Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve during a White House ceremony where President Donald Trump urged him to “just do your own thing”. Warsh takes the helm at a precarious moment for the US economy, as bond traders fully price in a rate hike this year and Fed Governor Christopher Waller warns that rising inflation could force the central bank to resume policy tightening.
The two-part financial breakdown in SpaceX 招股说明书特别节目 上篇 「控制」 and 下篇 「梦想」 is an absolute must-watch. It strips away the usual tech hype to expose the raw mechanics of Elon Musk’s near-dictatorial control over SpaceX’s board, massive related-party transactions, and the company’s staggering $28.5 trillion total addressable market ambitions.
The global economy feels a bit bleak for young people entering the workforce right now. Why International Students Are Giving Up On The U.S. highlights a massive brain drain as international graduates abandon the US due to visa hurdles and a brutal entry-level job market. Similarly, Teens Face Worst Summer Job Market in Decades | WSJ reports teens are facing their worst summer hiring season as inflation slows consumer spending in hospitality and retail. On the geopolitical front, a Harvard professor gives a phenomenal, nuanced breakdown of Iran’s “hybrid” dictatorship on 戰爭結束了嗎？伊朗是獨裁過家嗎？, offering much-needed context on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ grip on the economy following the death of the nation’s supreme leader.
Pope Leo XIV dropped a massive 42,300-word encyclical warning that AI threatens human dignity and employment, marking an unprecedented alignment between the Vatican and Silicon Valley as Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah co-presented the document. The Pope called for strict government regulation, labor protections, and an end to algorithmic warfare, schooling tech billionaires on the moral limits of their incentives.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is aiming to raise a record-shattering $75 billion in an initial public offering, targeting a price of $135 per share. The mega-listing is designed to fund the company’s aggressive expansion into artificial intelligence and space launch infrastructure, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is personally pitching the deal to thousands of ultra-rich clients this week. The offering threatens to completely rewrite the rules of Wall Street’s AI gold rush, setting the stage for subsequent blockbuster listings across the tech sector.
SpaceX is seeking to raise a record-breaking $75 billion in an initial public offering that values Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite behemoth at nearly $1.77 trillion. The company is bucking Wall Street conventions by setting a fixed target price of $135 per share ahead of its marketing phase, paving the way for the largest public market debut in history.
The S&P 500 snapped its nine-day winning streak as escalating geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran spooked investors, prompting a sharp rotation out of semiconductor and AI-linked stocks.
Oil prices exhibited extreme volatility this week, with West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude pulling back over 3% on Thursday following an agreed-upon ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, alongside reports that President Trump is hesitant to resume full-scale war with Iran. Equities broadly slumped on the geopolitical risk, with the Dow shedding over 620 points and the S&P 500 dropping 0.74% as traders pared risk. In the housing sector, rising mortgage denials and high interest rates have led sellers to pull properties at the fastest pace since 2020, as covered by CNBC’s Diana Olick. Meanwhile, markets remain extremely cautious ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls release, where economists project a meager gain of 80,000 new jobs.
The May jobs report obliterated expectations by adding 172,000 payrolls against an estimated 80,000, leaving the unemployment rate steady at 4.3% and virtually extinguishing hopes for a near-term Federal Reserve interest rate cut. This labor market resilience sent Treasury yields surging and prompted speculation on prediction markets that the Fed’s next move could actually be a rate hike.
The massive jobs print sent Treasury yields soaring, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to a fresh record high of 51,561 as investors rotated out of tech and into defensive sectors. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite stumbled and chip stocks cratered following a disappointing earnings forecast from Broadcom, dragging down Asian tech heavyweights like Samsung and SK Hynix in a global semiconductor sell-off. In commodities, oil prices saw continued volatility as traders weighed potential U.S.-Iran ceasefire developments against Hezbollah’s rejection of the proposed terms. In the crypto space, Bitcoin capped a dismal week by dipping below $60,000, tumbling 50% from its all-time highs amid tech pressure and forced selling by MicroStrategy.
According to a cnbeta report, the US semiconductor sector suffered a historic $1.3 trillion wipeout in a single day, triggered by Broadcom’s weak custom AI chip demand. The crash dragged down industry heavyweights like Nvidia and AMD, signaling a broader market recalibration from blind AI optimism just as massive tech IPOs prepare to debut.
In the global semiconductor battleground, a cnbeta report on Wingtech Technology’s lawsuit details the Chinese firm’s move to sue Nexperia Netherlands for 8 billion RMB over the loss of control of its Dutch chip manufacturing unit, citing discrimination under China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. Meanwhile, Nvidia confirmed its HBM4 memory suppliers, officially tapping Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron to power its upcoming Vera Rubin AI platform. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who was spotted eating Korean BBQ in Seoul with SK, LG, and Naver executives, noted that the Rubin platform has already entered full mass production.
According to a cnbeta report on SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO, the aerospace giant is targeting a historic $1.77 trillion valuation while strictly blocking investors from mainland China and Hong Kong. This exclusion is driven by US ITAR regulations and increasing cross-border securities scrutiny, highlighting the widening decoupling in the aerospace and defense tech sectors. The IPO also breaks Wall Street traditions by setting a fixed $135 share price and allowing an unusually large 30% retail allocation.
SpaceX is aiming for an astonishing $1.75 trillion valuation in its upcoming IPO, largely fueled by its ambitious new “AI1” orbital data center satellite. According to a cnbeta report on SpaceX’s orbital AI data center, the massive satellite will carry a 120kW payload—comparable to an Nvidia GB300 rack—using the vacuum of space and massive liquid cooling arrays to bypass terrestrial power constraints. Bolstered by strong investor demand leading to a four-times oversubscribed IPO, Elon Musk is pitching a unified vision where SpaceX’s rocketry, Starlink, and AI compute converge to dominate the future of infrastructure.