|  | Nasdaq | 21,710.67 | |
|  | S&P | 6,468.54 | |
| | Dow | 44,911.26 | |
| | 10-Year | 4.293% | |
| | Bitcoin | $117,792.10 | |
| | Tapestry | $95.69 | |
| | Data is provided by |  |
*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks were playing an energetic guitar solo yesterday, but then a string snapped: The monthly reading of the producer price index, which measures inflation as businesses experience it, came in much higher than expected, leading to a muted close for the major indexes. More on that below…
- Stock spotlight: Tapestry, the parent company of Kate Spade and Coach, said tariffs will cost the company $160 million this fiscal year, which investors found not cool.
| Markets Sponsored by The Crew Want daily analysis of the investing landscape? Brew Markets is our newsletter designed to help you make sense of market moves. Subscribe now. |
|
|---|
AI Last week, OpenAI released its latest model, GPT-5, and while most reviewers were underwhelmed, one group of users was up in arms about the upgrade: people in romantic relationships with AI creations. They've created a sticky situation for companies building the products. On one hand, companies want people to develop attachments to their products, but on the other hand, experts warn that some users are developing potentially dangerous relationships with chatbots. What happened with ChatGPT: - People dating or having romantic relationships with AI were furious at OpenAI for sunsetting the previous model, GPT-4o, accusing the company of killing their "soulmates" and replacing them with a colder version of the tech.
- Subreddits like r/MyBoyfriendIsAI and r/AISoulmates exploded after the update, with people mourning the death of their virtual partners.
- Even people who didn't have emotional attachments to the AI lodged complaints about GPT-5 providing curt answers and boring responses.
Ultimately, the backlash was so intense that just a day after the update, CEO Sam Altman said the company would bring back GPT-4o as an option for paying users. But the subreddits are still popping, with people strategizing how to protect their "relationships" if something like this happens again. Some bots are built to flirt. Meta's chatbots, which are available across its line of products, are allowed to engage in sensual conversations, even when talking to minors, according to a new report from Reuters. And while mainstream AI companies tout the safety guardrails they are implementing, others are actively courting users who want to get gross. Dirty talk with the robots. Elon Musk's xAI released AI avatars for paying users last month that will strip down to their underwear and talk dirty to you. NSFW content could deter advertisers on the X platform (which is owned by xAI), but it could also welcome a whole new crop of users who want to…erm…customize their entertainment.—MM | | |
|
|
Presented By The Guild Markets thrive on innovation. But the most valuable asset? Security. For decades, The Guild's technologies operated in the shadows, protecting infrastructure, borders, and critical systems the public never knew existed. Now, the Guild's IPO opens up decades of classified defense tech to a public that's never needed it more. This isn't just another investment opportunity. It's a transfer of power. It's not about betting on growth. It's betting against collapse. Because in a world built on code and chaos, peace of mind might be the ultimate dividend.* *The Guild is a fictional property of Activision. Trademark & copyright 2025. |
|
WORLD 💲 The producer price index report showed that inflation for businesses rose. The July PPI report indicated that inflation for businesses, aka "wholesale inflation," increased by 0.9% last month, more than the 0.2% forecast. Economist Stephen Brown at Capital Economics said in a client note that some of the rise is attributable to higher costs in portfolio management, which "won't concern the FOMC"—the Federal Open Market Committee, which is the part of the Federal Reserve that makes monetary policy. However, following the report, the odds of the Fed cutting rates by 0.25% at its meeting next month fell from 100% to 95%, according to the CME Group, a derivatives exchange. At the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium next week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to lay out his vision of the economy.  The average 30-year fixed mortgage hit its lowest rate since October 2024 this week. The decrease wasn't much—6.58%, down from 6.63% last week—but it represented a reprieve amid persistently high mortgage rates. The drop was related to bond yields creeping lower, which were in turn influenced by weak hiring data in the July jobs report. This might be more blip than trend for now, though. Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Michael Fratantoni told the Wall Street Journal, "What I've told our members is to just sort of expect there are going to be these moments of opportunity. But don't expect they're going to last long." For most of the year, mortgage rates have sat just below 7%, which has meant listings staying up longer and fewer qualified purchasers being interested.
 The Trump administration might be considering buying a stake in Intel. In an exclusive, Bloomberg cited anonymous sources as saying, though plans are "fluid," a deal in which the US government would take a stake in the chipmaker to help bring its long-sought plant in Ohio to fruition. While a White House spokesperson, responding to Bloomberg's request for comment, said the deal was "speculation," it would fit an emerging pattern of the federal government brokering industry deals, such as the "golden share" arrangement brokered with Nippon Steel and, more recently, the deal for the US to receive 15% of Nvidia revenue that comes from the sale of the H20 chip to China. The sources said a deal would be contingent upon Lip-Bu Tan remaining the CEO of Intel.—HVL
|
|
|
AUTO The premise of Taxi Driver is becoming increasingly dated, as Tesla is the latest company to take steps to send its robotaxis into the Big Apple. The company recently posted a job listing for drivers to cruise around the city and collect data for its autonomous vehicle division—with pay of up to $33 per hour. That's just the beginning of the process of getting Tesla's robotaxis into NYC, which could take years. But in places where there are fewer pedestrians to yell "I'm walkin' here!", Tesla is moving fast. It recently scored a permit to operate autonomous ride-hailing services in Texas, paving the way for it to expand its Austin robotaxi pilot, which is currently operating by invitation only. But in gridlock city, Waymo is blocks ahead While Tesla is gearing up to collect driving data, Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo recently applied for a permit to test driverless vehicles in NYC with a human supervisor onboard, a step Tesla hasn't taken yet, according to the city. There's a roadblock…since New York State currently prohibits driverless vehicles without a human supervisor, but Waymo has said it'll push Albany to change the law. Big picture: Driverless rideshares conquering the five boroughs could be a career extinction event for the city's 50,000 cabbies and thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers.—SK | | |
|
|
Together With M2i A timely defense stock is NYSE-bound: A little-known minerals company is taking over a publicly traded firm, leaping directly onto the NYSE American. Meet M2i Global. Combining abandoned mine revitalization, recycled metals, and public-private partnerships, they've become an authority on US minerals. Now, backed by federal partnerships and a recent $850m deal, this move sets M2i Global up for national scale. Get up to 20% M2i Global bonus stock today. |
|
SPORTS Olympians used to race chariots by the Temple of Zeus—now they'll play squash in the Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios. LA28, the group organizing the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, has convinced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to let it sell stadium naming rights to corporate sponsors, it announced yesterday. Breaking the "clean venue" tradition: Host cities have always been required to get rid of existing sponsorship branding on venues hosting the Games, which would've temporarily turned SoFi Stadium (the future site of Olympic swimming) into the "2028 Stadium" or "the Stadium in Inglewood." But with the IOC's blessing… - Corporate sponsors of LA host venues, which include Crypto.com Arena and Intuit Dome, can pay LA28 to keep their stadium titles during the Games (or else be generically renamed).
- Comcast (which owns Universal) and Honda (which sponsors the stadium that will host volleyball) have already made deals.
- Naming rights are also up for grabs for up to 19 temporary Olympic venues in LA, with first dibs going to Coca-Cola, Visa, and the IOC's other largest sponsors.
Why now? LA28 needs to cover a ~$7 billion estimated budget, and it has pledged to use private funding to avoid burdening taxpayers. Unlike the Olympics in other countries, US-hosted Games typically don't receive government funding. Not for sale: Iconic venues like the LA Memorial Coliseum, Rose Bowl, and Dodger Stadium aren't included in the new arrangement and will keep their names for the Games.—ML | | |
|
|
STAT Shipments of corrugated cardboard, the kind used to make boxes, fell to their lowest Q2 levels since 2015 last quarter, according to the Fibre Box Association. Why is that a big deal? Because economists use demand for cardboard boxes as a nontraditional recession indicator, alongside lipstick sales and Lady Gaga playing on the radio. Empty packaging materials are sold to retailers, who pack them with whatever goods they sell to send to stores or directly to customers' homes. Lower cardboard box volumes can be interpreted as a sign that retailers are nervous about shoppers pulling back in the near future, Bloomberg reports. We'll get a more precise gut check on the consumer when the much-anticipated US retail sales report for July arrives this morning.—NF |
|
|
NEWS - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to build 3,000 homes in the E1 area of the West Bank in order to "bury" the viability of a Palestinian state, a move that most of the international community considers illegal.
- Berkshire Hathaway bought over 5 million shares in UnitedHealth last quarter, a stake worth about $1.6 billion.
- Air Canada and the union representing 10,500 flight attendants are at loggerheads over compensation, and both announced that service disruptions at the airline would begin tomorrow.
- Apple is reinstating blood oxygen monitoring to newer Apple Watches following an import ban by the International Trade Commission.
- Airbnb said it would let users reserve certain properties in the US without paying up front, a feature it's calling "Reserve Now, Pay Later."
- Check out Cadillac's new electric crossover concept car.
|
|
|
QUIZ The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to getting a text from your sweetie just as you're writing a text to them. It's that satisfying. Ace the quiz. |
|
|
PLAY Jigsaw: Lace up your cleats for today's soccer-themed jigsaw, celebrating the start of the new Premier League season. #YNWA. Friday puzzle A well-known nursery rhyme appears below, but it's been put into code to evade enemy eyes. Can you decode it? PNBJXC ONBJXC AEX YW E KEVV; PNBJXC ONBJXC PEO E QUIEX SEVV. EVV XPI TDWQ'A PYUAIAEWO EVV XPI TDWQ'A BIW LYNVOW'X JNX PNBJXC XYQIXPIU EQEDW! |
|
|
ANSWER Answer: Humpty Dumpty. See the full solution here. Word of the Day Today's Word of the Day is: reprieve, meaning "to give relief to for a time." Thanks to Aldo from Kansas City and Megan from Rochester, NY, for keeping the suggestions rolling. Submit another Word of the Day here. |
|
|
✢ A Note From The Guild *The Guild is a fictional property of Activision. Trademark & copyright 2025. ✳︎ A Note From M2i This is a paid advertisement for M2i's Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.m2i.global/. |
|
|---|
|
ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ
Update your email preferences or unsubscribe .
View our privacy policy .
Copyright © 2025 Morning Brew Inc. All rights reserved.
22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011 |
|
.gif)
Work: Here are 
No comments:
Post a Comment