🧠 S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs / US dollar drops to lowest in three years

In partnership with

🕊️ No paywalled articles.

🏛️ Financial News

• Personal Consumption 🏛️ Fed's preferred inflation gauge shows PCE inflation was slightly hotter in May, as economists brace for Trump’s tariffs – Yahoo! Finance: The "core" Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, which strips out food and energy costs showed price increases accelerated in May as inflation remained above the Fed's 2% target.

• Consumer Spending 🛍️ US consumer spending falls; tariff-related boost to inflation awaited – Reuters: Consumer spending falls 0.1% in May; second decline in 2025 Core PCE inflation rises 0.2%; up 2.7% on year-over-year basis Income drops 0.4% as lift from some retroactive Social Security payments wanes.

• US Dollar 💵 US consumer spending falls; tariff-related boost to inflation awaited – Reuters: The US dollar is on course for its worst first half year since 1973, as it plummeted amid rising expectations for Federal Reserve easing and statements from President Donald Trump about his pick for the next Fed chair.

• China Tariffs 🐉 Even as markets rally, Trump's policymaking causes market angst – CNBC: China says it will review and approve eligible licenses for items subject to export control rules. The US will correspondingly cancel a range of existing restrictive measures imposed against Beijing.

• Canada Tariffs 🍁 Trump ends US trade talks with Canada over digital tax – Reuters: President Trump said the US is immediately ending trade talks with Canada in response to the country's digital services tax on technology companies, calling it a "direct and blatant attack on our country."

• 🧠 Upgrade your PortfolioGPT account Get unlimited credits and access to real-time Yahoo! Finance data for $3/mo or $27/annually (25% off).

🌎 Global Markets

• S&P 500 $SPY ( ▼ 0.35% ) 📊 S&P 500, Nasdaq lose steam, Dow nabs closing record, gold hits all-time high – Rueters: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index advanced past their previous highs into uncharted territory to end the week. Yet traders and investors remain wary of what may lie ahead, as gold hit a record high as the safe-haven metal benefited from looming US economic uncertainties.

• Sentiment 📊 Even as markets rally, Trump's policymaking causes market angst – CNBC: As Wall Street puts April's tariff shakeout in the rearview mirror and indexes set record highs, investors remain wary of President Trump's rapid-fire, sometimes chaotic policymaking process and see the rally as fragile.

• Exchange-Traded Funds $GRFT🏛️ Tuttle Capital's GRFT ETF aims to let investors bet on companies with Washington insider ties – Rueters: The Government Grift ETF was filed with the SEC this week and proposes a strategy built around tracking the investment activity of US political insiders, members of Congress and individuals close to President Trump.

• 🌍 Increase global exposure with Index GPT Generate index portfolio ideas to gain exposure to the largest indices in and outside the US, such the Eurozone, Germany, UK, France, China (Shanghai), India more.

Expert investment picks that have returned 200%+

AIR Insiders get picks from expert investors and industry leaders sent straight to their inbox every week. Picks like:

Jason Calacanis recommending Uber at $25/share (200%+ return)

Anthony Scaramucci recommending Bitcoin at $29,863 (200%+ return)

Sim Desai recommending OpenAI at an $86 billion market cap (200%+ return)

Looking to invest in real estate, private credit, pre-IPO ventures or crypto? Just sign up for our 2-week free trial so you can experience all the benefits of being an AIR Insider.

Sign Up For Free

📊 Stock Market

• Transports $FDX ( ▼ 1.12% )📦 FedEx posts better-than-expected Q2 sales but stock drops – CNBC: The parcel and cargo giant reported revenue ahead of expectations in Q2 CY2025, but sales were flat year on year. Guidance for next quarter’s revenue was better than expected.

• Energy : Oil & Gas $SHEL ( 0.0% )🛢️ Shell denies it is in takeover talks with BP after WSJ report – Reuters: Shell denied that it was in talks to buy BP after the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the oil major was in early discussions over a takeover of its British rival.

• Pharma $NVO ( ▼ 2.93% ) 💊 Novo Nordisk ends deal with Hims & Hers over sales of Wegovy copycats – CNBC: Novo Nordisk said it is ending its collaboration with Hims & Hers due to concerns about the telehealth company’s sales and promotion of cheaper knock-offs of the weight loss drug Wegovy.

  • Fierce Healthcare: Novo Nordisk inks partnership with WeightWatchers to broaden Wegovy access

• Consumer Goods $GIS ( ▲ 0.43% ) 🧃 General Mills flags annual income drop amid "challenging" environment – Investing.com via Yahoo! Finance: The packaged food giant warned of weak category sales growth and slipping income in its current fiscal year, as it grapples with tariff-driven operating headwinds.

• Apparel $NKE ( ▼ 2.67% ) 👟 Nike says tariffs will cost it $1 billion before price increases, supply chain shifts – CNBC: The sneaker giant reported better-than-expected fiscal Q4 earnings and revenue, but said it took its biggest financial hit yet from its turnaround plan during the period, but expects sales and profit declines to moderate moving forward.

• Technology: Transports $UBER ( ▼ 1.05% ) 🚕Uber and ex-CEO Travis Kalanick are talking about a new deal – Rueters: Uber is in talks with former CEO Travis Kalanick to help fund his prospective bid for the US subsidiary of Chinese self-driving car company Pony.ai

• Technology: Dating $BMBL ( ▼ 2.4% ) 💞 Bumble to lay off 30% of global workforce as dating apps struggle – CNBC: Bumble said it would lay off nearly a third of its workforce, the latest cuts in a dating app industry striving to develop features that will keep users spending amid economic uncertainty.

• 📊 Avoid single-stock exposure with Sector ETF GPT Generate sector-specific portfolio ideas, such as technology, discretionary, health care and more.

🌐 Magnificent 7 & Technology

•  Sentiment 🌐 Tech optimism is reaching 1999 levels, but with a few key differences – CNBC: It wasn't that long ago that fears of a Chinese startup's AI advancements channeled a mix of anxieties about overblown tech stocks. Along with a trade war. But after a bout of plunging stock prices, Big Tech has mounted a comeback and then some.

• Semi-conductors $NVDA ( ▲ 0.5% ) 🧇 Nvidia breakout puts $4T market value within reach – Reuters: Two years after Nvidia Corp. made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a $1T market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach $4T.

• Hardware $HPE ( ▼ 2.68% )🗄️ US DOJ settles antitrust case for HPE’s $14 billion takeover of Juniper – CNBC: The Department of Justice has settled its lawsuit challenging server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise ’s all-cash acquisition of Juniper Networks for $14B, according to court filings.

• Memory $MU ( ▲ 1.15% ) 💾 Micron reports earnings, revenue beat and issues strong forecast – CNBC: The chipmaker beat on the top and bottom lines for the fiscal Q3, beating expectations.

• Autos : EV $TSLA ( ▲ 1.18% ) 🔌Tesla head of manufacturing Omead Afshar fired by Elon Musk – CNBC: ceo Elon Musk has fired Omead Afshar, the automaker’s vice president of manufacturing and operations. Afshar’s departure comes after YoY declines in car sales in Tesla’s key markets.

• Autos : EV $TSLA ( ▲ 1.18% ) 🔌Tesla stock pops 10% as Musk touts ‘successful’ robotaxi Austin launch – CNBC: Tesla rolled out autonomous robotaxis in Austin to a limited group of testers. The launch puts Tesla head-to-head with Alphabet-backed Waymo, which is already operating a fleet of robotaxis in several cities.

  o CNBC: Tesla’s European car sales nosedive for fifth month as customers switch to Chinese EVs

• 🧠 Upgrade your PortfolioGPT account Get an ad-free experience with unlimited credits for portfolio generations.

• Frontier LLMs : Reasoning 🤖 The AI-boom’s multi-billion dollar blind spot: Reasoning models hitting a wall – CNBC: The latest releases from the major players in AI have been reasoning models that execute tougher tasks by “thinking,” or breaking problems into logical steps and showing their work.

• Frontier LLMs 🤖 Exclusive: OpenAI taps Google in unprecedented cloud deal despite AI rivalry, sources say – Reuters: The surprising collaboration between two prominent AI leaders underscores how massive computing demands to train and deploy AI models are reshaping the competitive dynamics in AI, and marks the ChatGPT maker's latest move to diversify its compute sources beyond its major supporter Microsoft.

• China AI 🐉OpenAI says Zhipu AI accelerates China’s global efforts to challenge US tech dominance – CNBC: OpenAI said its analysts found that Beijing-based AI start-up Zhipu AI had made “notable progress” in providing infrastructure solutions to governments and state-owned firms in non-Western markets in a race to secure clients in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

• 📧 Subscribe to Unprompted

🦾 AI Jobs Report

• Jobs Report 💼 As job losses loom, Anthropic launches program to track AI’s economic fallout – TechCrunch: Silicon Valley has opined on the promise of AI to forge new career paths and economic opportunities. Amid this backdrop, Anthropic launched its Economic Futures Program, a new initiative to support research on AI’s impacts on the labor market and global economy and to develop policy proposals to prepare for the shift.

• Communications $META ( ▼ 1.34% ) 🤳  Meta’s “superintelligence” AI team appears to be largely made up of OpenAI, and has their work cut out for them – Sherwood by Robinhood: The social media company has been assembling a “superintelligence” team to boost its AI chops, help it reach AGI, and allow it to keep dominating advertising. The New York Times reports, to furnish that team, Meta has tried to poach more than 45 AI researchers from OpenAI alone,  offering starting packages as high as $100M apiece.

• Banking $GS ( ▼ 0.59% ) 💱 Goldman Sachs announces firmwide launch of AI assistant – Fox Business: Tool offers specialized capabilities for different departments including investment banking and wealth management.

• Transports $DHL 📦 Robots for unpacking trucks hit are now appearing in the supply-chain to replace the task of moving boxes. – WSJ: Technology breakthroughs are allowing DHL and other companies to automate the laborious, injury-prone work of loading and unloading.

• Digital Media ▶️ MrBeast finds out creators aren’t ready for AI thumbnails – Tubefilter: When MrBeast introduced AI-generated thumbnails to his ViewStats platform, he intended to launch a tool that “takes the guesswork” out of video performance. What he didn’t intend was to light an internet firestorm.

• US Dollar 💵 How will the dip in the U.S. dollar impact Americans?  – TIME: Experts warn the dip in the US dollar means that its exchange rate is less strong, making the prices of imported goods and international travel more expensive for Americans.

• Consumer Debt 💳 How retail credit cards could bankrupt consumers with record high interest rates – CNBC: More and more people who are filing for bankruptcy have retail credit card debt, and those bills are getting harder to pay off with record-high interest rates.

• Credit Score 💳 Buy Now, Pay Later loans will soon affect some credit scores – Yahoo! Finance: Hundreds of millions of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ loans will soon affect credit scores for millions of Americans who use the loans to buy clothing, furniture, concert tickets, and takeout.

• Mortgages 🏡 FHFA chief orders Fannie and Freddie to prepare for crypto In mortgage underwriting – Yahoo! Finance: FHFA Director William J. Pulte says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must begin preparing to count cryptocurrency as an asset in mortgage underwriting.

• College Savings 🏫 Can a Roth IRA be used for college? – Yahoo! Finance: Both a Roth IRA and a 529 Plan are valid ways to save for a college education, however, each has unique benefits and limitations.

• Student Loans 💸 Student loan borrowers face ‘default cliff’ as late payments climb, report finds – CNBC: According to TransUnion, of the 5.8M newly delinquent borrowers, nearly one-third could reach default status in July, . Student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments are also seeing their credit scores tumble.

• 📧 Subscribe to Great Wealth Xfer

🔮 For PortfolioGPT users on a paid plan, we added backtest performance (based on trailing time-horizon) and 12-month forward guidance, powered by analyst consensus from Yahoo! Finance data.

Please login to your account and give me some feedback if you found these additions helpful. (Note: Forward guidance isn’t available for ETFs).

We’ll be back next Saturday morning to recap the financial news, and many thanks to Vincent for sponsoring this week’s issue, a great resource for learning about alternative assets.

✨ Happy Unprompting,

Rawee
[email protected]

_{PortfolioGPT may earn commission or revenue on some items through the affiliate links in this newsletter.}