vibes are a bit shaky. The stock is down more than 3%.

That’s all the business headlines for now. Let’s look at some stocks:

Wayfair shares are popping after the company posted its strongest quarter since the pandemic—revenues grew 5% year over year in Q2. While that may sound low, it’s a big comeback for Wayfair. Last quarter, revenue growth was flat, and for 2024, sales dropped 1%. The company hasn’t posted a profit in years, but this Q2 they reported a surprise profit and the stock is up over 5% this morning.

On the flip side, Boeing’s stock is down after more than 3,000 workers in their defense unit went on strike in Missouri and Illinois, following the union’s rejection of a four-year labor contract. Boeing’s defense unit is about 30% of total revenue and produces key military products like the Apache helicopter, so this is another headache as they try to turn things around. This comes less than a year after thousands of Boeing employees went on strike in September 2024, a strike that didn’t end until November. Boeing stock is down around 2% this morning in response.

Business news update for Monday, Aug 4th

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* Apple and Amazon earnings 🍎📦

* Tariffs go live for 80+ countries 🌍

* ESPN takes a stake in NFL Media 🏈

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In today's episode, we'll recap earnings from Apple and Amazon—lowkey, I’m getting tired of all these earnings. It’s been every episode last week. Then, I’ll tell you about a new deal update between ESPN and the NFL. I got a great show for you today. Let’s go.

Stocks continued to slide at market close on Friday, and the S\&P 500 dropped for the third day in a row, closing down 0.4%.

Also on Friday:

* The **tariff deadline expired**, and the new rates are now in effect (15% to 40% for 80+ countries).

* **China** is the exception with another 90-day extension.

* Countries not named in the order now face a **10% baseline tariff**.

* The **July jobs report** came in cold: just **73,000 jobs** added vs. 100k expected.

We got hit with a double whammy: inflation is heating up while job growth slows. Could be a rocky August.

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### 🍏 Apple Earnings

Apple posted a surprisingly strong quarter:

* Revenue jumped **10% to \$94B**, the fastest growth in 3 years.

* Profit came in over **\$23B**.

iPhone sales were up **13%**, possibly because buyers rushed in before tariffs hit. Even though Apple hasn’t raised prices yet, tariffs cost them **\$800M** in Q2 and are expected to reach **\$1.1B** in Q3.

Their **services business**—App Store, iCloud—grew **13% to \$27B**. Overall, a solid quarter. Apple shares rose nearly 2%.

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### 📦 Amazon Earnings

Amazon also beat on revenue and profits:

* Sales up **13% to \$167B**.

* But the stock dropped **7%** on weak profit guidance and AWS concerns.

Business news update for Friday, August 1st.

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Welcome to Capital Currents—where the flow of business news and market trends keeps you ahead of the tide. I am your watchdog and today is Friday, August 1st.

**Meta and Microsoft’s blockbuster earnings, Figma IPO day!**

In today's episode, we'll dive into blockbuster earnings from Meta and Microsoft and preview Figma's IPO, which starts trading today. We got a great show—let's go.

Things got off to a strong start yesterday after the GDP report showed the US economy grew 3% in Q2—well above the 2.3% expected. But by the afternoon, Jerome Powell’s comments sent markets into the red.

As expected, the Fed left interest rates unchanged. But Powell’s tone caught investors off guard. The markets were hoping for a hint that rate cuts might begin in September, but Powell came out hawkish.

The quote that stood out: Powell said the Fed doesn’t believe current interest rates are restrictive or holding back the economy. He also reiterated the Fed would take a “wait and see” approach due to the uncertainty around tariffs and their potential inflationary impact.

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Let’s run through some headlines, starting with Meta. They crushed earnings, beating expectations across the board. Q2 revenues rose 22% to \$47B, ahead of the \$44B estimate. Profits surged 36% to \$18B.

Meta’s core ad business—Facebook and Instagram—continues to grow, and they see more upside. For this quarter, they expect 17–24% revenue growth. CEO Mark Zuckerberg credits AI for these gains.

Zuck is all-in on AI. Beyond his new “superintelligence” team offering NBA-sized contracts to top engineers, Meta plans to spend \$72B this year on capex—mostly on AI infrastructure and data centers.

Meta stock is up 10% today. When Zuck bet on the Metaverse, he got clowned. Now, after nearly \$70B in losses from Reality Labs (including \$4.5B in Q2 alone), he’s successfully pivoted to AI—and investors love it.

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Next up: Microsoft. They also posted blowout earnings, thanks to AI turbocharging their cloud business. Azure cloud revenue grew 39% in Q2—above the 34% analysts expected. Azure generated \$75B over the past year.

For the first time ever, Microsoft disclosed Azure’s annual revenue, which shows just how strong the numbers are. Net income was up 24% to \$27B.

Microsoft continues to justify its AI investments. CFO Amy Hood said next quarter’s capex will top \$30B—up 50% year-over-year.

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Let’s talk about Figma. The collaborative design platform makes its public debut today—one of the most hyped IPOs of the year. Figma priced at \$33 a share, a 250% jump, giving it a \$19B valuation.

That’s near the \$20B Adobe offered in 2022 before regulators blocked the deal. But today, IPO demand is off the charts. Bloomberg reports the offering was 40x oversubscribed—double what Circle and Chime saw.

Figma is expected to begin trading later this morning or early afternoon.

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And finally, Carvana. The stock is soaring after posting record used car sales. Revenue jumped 42% and net income rose 6x. But here’s the twist—most of that profit came from loan sales.

Carvana made \$274M from loan sales—out of \$308M in total profit. It echoes what we said yesterday about Harley-Davidson selling its loan division. Lending is where the real money is.

Carvana shares are up 15% this morning—and up more than 10,000% since their 2022 lows. Honestly, Carvana is like a meme stock that never stopped memeing. It just keeps going up.

Business news update for Thursday, July 31st

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Welcome to Capital Currents—where the flow of business news and market trends keeps you ahead of the tide. I am your watchdog and today is Thursday, July 31st.

In today's episode, I’ll get you ready for a big Fed meeting and tell you when investors are expecting a rate cut. Then, a big acquisition in the cybersecurity space. Finally, let’s check in on Starbucks and their turnaround plan.

After six straight days of gains, the market hit a speed bump yesterday, with the S\&P and Nasdaq both dropping about 0.3%. Looking ahead, the Fed wrapped up its meeting yesterday, and as expected, no rate cuts—despite pressure from President Trump. Investors will tune in to Jerome Powell’s press conference for any clues of a potential September rate cut. Markets are currently pricing in a 60% chance, and those odds could shift based on Powell’s tone.

One reason the Fed hasn’t cut yet? Tariffs. They fear inflation could flare back up. But recent data shows tariffs haven’t had much effect. And with trade clarity improving, a September cut may be back on the table.

But that’s not the only big thing today—Microsoft and Meta earnings are out too. So, tomorrow’s episode will be loaded.

Let’s run through some headlines, starting with cybersecurity. Palo Alto Networks is acquiring Israeli identity security firm CyberArk in a \$25B deal. CyberArk is a leader in privileged access management—basically the digital bouncer for enterprise systems. Shareholders get \$45 a share, a 26% premium from Friday’s close.

This is the second big cybersecurity M\&A this year—Google bought Wiz for \$32B in March. Palo Alto’s CEO called this a strategic move to prepare for threats from agentic AI. Wall Street isn’t loving the price tag though—Palo Alto shares are down 8% today. But analysts like Dan Ives are calling it a home run, predicting more consolidation across the sector. Names like Zscaler, CrowdStrike, and Checkpoint could be next. Get ready for more six-factor authentication soon.

Now to Starbucks. They just reported earnings—and it’s still lukewarm. Q2 sales and profits missed expectations. Comparable sales fell 2% and profits came in at \$0.50 a share, well below the \$0.65 expected. That’s six straight quarters of same-store sales declines.

New CEO Brian Nickel, formerly of Chipotle, is leading the turnaround. He’s revamping stores to reduce wait times and bring back that “warm, human” Starbucks vibe. Mobile-only stores are being phased out, and \$500M is being spent to boost staffing. The numbers haven’t popped yet—but investors liked the tone. Shares are up 5% today.

There was also good news from China, Starbucks’s #2 market. Sales rose 2%, the first growth there since early 2024. Lower prices and sugar-free drinks helped.

Now to stocks. Harley-Davidson is revving up—shares are up 20% after reports they may sell their financing unit for \$5B. They’re in talks with KKR and PIMCO. This unit makes up 20% of revenue and provides loans to dealers and buyers. Harley just missed on earnings and declined to give annual guidance. Revenue fell 19% as demand and tariffs hit hard. But investors love the financing exit.

On the flip side, Mondelez—the maker of Oreos—is down 5% this morning. North American sales dropped 3%, and they blame economic anxiety and earlier price hikes tied to cocoa costs. Cocoa prices spiked earlier this year, and while supply has improved, the damage is done. They still expect a 10% drop in earnings this year. A Hershey’s collab might help—Reese’s-flavored Oreos are coming this fall.

That’s all for today’s show. Keep navigating those waters—and see you tomorrow.

Business news update for Wednesday, July 30th

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Welcome to Capital Currents—where the flow of business news and market trends keeps you ahead of the tide. I am your watchdog and today is Wednesday, July 30th.

In today’s episode: a huge railroad merger, Waymo teams with Avis, and earnings from Spotify, Boeing, and Novo Nordisk. One of these companies is in deep trouble—and it's not who you think.

We’re just days from the August 1st deadline when the tariff pause expires. President Trump said Monday he plans to move ahead with a 15–20% reciprocal tariff on imports from countries without a deal. That reassured markets a bit since those rates match recent U.S. deals with the EU and Japan.

The wild card? China. A deal is still being finalized. The two sides are meeting in Sweden this week and are expected to extend the tariff truce another 90 days. So yeah, between tariffs and the TikTok ban, expect a lot of extensions. At least markets now have clarity. Yes, rates are higher than earlier this year, but still far below the April “liberation day” shock.

Let’s run through some headlines—starting with the railroads. Union Pacific is going full speed ahead with its \$85B acquisition of rival Norfolk Southern. This would be the largest rail merger ever, creating the first U.S. coast-to-coast freight rail operator across 43 states.

Union Pacific rules the West and Norfolk owns the East. Combined, they control 40% of U.S. freight rail. Normally, this would get derailed by antitrust concerns, but the rail industry now faces growing competition from trucking. And the Trump administration is more merger-friendly than the last one. So this could be their window to consolidate.

The new company would be worth around \$200B, putting pressure on rivals like Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF. We might see more rail deals soon. The last major one was Canadian Pacific’s \$31B takeover of Kansas City Southern, which linked Canada to Mexico. This one’s all about U.S. dominance.

Now to self-driving cars. Google’s Waymo is expanding its robo-taxi service to Dallas and teaming up with a surprising partner—Avis. Avis will handle charging, maintenance, and depot operations for the robot car fleet.

It’s Waymo’s first rental car partnership, and both companies say Dallas is just the beginning. Seems like a smart move: Waymo can focus on tech, and Avis does what it does best—manage cars.

That’s all the business headlines. Let’s check on some stocks.

Boeing is up this morning after posting a smaller-than-expected loss and ramping up plane deliveries, which rose 63% year-over-year. 737 MAX production is still capped at 38 per month after that terrifying Alaskan Airlines incident, but Boeing plans to request an increase to 42 per month later this year. Stock’s up nearly 2%.

On the flip side, Novo Nordisk is in freefall—down 20% after cutting its full-year guidance and naming a new CEO. They now expect revenue growth of 8–14%, down from 13–21%, mostly due to a slowdown in U.S. sales of Ozempic.

And finally, Spotify. We love Spotify here at Capital Currents, but shares are sliding after they missed revenue estimates and posted an 86M euro loss—compared to a 225M profit a year ago. They blamed higher social charges tied to their rising stock price. On the bright side, subscriber growth beat expectations: 700M monthly active users, 275M premium subscribers. Still, shares are down 7%.

That’s all for today’s show. Keep navigating those waters—and see you tomorrow.

Daily business news for Tuesday, July 29th

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Welcome to Capital Currents—where the flow of business news and market trends keeps you ahead of the tide. I am your watchdog, and today is Tuesday, July 29th.

Before we begin, a quick reminder: we have a daily newsletter delivered right to your inbox if you prefer your business news in written form. We just hit 1k subscribers on Substack—huge thanks to our readers! Link is in the show notes.

In today’s episode: a look at the week ahead with big tech earnings, a Fed meeting, and a jobs report. Plus, PayPal launches a new crypto feature, and Tesla inks a major chip deal with Samsung.

The summer rally kept rolling last week as the S\&P and Nasdaq each rose over 1%, closing at record highs. Confidence is growing with more trade deals being finalized and solid earnings rolling in. Yesterday, President Trump announced a new trade agreement with the EU—America’s largest trading partner. The deal includes a 15% tariff on most European imports. In return, the EU agreed to purchase \$750 billion in U.S. energy and invest another \$600 billion in the U.S.

This sets the stage for a massive week ahead. Over 150 S\&P 500 companies report earnings, including Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple. Meanwhile, the Fed meets today. No rate cuts are expected, but investors will scrutinize Jerome Powell’s press conference for clues on possible September cuts. Then on Friday, we’ll get the July jobs report—a key look at the labor market’s resilience. The Fed has held off on rate cuts largely because the labor market remains strong. Bottom line: this week is like the Super Bowl for Wall Street.

Let’s run through some headlines. PayPal just announced that merchants can now accept over 100 cryptocurrencies at checkout—including Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins like USDT and USDC, and even some meme coins. This “Pay with Crypto” feature launches soon, converting crypto to USD or PayPal’s own PYUSD stablecoin at checkout. The appeal? Faster settlements and lower fees—less than 1% per transaction, compared to 1.5% for credit cards and up to 10% for international payments. PayPal’s hoping this move lifts its stock, still down 70% from 2021 highs.

Now to Tesla and Samsung. Tesla just signed a \$16.5 billion multi-year deal with Samsung to manufacture its next-gen AI chips, dubbed the AI6, at Samsung’s new chip facility. These chips will power Tesla’s future self-driving systems. It’s a major win for Samsung, which trails TSMC in chip foundry market share—TSMC controls 68%, while Samsung holds just 8%. The deal gives Samsung credibility and momentum, sending its stock up more than 6% on the news.

To close, some stock movers. Nike is up this morning after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to a “buy,” citing a potential multi-year comeback. JPM sees Nike’s earnings growing over 20% from 2026–2030—a big rebound after a 10% drop in fiscal 2025. They raised the price target to \$93; Nike trades around \$79 currently, and shares jumped 4% on the upgrade.

On the flip side, QuantumScape got downgraded by Goldman Sachs to a “sell.” Goldman sees limited revenue until 2028, by which time battery tech may have passed them by. They gave the EV battery maker a \$3 price target—QuantumScape currently trades above \$11. The downgrade sent shares down nearly 4%.

That’s all for today’s show. Keep navigating those waters—and see you tomorrow.

Business news update for Monday, July 28th

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Welcome to Capital Currents—where the flow of business news and market trends keeps you ahead of the tide. I am your watch dog and today is Monday, July 28th. 

Before we begin, I wanted to remind everyone we do have a daily newsletter delivered right to your inbox for this podcast if that form of content is what you prefer. We just hit 1k subscribers for the substack and I can’t thank the readers enough. The link is down below in the show notes.

In today's episode, we'll tell you about Trump's trip to the Federal Reserve, we will also discuss issues over at Intel, and finally, more delays at Tesla. We have a great show for you today. Let's go!

The stock market continued its steady climb up this week, with both the S and P and Nasdaq rising about 0.1% for another record close. But the real drama yesterday came when President Trump stopped by the Federal Reserve building for a tour with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. As we've talked about on the podcast for weeks now, the president has been putting a lot of pressure on Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. On Friday, Trump put on his hard hat and stopped by to check out the renovations himself with Jerome Powell as a tour guide. During the tour, there was an interaction that is going super viral where President Trump and Jerome Powell disagreed on the cost of renovations. After the public accusation, President Trump once again asked Jerome Powell to cut interest rates and even give him a nice slap on the back. Trump is going to be disappointed next week when the Fed meets on interest rates because right now the markets are only pricing a 2% chance of a rate cut. So it's probably not happening, but it's going to be interesting to see what Jerome Powell says in the press conference. I'm definitely going to be tuning into that on July 30th and I’ll keep you guys in the loop next week.

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Let's run through some headlines, starting with Tesla. We broke down Tesla's disappointing Q2 earnings on Friday’s show, but we didn't really talk about Tesla's robot program, Optimus. Well, we just got some new information about Optimus and it looks like the company is running behind. Elon Musk originally said that Tesla would produce 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots this year, but Tesla's only built a few hundred robots so far. Elon is claiming that robots could eventually be bigger than the EV business and help push Tesla's market cap to over \$25 trillion, which is equivalent to the GDP of the entire United States economy.

One of the biggest challenges they're trying to overcome right now has to do with the robots hands. Tesla wants Optimus to be an all-in-one robot with the ability to do handiwork, work on the factory floor, play the piano, fold some clothes, so they need the hands to be just like humans. But they can't seem to get that right and to make matters worse, Optimus's head of engineering recently quit and a former Tesla employee left to launch his own robot hand startup. Elon is not backing down. He's pouring billions of dollars in R\&D into developing Optimus, all while Tesla's car business continues to decline. Now, Tesla did show off the Optimus robots to the public this week in LA, where they opened up a futuristic drive-in diner staffed completely by these robots, and there were multiple Optimus robots serving popcorn to people. 

Let's shift gears and talk about another company having a hard time right now, Intel. Intel has been going through a rough patch pretty much this entire decade. And a

Business news update for Friday, July 25th.

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Business news update for Thursday, July 24th.

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Before we begin, a quick reminder: we have a daily newsletter delivered straight to your inbox if that’s how you prefer to consume this podcast. We just crossed 1,000 Substack subscribers—huge thanks to all of you! Link’s in the show notes.

In today’s episode, we’ll recap the new trade deal with Japan and why it might be the first of many, and then dive into Elon Musk’s plan to spend billions on Nvidia chips. Let’s get into it.

In the backdrop of meme stock madness, we got a surprise trade update. President Trump announced a deal with Japan, cutting tariff rates to 15%, down from the 25% he’d threatened earlier this month. As part of the deal, Japan will invest \$550 billion into the U.S. and open its markets to more American exports like cars, trucks, rice, and other ag products. This is a big win—Japan is one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, and this likely signals more deals before the high tariffs kick in on August 1.

Next up: crypto and traditional finance are colliding again. Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon are teaming up to bring money market funds to the blockchain. These are super-safe, short-term investments that institutional investors love. Now they’re becoming tokenized—digitized, more flexible, and tradable 24/7. That means no more waiting for market hours to settle trades. BlackRock and Fidelity are also buying into these digital funds, which will live on Goldman’s blockchain. This follows President Trump’s signing of the Genius Act, which gave regulated stablecoins the green light. BlackRock’s Larry Fink even said every stock, bond, and fund could eventually be tokenized. So yeah, this is probably a space to keep your eye on.

Let’s shift gears to Elon Musk and xAI. According to the Wall Street Journal, xAI is raising up to \$12 billion to buy more Nvidia GPUs for their next mega data center, Colossus 2. This comes just weeks after they raised \$10B—and reportedly spent most of it. The first Colossus, built last year in Memphis, houses over 200,000 Nvidia GPUs. Now they want to scale up to 1 million GPUs to power Grok, their AI chatbot. xAI just launched Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy, which use AI agents. But all this AI infrastructure is burning serious cash—\$13 billion projected in 2025 alone. Elon is calling in favors, with backing from Valor Equity Partners and other private equity groups. But Grok is going up against giants like Google, Meta, and OpenAI—companies with massive infrastructure and global dominance. So, we’ll see if this gamble pays off.

Now to the meme stock circus. Krispy Kreme and GoPro are the latest names to pop. GoPro is up over 80% today, and Krispy Kreme is up more than 30%. This comes after huge Tuesday gains for both. And to be clear—there’s no news or deals. It’s pure Reddit hype and options trading. Krispy Kreme saw 100,000+ call contracts traded—75x its average. GoPro saw its highest call volume since 2021. Total 2021 vibes. Meanwhile, Opendoor—the stock that kicked off this cycle—has already fallen over 40% from Monday’s highs. So yeah… trade carefully.

On the flip side, Texas Instruments is taking a hit. The chipmaker posted solid Q2 results—revenues up 16%, profits up 15%, both above estimates. But their Q3 outlook disappointed. TI is a major supplier of semiconductors for autos and industrial use, and they’re forecasting a slowdown in both. Shares are down over 10% this morning.

Business news update for Tuesday, July 22nd.

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In today’s episode, Microsoft’s latest struggles with cyberattacks, then we’ll discuss why CBS canceled The Late Show.

Stocks are coming off a winning week with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and the Nasdaq up 1.5%, both hitting record highs. The market’s been surprisingly calm lately—likely due to lower summer trading volumes as Wall Street heads to the Hamptons. But I think volatility could return soon as earnings season heats up. This week, big names like Tesla, Google, and Intel are set to report. Meanwhile, tariff negotiations are intensifying ahead of the August 1st deadline, with EU talks reportedly getting tense.

Now let’s talk about Microsoft. Over the weekend, they issued an alert about active cyberattacks targeting SharePoint, their document-sharing platform. One expert even called it a “dream” for ransomware groups. The attacks seem global—hitting everything from government agencies to corporations. Microsoft is rolling out patches, but many organizations using on-premise servers remain vulnerable.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft’s security culture has been under fire. A White House review board previously called it “inadequate,” pointing to a China-based hack that accessed senior US officials’ emails. And just last week, Microsoft was accused of letting engineers in China maintain Department of Defense systems with little US oversight. Needless to say, the pressure is mounting.

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Now let’s shift to the entertainment world. CBS made headlines last week by canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The show has been a fixture for nearly 30 years, with Colbert hosting the last 10—but its financials were rough.

With a $100 million annual budget and 200 staffers, the show was losing nearly $40 million a year. Ratings had tanked, especially among younger viewers, as audiences moved to TikTok, podcasts, and YouTube. Late night ad revenue has collapsed—from $439 million in 2018 to just $221 million in 2024.

There’s also political speculation. Colbert was often critical of President Trump. CBS’s parent, Paramount, is currently being acquired by Skydance Media—owned by David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison. That deal is under regulatory review, and some wonder if canceling The Late Show was a strategic move to help push it through.

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In market news, shares of Block (formerly Square) are up nearly 10% this morning after being tapped to join the S&P 500. The fintech firm, known for Cash App and its embrace of crypto, will replace Hess after Chevron’s acquisition. Block’s goal is to become a one-stop financial hub—handling banking, lending (via its FDIC-approved Borrow product), and Bitcoin payments through Square.

On the flip side, Domino’s shares are down about 2% after missing Q2 profit expectations. There was a silver lining—same-store sales rose 3.4%, beating estimates. The company credits that to new promos and items like the Parmesan stuffed crust. But the profit miss is what’s weighing on investor sentiment.

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