Alphabet cash-flow negative, SEC eyes 24-hour trading

The SEC will convene a public roundtable on Sept. 17 to hash out how U.S. stocks could move to 24‑hour trading. Chairman Paul Atkins says round‑the‑clock markets would bring U.S. equities in line with global exchanges but raise fresh operational and investor‑protection challenges. Stakeholders can comment now, shaping the overnight‑trading roadmap.

Alphabet’s latest quarter turned cash‑flow negative for the first time, as AI‑driven capex outpaced earnings and forced a 7% stock plunge, the steepest drop since the tariff‑selloff. The spending surge is echoing across the Mag7, sparking investor fear that AI hype may be draining cash faster than profits can keep up.

Phillips 66, Reliance and others have signed direct supply contracts with Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA, sidestepping traders like Vitol and Trafigura. By eliminating middle‑men, refiners lock in cheaper heavy grades and push PDVSA’s realized price higher, while the trading houses lose a lucrative monopoly.

Wise’s U.S.-listed shares fell as much as 11% after regulators denied its application for a national bank charter, a blow to its U.S. expansion strategy. The fintech now must lean on partner banks, potentially slowing its push into the American market.

Lockheed Martin and RTX announced combined backlogs topping $520 billion, driven by the Trump administration’s request for a 44% boost in defense spending that would push the Pentagon budget toward $1.5 trillion. The surge in orders lifted both companies’ Q2 sales and prompted revenue forecasts to near $82 billion for Lockheed and $96 billion for RTX, underscoring a multi‑year earnings tailwind.

Tesla aimed to ship hundreds of thousands of Cybertrucks annually, but first‑year deliveries are trailing by double‑digit percentages. The miss mirrors the 1950s Ford Edsel flop, warning investors that even marquee EV models can misjudge demand, potentially denting Tesla’s growth outlook.

JPMorgan warns that slipping population growth and ballooning deficits are stripping away the demographic dividend that kept rates low, putting upward pressure on global borrowing costs. As labor forces shrink in advanced economies, bond markets face higher term premiums and central banks lose a key lever to temper inflation.

CME’s FedWatch tool shows an 82% chance the Fed will raise rates at its September meeting, up from under 53% a week ago. The surge follows Brent crude breaching $100 and gasoline hitting $4 per gallon, reviving inflation fears. Investors are now pricing in a hike despite still‑expected steady rates in the next meeting.

Treasury Department officials flagged emerging tax‑alpha ETF strategies, particularly 351 conversion funds that have deferred $6.5 billion in gains, as potentially abusive. Their warning could trigger regulatory scrutiny, creating compliance headaches for asset managers and risking tighter rules on in‑kind ETF structures.

Cursor, the AI coding platform SpaceX plans to buy for $60 billion, has launched a quarterly CFO Council with finance leaders from Natera, Payoneer, JFrog and others. The group will develop benchmarks and a “return on intelligence” framework to keep AI spending in check as the company scales post‑acquisition.

Bankruptcy lawyers say lenders are now drafting loan contracts with stacked holding‑company structures and directorial rights, letting them foreclose on equity and steer a company without a court fight. The shift gives creditors a fast‑track path to equitization, reshaping how restructurings unfold.

Blackstone offloaded three AI data‑center assets to Digital Realty for $3.5 billion, lifting its real‑estate revenue to a four‑year high and pushing distributable earnings 26% YoY. Meanwhile, PE firms sit on $3.9 trillion of unsold portfolio companies, creating record‑size zombie funds that could stall the industry.