The semiconductor ETF SOXX has tumbled 25% while the 3x leveraged SOXL has sunk nearly two‑thirds, showing how daily‑reset leverage magnifies losses. Recovering will require SOXX to jump 33% and SOXL a staggering 170%, underscoring the steep climb investors face after a volatile chip sell‑off.
Kalshi launched a suite of biotech prediction markets on July 16, letting users bet real money on Phase‑3 trial outcomes and FDA approvals for companies like Sanofi and Gilead. Within days the markets moved over $100 k, but ethicists warn the new venue could amplify insider‑trading risks and erode confidence in drug research.
Visa announced it will eliminate about 2,600 positions, roughly 7% of its global staff, focusing on technology and product teams. CEO Ryan McInerney says the move is needed to drive AI‑powered efficiency and free capital for higher‑growth opportunities, a shift that could pressure peers to follow suit.
The Fed announced five task forces to review how it conducts monetary policy. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon will co‑lead the Productivity and Jobs and Data task forces, respectively, bringing tech and retail perspectives into the central bank’s toolkit. Their involvement signals a push to modernize policy tools for a changing economy.
A new Equitable Growth analysis shows that after the Supreme Court struck down broad Trump tariffs, overall tariff rates fell and imports rose, but imports from China kept sliding, prompting firms to resume Chinese sourcing. The shift undermines recent supply‑chain diversification efforts and could raise U.S. exposure to Beijing amid lingering trade tensions.
Bain Capital and Carlyle Group are the final bidders for Wealth Enhancement Group, a Minneapolis‑based wealth‑management platform with about $160 bn in client assets. The $7 bn deal, including debt, would be one of the largest private‑equity takeovers of a U.S. RIA, underscoring the sector’s hot‑money and likely spurring further consolidation.
Startups like Podium Markets AI and brokers Robinhood and Public are debuting AI assistants that can monitor portfolios and execute trades around the clock. Analysts say agentic finance could boost daily trade counts from a few per month to dozens per day, potentially inflating transaction volume tenfold by next year.
Meta announced the Hyperion super‑cluster in Richland Parish will cost over $50 billion and deliver 5 GW of AI compute. Louisiana granted a 20‑year sales‑tax exemption and Meta is pouring $1 billion into local roads, water and $1.6 billion in contracts, effectively shifting the AI‑infrastructure race to rural America.
The surge in AI‑driven data centers is forcing tech giants to hire thousands of electricians, carpenters, and other tradespeople to install power, cooling and infrastructure. Companies such as Meta, Google and Microsoft have launched massive recruitment drives, turning a traditionally software‑centric industry into a major blue‑collar employer. This labor shift could tighten talent pipelines and lift wages for skilled trades.
In a research post, Anthropic’s red‑team used Claude Mythos Preview to improve the best known attack on HAWK, halving its key strength, and to devise a practical attack on a reduced‑round version of AES. These findings show frontier AI can discover mathematical flaws in widely used cryptography, raising concerns for future security standards.
Crude flirting with $100 a barrel spikes power costs for data centers, tightening the margins of Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and others. Their combined $725 billion AI‑spending plan now faces higher operating expenses and delayed payback, which could curb AI‑driven growth this year.
You’re caught up.
That was all 11 stories in the 29 July issue.