🧠 Better-than-expected June jobs report / MSFT cooks 9,000 worldwide

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🏛️ Financial News

• Jobs Report 💼 US payrolls increased by 147,000 in June, more than expected – CNBC: Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000, higher than the estimate for 110,000. Government employment lead all categories with an increase of 73,000, due to boosts in state and local hiring.

  • Reuters: Solid US job growth masks weakness underneath

• Payroll Report 🧾 The private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June, badly missing expectations for a 100,000 increase, ADP says – CNBC: Payrolls processing firm ADP said the "core" private sector hiring unexpectedly contracted in June in a potential sign that the economy may not be as sturdy as investors believe.

• Vietnam Tariffs 🍲 Trump announces Vietnam trade deal, 20% tariff on its imports to US – CNBC: The US has struck a trade deal with the southeast Asian country that includes a 20% tariff on imports and will give the U.S. tariff-free access to Vietnam’s markets.

• Japan Tariffs ⛩️ Trump’s 35% Tariff Threat Feeds Japan’s Worst-Case Scenario Fear – Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance: President Trump threatened Japan with tariffs of up to 35% as he ramped up tensions, raising doubts over Tokyo’s tactics in trade talks.

• Home Mortgages 🏡 Mortgage refinance demand surges 7%, as interest rates drop further – CNBC: The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances fell to 6.79% from 6.88%. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home increased 0.1% for the week.

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🌎 Global Markets

• S&P 500 $SPY ( ▲ 0.61% ) 📊 S&P 500, Nasdaq climb, set for fresh records after jobs report beat – Rueters: US stocks popped and aimed for more records going into the July Fourth weekend, as investors digested a stronger-than-expected June jobs report that dampened hopes for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut.

• Europe Markets $STOXX ( 0.0% ) 🏰 July's seasonal magic: European stocks' summer rally revealed – euronews: European stocks historically shine in July, with the EURO STOXX 50 and STOXX 600 averaging strong gains and 70% win rates. French banks like BNP and Credit Agricole, along with luxury giants, show standout seasonal strength.

• Europe Markets $NSEINDIA.P ( 0.0% ) 🕌 India's e-commerce stocks outrun Chinese peers on profitability hopes – Business Standard (India): India’s top e-commerce stocks have outpaced local indexes and regional peers over the past month, as a rapid rebound fuels bets on their ability to edge out rivals and boost profitability.

• Exchange-Traded Funds 📊 Global active ETF assets hit new record at $1.4T – ETF .com: The demand for mutual-fund-to-ETF conversions is growing, as assets invested in global actively managed ETFs hit a new record at the end of May.

  • ETF .com: ETF inflows hit $97.8B in June, best since February

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📊 Stock Market

• Banks : Dividends 🏦 Banks increase dividends after passing Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests – PYMTNTS: Bloomberg reported the biggest US banks planning to boost dividends include: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

• Brokerages $HOOD ( ▲ 2.13% ) 💱 Robinhood launches tokens allowing EU users to trade in US stocks – Reuters: Robinhood has launched commission-free tokens that can be traded around-the-clock, five days a week that will allow customers in the European Union to trade more than 200 U.S. stocks and ETFs, including Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.

  • Reuters: Robinhood to offer tokens linked to stocks of privately-held companies, starting with OpenAI and SpaceX

• Crypto : Brokerages $COIN ( ▲ 5.03% )₿ Coinbase acquires token management platform Liquifi to simplify on-chain vesting – Cointelegraph: Coinbase’s acquisition of Liquifi aims to address the complexity of token launches by onchain builders by making them faster and easier.

• Transports $COST ( ▲ 0.37% ) 🛒 Lululemon sues Costco over selling alleged dupes – NBC News: The athleisure brand alleges that Costco sells rip-offs of its SCUBA pullover sweater, DEFINE jacket and ABC pants and is seeking monetary compensation for lost profits.

• Staples : Beverages $STZ ( ▲ 0.35% ) 🍺 Modelo owner Constellation Brands misses on earnings as aluminum tariffs hit profitability – CNBC: The brewer missed estimates for its quarterly earnings and revenue, as it saw lower demand fueled by concerns about how tariffs would affect demand for its beer and paid more in aluminum tariffs.

• Staples : Goods $FDP ( ▲ 0.65% ) 🥫 Del Monte Foods files for bankruptcy – Fox Business: Canned fruit and vegetable maker says it will continue operations during court-supervised sale process.

• Automakers $STLA ( ▼ 1.38% ) 👥 New Stellantis CEO taps Kuniskis to oversee American brands, brings back SRT division – CNBC: Tim Kuniskis was promoted to lead American brands and North American marketing for Stellantis. The automaker also revived the SRT division for performance and motorsports.

• Media : Studios $AMC ( ▲ 9.43% )📽 AMC now warns moviegoers to expect ‘25-30 minutes’ of ads and trailers – The Verge: A new notice has started appearing when people purchase tickets via the AMC website, warning that “movies start 25-30 minutes after showtime”

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🌐 Magnificent 7 & Technology

• Technology $MSFT ( ▲ 1.2% ) 👩‍💻 Microsoft laying off 9,000 employees in latest round of cuts – The Verge: The software giant will cut less than 4% of its global workforce across teams, roles and geographies, as executives still try to reduce management layers. Microsoft also announced layoffs in May affecting around 6,000 people.

  • Windows Central: Microsoft continues Xbox layoffs, with jobs cut at King, Turn 10, ZeniMax Media, and more

• Communications $META ( ▼ 0.76% ) 👥 Mark Zuckerberg announces creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs – The Verge: The new AI superintelligence project, led by execs including Scale AI ex-CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, will house various teams working on foundation models.

• Technology $GOOG ( ▲ 0.51% )🔍 Google promotes ‘AI Mode’ on home page ‘Doodle’ – CNBC: The promotion of AI Mode on the Google Doodle comes as the tech company makes efforts to expose more users to its latest AI features amid pressure from artificial intelligence startups.

• Technology $AAPL ( ▲ 0.2% ) 🍎 Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri in major reversal – CNBC: The iPhone maker is considering sidelining its own in-house AI models to power a new version of Siri in a potentially blockbuster move aimed at turning around its flailing AI effort.

• Autos : EV $TSLA ( ▼ 0.7% ) 🔌 Tesla stock pops after Q2 vehicle production tops forecasts, deliveries fall 13% from year ago – Yahoo! Finance: The automaker said it delivered 384,122 EVs globally in Q2, less than the 389,407 projected by analysts tracked by Bloomberg consensus estimates.

• Semi-conductors $NVDA ( ▲ 0.33% ) 🧇 Nvidia insiders dump more than $1B in stock – Fox Business: Nvidia insiders have sold shares as the company's stock has risen dramatically in recent years.

• Cloud Infrastructure $NET ( ▲ 0.76% ) 🌐 Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping – TechCrunch: The new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between website owners and AI companies, ideally giving publishers greater control over their content.

• Data Monitoring $DDOG ( ▲ 0.24% )🎛️ Datadog stock jumps 10% on tech company’s inclusion in S&P 500 index – CNBC: Datadog is profitable, with a higher valuation than the median company on the Nasdaq. The addition of Datadog follows the close of HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks.

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• China AI 🐉 China’s AI Surge: Challenging America’s global tech dominance – Skill Bloomer: A Wall Street Journal report indicates the global race for AI leadership is accelerating, as Chinese AI giants like DeepSeek, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Zhipu AI, and 01 AI are no longer catching up, but moving ahead – most notably in emerging markets across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe.

• Frontier LLMs 🤖 Anthropic, backed by Amazon, soars to new heights hitting $4B revenue run rate – TechGig: The Information reports, the 4x revenue run rate from the start of the year with the primary driver for growth believed to be coding agents, internal operations and data analysis, at companies like Zoom, Pfizer, and Snowflake.

• Warehouse 🦾 Amazon deploys its 1M robot in a sign of more job automation – TechCrunch: The company’s millionth robot strengthens Amazon’s position as the world’s largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics. The new “DeepFleet” AI model is expected to cut the travel time of the robot fleet by 10%, enabling faster and more cost-effective package deliveries.

• Semi-conductors : Engineers 🧇 Taiwan is creating an offshore wind industry to fuel its semiconductor factories – rest of the world: The island’s offshore wind ambitions are creating a new class of cable engineers.

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• Student Loans 🙃 Gen Z is grappling with global chaos—here’s how they’re coping with ‘inheriting broken systems’ – CNBC: Gen Z is also struggling with inflation, increasing housing prices, climate change and mass corporate layoffs. As the first digital native generation, they’re seeing all of it play out right in front of their eyes.

• American Dream : Gen Z 🏡 The American dream slips further away as younger adults retreat to parents' homes – Fox Business: Real estate expert Mauricio Umansky sees a growing trend of adult children returning home.

• Consumer Spending : Gen Z 🎮 Young Americans are spending a whole lot less on video games this year – GameSpot: New data suggests that 18- to 24-year-olds are cutting back on many different categories, with losses most concentrated in games.

• Estate Planning : Boomers 👍 Family-to-family home transfers surge in Florida, as Boomers skip the real-estate market – News 4 JAX Florida: A growing number of Baby Boomers are transferring property directly to family members, bypassing the traditional real estate market, and it’s reshaping housing trends across the country.

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🗽 Have a safe and happy long-weekend for those in the US celebrating the long July Fourth weekend. We’ll be back in two Saturdays to recap the week’s financial news.

Thanks to Morning Brew for sponsoring this week’s issue, a great resource for learning about alternative assets.

✨ Happy Unprompting,

Rawee
[email protected]

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