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🔔 The Opening Bell |
Good morning. Markets were sent into a tizzy yesterday over Trump’s reported plan to fire Fed Chair Powell—prices shifted, money was made (or lost). But then Trump clarified what was really happening: nothing. |
What we’re covering today: |
Moonshot’s AI Model Just Beat ChatGPT and Claude Move Over, Bloomberg Terminal—Anthropic’s Enterprise Upgrade Is Here Pepsi’s Crushing it, Even Though Food & Bev Demand Is Down Trump’s Mindgames (or Mistakes), Jerome Powell’s Fate |
Crypto ETFs are coming out one after another these days. But not many are for Solana, and none of the Solana ETFs offer staking—except this one: |
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The Solana ETF That Lets You Earn on Staking |
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Introducing SSK—the first U.S.-listed ETF that offers both exposure to Solana (SOL) and blockchain-native staking rewards. |
With SSK, you get Solana staking rewards paid monthly, cold storage custody, and ETF-level transparency. |
Solana Staking, now on Wall Street. |
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📰 Market Headlines |
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US stocks ended higher Wednesday after President Trump said he's "not planning" to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, contradicting earlier reports that sent markets tumbling (more below). |
The S&P 500 climbed 0.32%, the Dow rose 0.53%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.25%, marking another record close after a volatile trading day. |
Moonshot’s new AI model surpassed ChatGPT and Claude in coding performance—and the kicker is that it’s open source. Ironically, Sam Altman just announced that OpenAI is indefinitely delaying the release of ChatGPT’s open source model. Not a great look; don’t know how you can maximize shareholder value on that one when there’s no value to maximize. |
But Anthropic isn’t out of the fight—the Amazon-backed company just dropped some financial AI tools aimed at securing more big-ticket customers, calling it “a tailored version” (not “Taylor’s version”) of Claude for Enterprise. |
Poor demand for food and beverages can’t keep Pepsi down. Coke’s greatest rival $PEP ( ▲ 1.15% ) performed beyond analyst expectations in its earnings report today, and shares popped 2% pre-market on the news. The earnings were expected to be $2.03 per share, but came in at $2.12. Someone must have shaken the can—here’s why Pepsi’s performing well. |
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😱 Fear and Greed Index |
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Trump Is Keeping Markets Guessing on Powell |
| Image: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster |
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Trump and Powell are at it again—well, mainly Trump. On Tuesday, it was reported that Trump was planning to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell (again). And Wednesday morning, there were reports that he’d even drafted a termination letter. Treasury rates went up in response (very scary), and Bitcoin and gold prices spiked. |
Letting Powell go would have been Trump’s highest–profile “You’re fired” moment, but he walked back on the plan later in the day—saying that “We are not planning on doing anything.” |
Some theorize that the whole thing was schemed from the start as a way for Trump to get data on how markets would react to Powell being fired. The interpretation is that when he saw the results, he realized he couldn’t fire him. But who knows—the initial report could have been fake or wrong, or Trump could have just been totally impulsive. |
One thing is clear: if Powell goes, markets are telling us that they’ll dive head-first into value-preserving assets like gold and BTC, and bond rates will continue to grow, which is the last thing our precariously positioned economy needs at the moment. |
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🧠 The Missing (Market) Links |
Elon Musk’s xAI is hiring a “waifu” software engineer for $440,000 to create Grok anime girl “AI companions.”
Thought Fiverr was just for making $5 at a time? Try $40,000/month. This man started a side hustle that grew into something far more—and here’s how he’s building wealth with it →
Goldman Sachs just posted its best stock-trading quarter in company history.
President Trump called some of his own supporters “weaklings” over the “Epstein Hoax” on social media.
President Trump signed an executive order directing the SEC and the DOL to allow 401(k) plans to include private equity, real estate, and hedge funds. |
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🪙 Crypto |
Cantor Equity Partners I (CEPO) jumped 25% on reports of a $3.5 billion deal with Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest dumped a record number of Bitcoin ETF shares for $8.7 million. Coinbase vaulted past $100 billion in market cap, with institutional business now accounting for over 40% of its revenue. Crypto infrastructure firm Talos bought Coin Metrics in a deal valued at over $100 million. |
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💰 Alternative Investing News |
An administrative law judge urged the Minnesota PUC to reject the $6.2 billion sale of Allete to CPP Investments and Global Infrastructure Partners. Maine enacted a ban on private equity firms buying health care facilities. Blackstone resumed buying rental homes, banking on limited construction and rising rents. |
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🤖 AI/Future/Tech News |
Investors are floating a deal valuing AI leader Anthropic at more than $100 billion. GM partnered with Redwood Materials to repurpose EV batteries for a 12 megawatt microgrid that powers a nearby 2,000 GPU data center. Google rolled out an AI-powered business-calling feature nationwide that automatically contacts local businesses to collect pricing and availability info. |
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💡 Ideas, trends, and analysis |
Republicans in Congress reversed course and backed a plan to send more weapons to Ukraine after President Trump announced his support. The Pittsburgh real estate market posted a 5% jump in closed home sales year-over-year in June, while national sales slumped to a 30-year low. Accidental poisonings among young children involving synthetic nicotine pouches spiked by over 760% between 2020 and 2023. |
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⚔️ Trade wars |
President Trump’s tariff threats pushed Mexico and Canada to tighten trade ties, with both leaders reaffirming their commitment to the USMCA. The UN warned of a “cascade” effect from US trade policy, projecting a 54% drop in exports from the world’s least developed countries. The European Union released a targeted list of $88 billion worth of American goods for possible retaliation. US coffee prices jumped 12.7% year-over-year, and tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam could push them higher. |
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🌍 International Markets | | 🇯🇵 Labor's share of corporate profits in Japan dropped to 53.9% for the last fiscal year, hitting its lowest level in 51 years. 🇿🇦 South Africa's hunting tourism sector emerged as an economic powerhouse, contributing R44.03 billion ($2.5 billion) and supporting 95,000 jobs annually. 🇦🇫 Remittances from Iran to Afghanistan collapsed following mass deportations, cutting off an estimated $500 million in annual income. 🇳🇬 Aliko Dangote challenged Nigeria’s elite to stop offshoring wealth and invest domestically, holding up his $20 billion refinery as proof of what’s possible. |
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🎤 What you said last time |
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“I feel there are more players entering the AI boom market every day that will slowly chip away at Nvidia's stronghold.” |
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🚚 Market movers |
Netflix delivered $11.06 billion in revenue for the quarter. United Airlines lowered its Q3 profit forecast, citing weaker discretionary travel demand. Google raised Nest Aware prices again, with monthly fees jumping 25–33% starting mid-August. Scale AI abruptly cut 200 employees and dropped 500 contractors as it retreated from its core data-labeling business. |
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📊 Earnings |
No notable earnings today. |
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📢 We want to hear from you |
We love hearing from you, and we deeply appreciate your feedback. |
⭐️ What did you think of today's edition? |
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📺 What to watch today |
| Iceland volcano eruption forces evacuation of town, Blue Lagoon spa |
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That’s all for today. Did I miss anything? Smash the reply button to let me know. | Cheers,
Brandon with Stefan & Wyatt |
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The information provided in Stocks & Income is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice, investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. Stocks & Income is not a registered investment advisor, broker-dealer, or licensed financial planner. Always do your own research and consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. We may hold positions in or receive compensation from the companies or products mentioned. Disclosures will be made where applicable. |
