The Federal Reserve is signaling that inflation has finally peaked, with New York Fed President John Williams pointing to "encouraging reasons" for optimism after June's consumer price data came in cooler than expected. That's the good news. The messy part is the tariff war hangover: the Trump administration has now refunded
$81 billion in tariffs the Supreme Court ruled illegal, a staggering figure that underscores how much uncertainty has been injected into trade policy. Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing emergency import curbs as China's export surge widens the trade gap, suggesting the global economic realignment is far from over.
Corporate America is feeling the whiplash.
IBM cratered 23 percent after warning its second-quarter earnings fell short, a stark reminder that even legacy tech giants aren't immune to the AI-driven disruption reshaping the landscape. Speaking of which, a pointed
Fortune analysis draws a fascinating parallel between SpaceX and Amazon, calling them $4.5 trillion doppelgangers with charismatic founders, money-bleeding businesses, and sky-high valuations that are now on a collision course. On the housing front, a new bipartisan law aims to boost supply and affordability, but experts caution that relief won't arrive quickly.
The media and entertainment sector is consolidating at a furious pace. Paramount has agreed to link a multistate antitrust case against the Warner Bros. Discovery merger with an existing subscriber lawsuit, while FCC Chairman Brendan Carr proposes scrapping the national ownership cap that limits broadcast reach.
Lionsgate has attracted takeover interest from France's Bolloré Group and Banijay, and the Bundesliga is moving its U.S. TV rights to Versant's USA Network in a $100 million deal. All of this unfolds against a backdrop of shrinking ad supply: Ozone reports publisher ad inventory fell by up to 37 percent year over year in the U.S., driven by AI-era zero-click search and collapsing referral traffic. The industry is remaking itself in real time.