Thursday, July 10, 2025

"Pentagon to become largest shareholder in rare earth miner MP Materials; shares surge 40%"

We, of course, downplayed MP in April 18's ""The Consequences of China’s New Rare Earths Export Restrictions" (LYC.ax; MP)":

...Although MP Materials is getting the attention in the U.S., Australia's Lynas has a better mix of the various rare earths.... 

Who needs the Memento mori guy when you have the stock market to remind you "you are not the boss of the universe"*

From CNBC, July 10:

  • The Defense Department will buy $400 million of preferred stock in MP Materials.
  • MP Materials owns the only operational rare earth mine in the U.S. at Mountain Pass, California.
  • It will build a second magnet manufacturing facility in the U.S. with the support of the Pentagon. 

The Defense Department will become the largest shareholder in rare earth miner MP Materials

after agreeing to buy $400 million of its preferred stock, the company said Thursday.

MP Materials owns the only operational rare earth mine in the U.S. at Mountain Pass, California, about 60 miles outside Las Vegas. Proceeds from the Pentagon investment will be used to expand MP’s rare earths processing capacity and magnet production.

Shares of MP Materials jumped more than 40% premarket on the news.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in April that the Trump administration was considering making direct equity investments in critical mineral companies to break U.S. dependence on China.

“This initiative marks a decisive action by the Trump administration to accelerate American supply chain independence,” MP Materials CEO James Litinsky said in a statement.

The Pentagon is buying a newly created class of preferred shares convertible into MP Materials’ common stock, in addition to a warrant that allows the U.S. to buy additional common stock.

The convertible shares and the exercise of the common stock warrant would equal about a 15% stake in MP Materials as of July 9, nearly twice the 8.61% held by Litinsky and the 8.27% held by BlackRock Fund Advisors, according to FactSet data....

....MUCH MORE 
*"Remember that you will die," a shorter version of "Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori!" i.e. Dude, look behind you, you're just a guy, remember-you'll die.

—Supposedly the words a slave whispered to a returning Roman general during his triumphal return.
Cambridge classicist Mary Beard makes a strong case against the simplistic popular conception in her book "The Roman Triumph".
From Friends of Classics Reviews:

...Balancing the enemy captives and bringing up the rear of the triumphal procession were the victorious general’s troops, chanting the mysterious “io triumpe”.

Less mysterious were the rude chants that the triumphing troops were licensed to direct at their general. Suetonius gives us a sample of what Caesar’s troops contributed: “Romans, watch your wives, the bald adulterer’s back home. You fucked away in Gaul the gold you borrowed here in Rome”.

Traditionally these chants have been seen as “apotropaic”, designed to ward off envy and the evil eye in the moment when the successful general was most vulnerable. This is consistent with what is perhaps the best-known aspect of the traditional picture of the triumph, the slave who supposedly stood behind the general in his chariot to remind him that he was not a god, by repeating the words “Look behind. Remember that you are a man”. In the film Quo Vadis? the slave’s words receive an unintended comic twist when they are delivered to a triumphing Marcus Vinicius as he ogles a pretty girl in the crowd (nothing wrong with Marcus Vinicius!).

Beard points out that the slave and his cautionary words have been cobbled together out of bits and pieces of evidence from different contexts and periods and that no single text gives us the whole picture. She is similarly sceptical about the modern theory that the triumphing general impersonated the god Jupiter Best and Greatest, dressed in the clothes of his cult statue and with his face similarly painted red.

The impersonation of the god, the admonitory slave and the apotropaic songs all make a tempting package, but the evidence for the triumphator’s impersonation of Jupiter is very slender. What we can say is that Roman authors of the late Republic and early Empire were particularly concerned with the line between the human and the divine, and with the problematic concept of the divine human. Eventually, the emperor would be hailed as a god and receive divine honours, but this would be a slow and difficult process....

"Marc Andreessen Predicts 'Biggest Industry In The History Of The Planet'"

Mr. A. is enthusiastic. He's always enthusiastic.

From ZeroHedge, June 4: 

Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen predicts that humanoid robotics will become the most lucrative market in history, surpassing the internet’s economic impact. In an interview with Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale at a forum hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, Andreessen urged the United States to lead the development of robot factories, positioning the nation to drive what he called the next Industrial Revolution.

You’ve likely seen Elon Musk’s Tesla Optimus robot,” Andreessen told the audience, referencing the humanoid robot being developed at Musk’s electric vehicle company. “These humanoid robots—this general-purpose robotics trend—will take off in the next decade, and it will happen at an enormous scale.”....

**

....Andreessen, co-founder of the tech investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), envisioned a future with “billions, perhaps tens of billions” of robots performing tasks from industrial production to healthcare. “I think there’s a plausible argument, which Elon also believes, that robotics is going to be the biggest industry in the history of the planet,” he said. ARK Investment Management LLC’s Big Ideas 2025 report supports this vision, forecasting a transformative robotics industry that boosts productivity across sectors. It highlights specialized robots, such as household appliances, slashing time spent on daily tasks. The report projects generalizable robotics could generate over $26 trillion in global revenue, split evenly between $13 trillion in household robotics and $13 trillion in manufacturing robotics. 

The global Smart Robots Market is expected to grow from a valuation of USD 33.83 billion in 2024 to $135.83 billion by 2034, reflecting a robust CAGR of 26.5%, according to a new report by The Research Insights. Fueled by the integration of artificial intelligence and advanced sensor technologies, smart robots are expanding into diverse applications. Global demand for enhanced productivity and safety across organizations, coupled with the synergy of cognitive systems and sensor technology, is driving rapid adoption and propelling the market’s worldwide growth.

However, competition is intensifying. China’s “Made in China 2025” initiative aims to deploy millions of robots, while Japan and South Korea advance their own automation ecosystems.

We don’t need to bring back old manufacturing jobs,” Andreessen said, dismissing labor-intensive assembly lines. Instead, he championed what Musk calls “alien dreadnought factories”—highly automated, state-of-the-art facilities producing robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles at unprecedented scale.

Andreessen described a future of transformative economic growth, with thousands of new industrial categories emerging nationwide. “Coastal tech investments will yield massive returns, but we’ll create tens or hundreds of millions of jobs in rural areas,” he said, emphasizing advanced manufacturing’s potential to revitalize America’s heartland.

This shift, he argued, would enable the U.S. to lead the “third or fourth Industrial Revolution,” setting global standards for robotics and automation while fostering widespread prosperity.

“We shouldn’t be screwing screws by hand on rubber mats for 10 hours,” the billionaire said. “We should be designing and building the future.” Andreessen warned that if the U.S. fails to rapidly scale robot factories, China could seize the lead. “We have to do this because if we don’t, China will, and we don’t want to live in that world,” he said.

Last month, Musk declared that the company’s Optimus humanoid robot, now capable of learning tasks from human instructions, will be “the biggest product of all time.” Musk argued Tesla’s unique combination of AI, manufacturing scale, and robotics expertise positions it as the only company poised to produce intelligent humanoid robots at scale. “This is a super big deal,” he added, predicting Optimus’s impact could outstrip the next biggest product by a factor of ten....

....MUCH MORE 

As a board member and éminence grise of Facebook Mr. Andreessen was captain of the cheerleading squad pushing Zuckerberg's metaverse adventures:

"Meta’s $36 Billion Metaverse World Has Less Than 1000 Users" (META)

Possibly related:
Real Estate (Virtual): Metaverse Property Values Collapse 89% On Realization That "Virtual" "Real" Estate Is Gibberish and Stupid
The last time I looked Bankman-Fried's FTX auditors were still anchor tenants in their virtual building.... 

"Microsoft’s Own Metaverse Is Coming, and It Will Have PowerPoint" (also Excel!!!) (MSFT; EVIL)

 "Meanings of the metaverse: The Andreessen solution" 

EU Spends €387,000 (£332,500) For ‘Global Gateway’ Metaverse, Throws Gala Party For ‘Global Gateway’ Metaverse—6 People Show Up
The metaverse may not be the opportunity that Marc Andreessen has pitched it as....

Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Mecha Fight Club, An NFT Robot Cockfighting Game, Put On Ice As Maker Pivots To AI    

"Facebook and the CIA (FB; META)"

"Marc Andreessen Has a Pretty Creepy Relationship With Zuck" (FB)

See also:
Nov. 29, 2016
Marc Andreessen Speaks: "Flying cars are closer than you think"
And speaks, and speaks...
You know how he is....

May, 2015 
Marc Andreessen In the New Yorker:
13,000+ words.
Oct. 2014 
New York Magazine's Million Word Interview With Mark Andreessen
It's not really a million words but man-o-mandingo the guy likes to talk. 

So, a grain of salt, at minimum. 

"A $500 billion wall of money will lift the stock market in the second half, says JPMorgan"

I'm not sure I would attribute NVDA's $4 Trillion market cap to retail collectively deciding "Say, if we all pool our money..."

On the other hand the inflows are large enough—at the margin, which is where price change happens—to lift the broader market.

From MarketWatch, July 10: 

‘Boycotting’ of U.S. equities by foreign buyers won’t last 

Retail investors have been a driving force for markets this year.

https://images.mktw.net/im-81343447?width=700&size=1.6666666666666667&pixel_ratio=1.5

Cumulative net buying by retail investors this year has surpassed previous records.

That cohort is going to keep driving the market higher, says our call of the day from JPMorgan, which predicts that retail investors will lead a $500 billion wall of money flowing into U.S. stocks in the latter half of this year, driving gains of up to 10%.

A team of strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou estimate $360 billion of retail equity fund buying is left to come this year from an expected $630 billion total. 

Those investors took profits in May and June after they heavily bought the dip in March and April.

In other words, the pause in retail buying this year has been about cashing in on gains following a V-shaped recovery for U.S. stocks, rather than a behavioral shift. “Instead, we believe that retail investors will resume their equity buying and start propagating the equity market from July onward,” they said.

As for other potential buyers, the strategists said hedge funds built up more bullish exposure after reducing risk earlier in the year, and are unlikely to buy much more. Equity funds using computerized or quantitative models to take positions in individual stocks, reduced some exposure in May and June and could increase that later in the year, said JPMorgan....

....MUCH MORE 

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Flashpoint: "China Warns US, SE Asia: We’ll Hit Back on Supply Chain Deals"

This is directed at Vietnam but countries like Thailand have also been put on notice by their norther neighbor.

From Asia Financial, July 8:

Beijing warns it will retaliate against nations that strike deals with the US that cut China out of supply chains. It also urged the US not to restore tariffs on its goods next month 

Concern is rising in Beijing about the Trump Administration’s tariff deals, both with China and its neighbours in Southeast Asia.

China is particularly worried about aspects of the framework deal the US signed with Vietnam that would impose a 40% tariff on Chinese goods shipped to the US via ports in Hanoi, which could face a 40% tariff from next month.

Beijing threatened on Tuesday to retaliate against nations that strike deals with the United States to cut China out of supply chains. It also warned the US not to escalate trade tensions by restoring tariffs on its goods next month.

Washington and Beijing agreed to a trade framework in June that restored a fragile truce, but with many details still unclear, traders and investors on both sides of the Pacific are watching to see if it will unravel or lead to a lasting detente.

On Monday, President Donald Trump began notifying trade partners of sharply higher US tariffs from August 1, after he delayed all but 10% of his April duties on most countries to give them time to strike deals with the world’s largest economy.

China, initially singled out with tariffs exceeding 100%, has until August 12 to reach an agreement with the White House to keep Trump from reinstating additional import curbs imposed during tit-for-tat tariff exchanges in April and May.

Call for dialogue 
“One conclusion is abundantly clear: dialogue and cooperation are the only correct path,” the official People’s Daily said in a commentary, referring to the exchanges in the current round of China-US trade tension.

The article was signed “Zhong Sheng”, or “Voice of China”, a term the paper uses to express views on foreign policy....

....MUCH MORE 

Some other stories that point to what the points of contention are: 

CNBC, July 3 -  What the U.S.-Vietnam trade deal tells us about the future of tariffs

...Under the agreement, the U.S. will apply a 20% duty on Vietnamese imports — sharply below the 46% rate Trump had imposed in early April. U.S. imports to Vietnam will meanwhile not be subject to tariffs.

Trump also said that Vietnam had agreed to a 40% duty on any products that originally came from another country, but were sent to Vietnam for final shipment to the U.S. China has reportedly repeatedly relied on this practice, known as transshipping, to avoid trade barriers....

 Reuters BreakingViews July 3 - US-Vietnam tariffs bode ill or worse for China

The Guardian, July 6 - Is Trump tariff deal really a win for Vietnam – or a way of punishing China? 

MoneyControl, July 8 - Trump’s Vietnam tariff deal signals Asia’s vulnerability to US-China rivalry

South China Sea Flashpoint: Vietnam In The Spratleys

From Pekingology, July 1: 

Vietnam's Massive Reclamation in the Spratly Islands
Satellite photos from South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI) show Vietnam’s expansion and militarization of Spratly features. 

The following article was first published yesterday Monday, June 30 by the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), which describes itself as “an international research network and not affiliated with any institution, mainly funded by social donation and non-profit investment.” It is s perhaps the only China-based thinktank publicly and routinely utilizing satellite maps to deliver observations and analysis.

Its director is Hu Bo, research professor & director of the Center for Maritime Strategy Studies, Peking University.

The article includes multiple satellite photos to illusrate recent island-building by Vietnam in the South China Sea, which a Hawaii-based professor opined in Nikkei Asia last year that “Vietnam's land reclamation helps balance power in South China Sea” and “Hanoi's strategic moves offer hope against China's aggressive island building”....

....MUCH MORE 

"Microsoft Stock Spikes To Record High On AI Outlook" (MSFT)

Ah, Mister Softee, we meet again. 

The stock closed at $503.51 after earlier setting the ATH at $506.78. Currently trading down sixty cents in early after-hours action.

From Investor's Business Daily, July 9: 

Microsoft (MSFT) stock on Wednesday rose to a record high after a Wall Street analyst turned positive on the software giant based on its artificial intelligence business.

Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz upgraded Microsoft stock to outperform, or buy, from perform, or neutral. He also set a price target of 600 on the stock.

In afternoon trades on the stock market today, Microsoft stock advanced nearly 1% to 501.27. Earlier in the session, it hit an all-time high of 506.78.

Investor attention to Microsoft's AI revenue stream is increasing as its Azure cloud infrastructure business remains strong, Schwartz said in a client note.

Microsoft is positioned as "one of the long-term AI winners in software," he said. In addition to Azure, Microsoft offers Copilot AI assistants for its software applications.

"In our view, investors are underestimating the potential for Microsoft's AI business to drive durable consumption growth for Azure and scale fast in the agentic AI era," Schwartz said....

....MORE 

Getting a bit of that 1999 vibe:

"I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray..."

Giving me a chance to reprise an oldie but goodie:
 
On Friday March 10,2000 the Nasdaq closed at 5048.62, it's all-time high.
On the following Monday the Naz was down 141 points. Tuesday, 200.
The index had begun a 30-month decline to it's September 24, 2002 intra-day low of 1,169.04,
down 77%.

This became one of my favorite songs:

The Day the NASDAQ Died
Humble Pie (sung to the tune of American Pie)

A long, long week ago
I can still remember how the market used to make me smile
What I'd do when I had the chance
Is get myself a cash advance
And add another tech stock to the pile.
But Alan Greenspan made me shiver
With every speech that he delivered
Bad news on the rate front
Still I'd take one more punt
I can't remember if I cried
When I heard about the CPI
I lost my fortune and my pride
The day the NASDAQ died 
 
So bye-bye to my piece of the pie
I poured my paycheck into Datek
Now my cash account's dry
It's just two weeks from a new all-time high
And now we're right back where we were in July
We're right back where we were in July 

Did you buy stocks you never heard of?
Q COM at 150 or above?
'Cos your plumber told you so
Now do you believe in Home Depot?
Can Wal-Mart save your portfolio?
And can you teach me what's a P/E ratio? 

Well, I know that you were leveraged too
So you can't just take a long-term view
Your broker shut you down
No more margin could be found
I never worried on the whole way up
Buying dot coms from the back of a pickup truck
But Friday I ran out of luck
It was the day the NAAAASDAQ died 

I started singin'
Bye-bye to my piece of the pie
I poured my paycheck into Datek
Now my cash account's dry
It's just two weeks from a new all-time high
And now we're right back where we were in July
Yeah we're right back where we were in July 

Now for ten days, we've been on our own
And E-trade won't pick up the phone
But that's not how it used to be
When investors snapped up EMC
With cash they borrowed easily
And a quote that flashed up permanently green
Oh, and just as things were turning 'round
Joel Klein slapped Mister Softee down
The courtroom was adjourned
A guilty verdict was returned
And while Gilder read a book on quarks
Buffet smirked and Greenspan barked
The bulls were eaten by the sharks
The day, the NASDAQ died 

I started singin' ...
Manic panic, it's just like the Titanic
Unsinkable and now under the Atlantic
We're at four thou and falling fast
All at once the bottom-fishers pounced
But that just caused a dead-cat bounce
'Cos Mister Softee, from the sidelines, preannounced
Now the graph-lines showed complete collapse
While the margin calls were coming fast
We all were forced to sell
Our Apple, E-Bay and Intel
Then the bear funds moved to take the field
And the long bond shed a point of yield
Was Glass-Steagall ever really repealed?
The day, the NASDAQ day 

We started singing...
Oh, and suddenly we're underwater
Millionaires all hot and bothered
With no cash left to buy again
So come on, Fed be anxious, com-pen-sate
By lowering the discount rate
'Cause easy money is a bubble's only friend
Oh, and as I watched the index fall
I received the dreaded margin call
No broker born in hell
Could make me want to sell
But as my gains fell fast into the crash
E-Trade began demanding cash
The talking heads were talking trash
The day, the NASDAQ died 

They were singing...
I met an analyst for Micromuse
I asked him for their earnings news
But he just smiled and turned away
I logged on to the trading floor
Where I made my fortune weeks before
But they demanded to see cash before I played
And on T.V. the ticker streamed
Kudlow cried and Barton dreamed
Not a bullish word was spoken
The daytraders were choking
And the three stocks I acquired last
AMAT, Dell and Infocast
Couldn't catch a bid and faded fast
The day, the NASDAQ died 

And they were singing....
Bye-bye to my piece of the pie
I poured my paycheck into Datek
Now my cash account's dry
It's just two weeks from a new all-time high
And now we're right back where we were in July
Yeah we're right back where we were in July
-Brady/Kearny
Thanks to iTulip for giving it eternal cyber-life.

"Salesforce Pauses Hiring Engineers and Lawyers Due to A.I., Says CEO Marc Benioff" (CRM)

From Observer, July 8:

Salesforce will "look a lot different" by the end of the year compared to the start, according to Benioff. 

For a glimpse into how A.I. is transforming company workforces, consider Salesforce. The software giant has embraced the technology internally, allowing it to pause hiring for roles like customer service agents, engineers and even lawyers, according to CEO Marc Benioff. “We’re able to reshape our company,” Benioff said today (July 8) at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. “By the end of the year, it’ll look a lot different than it did at the beginning.” 

The hiring pause isn’t permanent, though. “We’re saying, wait a minute and let the A.I. productivity really take hold,” Benioff explained, adding that Salesforce’s hiring trends will likely shift again as the technology rolls out across departments. 

Yet while A.I. is slowing some areas of hiring, it’s accelerating others. Salesforce is currently onboarding thousands of new sales employees to push its growing suite of A.I. products. That pivot began earlier this year, when the company cut 1,000 jobs in February, in part to make room for A.I.-focused sales hires.

In addition to its 75,000-person human workforce, Salesforce now employs around 9,000 A.I. agents serving as customer service reps....

....MUCH MORE 

"Fyre Festival is for sale on eBay"

From The Fader, July 9:

The beleaguered brand is up for auction after a private sale collapsed. 

Disgraced entrepreneur Billy McFarland has put his Fyre Festival brand for sale on eBay. The auction, announced by McFarland on July 8, came after the dissolution of a seven-figure deal for Fyre Festival IP and trademarks. See the listing here — it's currently sitting at just over $200,000. 

The successful bidder will win a package that includes the brand name, registered trademarks and intellectual property, website domains, and email lists. "Access to the core team" is listed as "optional," so if you're a paid employee at Fyre, uh, better start updating that resume. The bid covers carve-outs for the upcoming Fyre Festival musical, Fyre streaming platform, and TV platform, all previously announced by separate independent developers.

In a video posted to Instagram (and flagged by Stereogum) McFarland said that after "over 1,000" offers for the Fyre brand, he's "done playing games." "Whoever owns the Fyre brand will have an attention engine to launch festivals, do merch collabs, do insane popups, run livestreams, or do a media brand," he says....

....MORE 

Most recently: 

April 24 -  Now It Can Be Yours: Fyre Festival Brand And Other Intellectual Property For Sale

Billy McFarland issues major update on Fyre Festival 2 after sparking outrage over $1,000,000 ticket prices...

SEC Commissioner Peirce: "Enchanting, but Not Magical: A Statement on the Tokenization of Securities"

From the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, July 9:

Blockchain technology has unlocked novel models for distributing and trading securities in a “tokenized” format. Tokenization may facilitate capital formation and enhance investors’ ability to use their assets as collateral. Enchanted by these possibilities, new entrants and many traditional firms are embracing onchain products. As powerful as blockchain technology is, it does not have magical abilities to transform the nature of the underlying asset. Tokenized securities are still securities. Accordingly, market participants must consider—and adhere to—the federal securities laws when transacting in these instruments.

Sometimes an issuer tokenizes its own security. For example, an operating company or an investment company could tokenize its shares. Alternatively, an unaffiliated third party with custody of securities issued by another entity might, for instance, issue a new tokenized security tied to the securities it holds or may tokenize the “security entitlements” that investors hold against the custodian. Purchasers of these third-party tokens may face unique risks, such as counterparty risks.

Distributors of tokenized securities must consider their disclosure obligations under the federal securities laws and may wish to refer to the Division of Corporation Finance’s recent staff statement on this topic.[1]

Market participants who distribute, purchase, and trade tokenized securities also should consider the nature of these securities and the resulting securities laws implications. For example, depending on the particular facts and circumstances, a token could be a “receipt for a security,” which is itself a security but is distinct from the underlying security held by the distributor of the token. Alternatively, a token that does not provide the holder with legal and beneficial ownership of the underlying security could be a “security-based swap” that cannot be traded off exchange by retail persons. While blockchain-based tokenization is new, the process of issuing an instrument representing a security is not. The same legal requirements apply to on- and off-chain versions of these instruments....

....MORE 

The last time we visited Commissioner Peirce, June 16's "U.S. SEC: "Remarks by Commissioner Peirce at the Third Annual Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management", I described her as:

Commissioner Peirce is a bit of a wild child and more willing than most commissioners, past and present, to experiment in the areas of market structure and securities regulation.

Here she addresses the Investment Company Act of 1940...

Related, earlier today:

"Robinhood faces regulatory scrutiny over tokenized private company stock" (HOOD) 

MIT, Siemens, GE Vernova To Collaborate On Manufacturing Technologies

From Manufacturing Dive, June 30:

U.S. manufacturing is in ‘pretty bad shape.’ MIT hopes to change that.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Initiative for New Manufacturing is partnering with Siemens, GE Vernova and others to boost productivity through technology and innovation.

U.S. manufacturing is in a rebuilding phase. Following decades of productivity slowdowns fueled by labor declines and globalization, companies are leveraging artificial intelligence and automation to fill in the gaps and attract the next generation of workers.

However, the vast majority of manufacturers in the small to medium-sized tier are struggling to evolve, according to academics. In Cleveland, Ohio, for example, metalworkers today are still using the same milling machines used in the 1940s, said Suzanne Berger, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-director of the university’s Initiative for New Manufacturing.

There are no robots. There are no 3D printers. Instead, metal fabricators are looking for people who can operate the equipment they have at a wage of $13 per hour, Berger said — “unless an Amazon warehouse down the street opens up, then [they’ll] have to pay $15 an hour.”

Over the past 20 years, Berger, alongside her colleagues and students, have traveled to factories around the world, interviewing manufacturers about their operations and workforces, and found that U.S. companies are not as technologically competitive as hoped, but rather stuck in a “low-end trap.”

“We have low tech, low skill, low wages, low productivity, and you can’t really fix any one of these pieces without trying to really pull this ‘knot’ apart,” she said. “And, the question is, how do we do that?”

Recently, MIT launched its Initiative for New Manufacturing, an institute-wide effort to reinfuse U.S. industrial production with the latest technologies to bolster economic sectors and ignite job creation.

Through a mix of research, hands-on training and collaboration with corporate partners, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university plans to build the tools and talent to shape a more productive and sustainable future for manufacturing.

“We want to work with firms big and small … in cities, and small towns, and everywhere in between … to help them adopt new approaches for increased productivity,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said during a May 7 speech about the initiative.

The first seven consortium member companies involved with the initiative are Amgen, Autodesk, Flex, GE Vernova, PTC, Sanofi and Siemens. They will initially support seed projects related to AI in manufacturing, with plans to expand into other topics, according to a news release. Each company has agreed to provide $1.5 million over a three-year period as part of the initiative, an MIT spokesperson said....

....MUCH MORE

Interesting that GEV and Siemens are collaborating in that GE Vernova is the largest steam (electricity generation) turbine manufacturer in the world and Siemens is either #2 or #3, depending on who is counting.  

June 30 - Electricity Generation: "US gas-fired turbine wait times as much as seven years; costs up sharply" (GEV)

As noted introducing June 15's "Electricity: "Report Says 130 New Gas-Fired Power Projects Proposed in Texas" (GEV)":

If all these proposals go forward GE Vernova would probably have to buy Siemens' gas turbine business just to keep the backlog to fifteen years or less. 

For what it's worth GE Vernova's stock hit an all-time high this morning ($545.63) and has more than tripled since it was spun out of General Electric. $541.26 last, up $11.26 (+2.12%)

"The 'new normal' of growth stock dominance"

What our five years of blather regarding advantage flywheels is all about.* 

From Yahoo Finance, July 8:

It pays to be big. And it's a good time to be on team growth.

A key insight from recent years — from the pandemic crisis through the "Liberation Day" turmoil — is that the most well-capitalized and growth-oriented names are outperforming their counterparts.

Investors who tend to favor small-cap and value stocks, because of their time horizon, risk appetite, or other preferences, might point to earlier periods of trading to show the merits of their strategy.

Last year notably featured glimmers of a small-cap revival.

A broadening of the stock market rally, optimistic economic forecasts, and expectations of Fed rate cuts bolstered the case for the double-A and triple-A tickers that don't always get the major league limelight.

But the call for small caps turned out to be short-lived, ill-suited for the trade conflicts of 2025 and the wait-and-see posturing of the central bank.

In fact, the performance gap between US large and small caps has widened considerably over the last two-and-a-half years, according to a new analysis by DataTrek co-founder Nicholas Colas, who wrote in a recent note to clients that the duration of the relative outperformance suggests it's structural rather than cyclical.

"Relative return data suggests that there is a 'new normal' at play in US stock markets, one where large caps and Growth have the upper hand versus small caps and Value," he wrote. "Moreover, enough time has passed that these differences look durable rather than being temporary anomalies."

Big Tech's steadfast march to higher valuations has played a major role in the stock market's lopsided behavior.

But the growth of the Magnificent Seven is only part of the story....
*** 
...While a broadening rally hasn't unfolded in the way small-cap proponents had hoped, the spoils of AI excitement have flowed to many other players aside from the mega-rich tech platforms. As my colleague Josh Schafer has reported in this newsletter, AI chip and data center trades not named Nvidia (NVDA) have posted some of the highest gains in the S&P 500 (^GSPC). Investments in AI energy and cloud tickers have payed off too....

This is a corollary of the basic framework for understanding businesses and investing that we've been pitching for the last six or seven years.

If interested see:

Why Do the Biggest Companies Keep Getting Bigger? It’s How They Spend on Tech" 

...Much more important than the direct monetization of big data is the strategic advantage it can bestow over time.
In a winner-take-all economy, as in a horse race, small differences in superiority are rewarded all out of proportion to the actual advantage. A top thoroughbred may only be a couple fifths of a second faster than the field but those two lengths over the course of a season can mean triple the earnings for #1 vs. #2.
In commerce the results can be even more dramatic because rather than the 60%/20%/10% purse structure of the racetrack the winning vendor will often get 100% of a customer's business.....

Competitive Advantage and Feedback Loops

How to Think About Companies: 'Advantage Flywheels'
A very handy conceptual framework first posted after the start of the U.S. lockdowns, April 2020. Schools were closed so it seemed natural to link to a superb mini-MBA module.
Eat your heat out HBR....
****  
....As artificial intelligence comes more and more to the fore, the advantages accruing to those companies that can afford to make use of their data and custom train the machines will act as advantage flywheels that shift the distribution of profits from the normal Pareto: 80% of the loot goes to the top 20% of businesses to perhaps as much as 95% of all the profits going to the top 5% of businesses.
I didn't really mean the "eat your heart out HBR" line.

Here's the Harvard Business Review on this very point:
HBR—From Pareto To Hyper-Pareto: "AI Is Going to Change the 80/20 Rule"

Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage

"Analyzing the deepening divide in learning capabilities between a few corporate giants and the rest of the world." (plus advantage flywheels)

"America's Biggest Firms' Moat Is Becoming Impregnable" (TSLA; NVDA; GOOG)
The announcement at the end of August that Tesla was going live with their supercomputer — Elon Got Himself A Supercomputer: "Tesla's $300 Million AI Cluster Is Going Live Today" (TSLA)—reminded me of this piece at ZeroHedge, last month. We'll be back with more on Morgan Stanley's Tesla note later today but for now the TL;dr is "To the victor go the spoils" or "The rich get richer" or "Those who can afford a supercomputer will get closer to discovering the profitability (if any) of AI than those who can't afford a supercomputer."
In Nvidia's World, If You (and your company) Don't Have Money You Will Not Be Able To Compete (NVDA)

The advantage flywheels keep spinning and reinforcing each other to the point that the Pareto distribution of profits - 20% of companies reap 80% of the profits - is becoming Super-Pareto where 5% of the companies reap 95% of the profits and is approaching Hyper-Pareto at maybe 2% of companies reaping 98% of profits.

It all comes down to having the resources to keep up. 

I watched Mr. Huang give the keynote and it's all a bit much to digest before firing out comments that would make any sense at all so here are some of today's headlines to give a taste of what the intro paragraph is based on.

These are Nvidia's press releases via GlobeNewswire....

"Elon Musk says any company that isn’t spending $10 billion on AI this year like Tesla won’t be able to compete" (TSLA)

This.

This is such an important concept to grasp. It's the advantage flywheels, the rich get richer, winner-take-all reality of business in 2024....

The Hyper-Pareto Distribution Of Profits Is Happening Right Now (plus an anniversary)
It's not some cutesy management* fad or pop insight like "Business secrets of Genghis Khan."

To the rich go the profits and internalizing that fact makes the rest of this portfolio construction/fund management/investing stuff easier to conceptualize and execute.

And AI is accelerating the already extant dynamic....
*****

*Although people had been observing and discussing "rich get richer" and "winner-take-all" dynamics for over a century, one of our favorite pointers toward the current situation did come out of a business school. We've been hammering on this for so long that I start to bore myself. Here's a recapitulation from last year, linking to an article that was published seven years ago today:

HBR—From Pareto To Hyper-Pareto: "AI Is Going to Change the 80/20 Rule"

A prescient article from the Harvard Business Review, February 28, 2017:....

*****

Just to reiterate, every incremental advantage that a company can afford does not affect income production in isolation. They accrete in sometimes unforeseeable combinations:

AI: Tesla Installing Second Dojo Supercomputer In New York Gigafactory (TSLA; NVDA)

AI: "Inside Tesla’s Innovative And Homegrown 'Dojo' AI Supercomputer" (TSLA)

It really is a big deal that a company can afford to spend over a billion dollars to build their own supercomputer and it really is a big deal that the same company has all the training data from the billions of miles of real-world driving and it really is a great example of the concept of advantage flywheels and hyper-pareto distribution of rewards, i.e. the rich get richer.

Whether it is going to open-up the $10 trillion addressable market and add the $500 billion of market cap that Morgan Stanley foresees is still an open question....

....As artificial intelligence comes more and more to the fore, the advantages accruing to those companies that can afford to make use of their data and custom train the machines will act as advantage flywheels that shift the distribution of profits from the normal Pareto: 80% of the loot goes to the top 20% of businesses to perhaps as much as 95% of all the profits going to the top 5% of businesses.

I didn't really mean the "eat your heart out HBR" line.

Here's the Harvard Business Review on this very point:
HBR—From Pareto To Hyper-Pareto: "AI Is Going to Change the 80/20 Rule"

And many more. If interested use the 'search blog' box, upper left.

"Robinhood faces regulatory scrutiny over tokenized private company stock" (HOOD)

From Ledger Insights, July 8:

Robinhood last week launched tokenized stock offerings to European retail investors, making more than 200 US listed companies available for trading. The platform also provided $1.5 million in token giveaways for unlisted companies OpenAI ($1 million) and SpaceX ($500,000), with trading available 24/5 including weekdays outside Nasdaq hours.

OpenAI quickly distanced itself from the offering. “We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer. Please be careful,” the company posted on X.

The tokens are technically derivatives rather than actual stocks, though Robinhood says it holds the underlying securities in custody in the United States. While OpenAI and SpaceX are privately held, secondary market platforms like Forge allow accredited investors to trade their shares. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has promoted tokenization as giving retail investors access to AI stocks that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

Following OpenAI’s statement, Tenev responded that other private companies have approached Robinhood about offering similar tokens.

Regulatory questions emerge...

....MUCH MORE 

Most recently in the hood:

"Robinhood Debuts New Service to Deliver Cash to Your House, Because That Seems Good, Right?" (HOOD)

"Robinhood's CEO on the Plan to Tokenize Everything" (HOOD)

Nvidia On Track For Largest Market Capitalization....In History (NVDA)

From Barron's, July 9: 

Nvidia Stock Is Rising. It May Soon Be the Most Valuable Company Ever.

Nvidia has been on a tear lately—and that’s put the the chip maker on the cusp of breaking records.

Shares have jumped 40% over the past three months, rebounding as the broader market got over the worst of its tariff fears, even though CEO Jensen Huang warned in May that curbs on chip exports to China could dent sales by $15 billion. Investors are also hopeful that the surge in demand for artificial intelligence will carry on boosting the company’s earnings.

Nvidia stock was up 0.2% at $160.35 in Wednesday’s premarket. It’s within touching distance of two major milestones: If shares can finish the day at or above $160.46, Nvidia would pass the record $3.915 trillion closing market capitalization that Apple reached in late December, according to Dow Jones Market Data....

....MORE 

Following yesterday's +1.11% move to close at $160.00 the stock is up another 75 cents (+.47%) in pre-market trade.

What a long strange trip it's been.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016 
NVIDIA: Don't Buy the Stock For The Autonomous Car Stuff (or virtual reality) NVDA; TSLA; IBM
The stock is up $2.21 (+2.64%) at $85.85. [divide by 40 to account for 4:1 and 10:1 splits. At this point it had already tripled from our first posts on the company]
Yesterday the usually very reliable Investor's Business Daily headlined a story "Nvidia Upgraded On Growth In Car, Cloud, Virtual Reality Fields". As we say in our standard intro to the stock:
Before we go any further, our NVIDIA boilerplate:  
We make very few calls on individual names on the blog but this one is special. 
They are positioned to be the brains in autonomous vehicles, they will drive virtual reality should it ever catch on, the current businesses include gaming graphics, deep learning/artificial intelligence, and supercharging the world's fastest supercomputers including what will be the world's fastest at Oak Ridge next year. 
Not just another pretty face.  
Or food delivery app.
That's me, quoting myself "NVIDIA Sets New All Time High On Pretty Good Numbers, "Sweeping Artificial Intelligence Adoption" (NVDA)"

That earlier (May 12, 2016) "pretty good numbers" post begins: 

We are fans.
Before we go any further, our NVIDIA boilerplate: we make very few calls on individual names on the blog but this one is special.

They are positioned to be the brains in autonomous vehicles, they will drive virtual reality should it ever catch on, the current businesses include gaming graphics, deep learning/artificial intelligence, and supercharging the world's fastest supercomputers including what will be the world's fastest at Oak Ridge next year.
Not just another pretty face.

Or food delivery app.

After hours the stock is changing hands at $38.31 up 7.70% which, if it holds through tomorrow's regular session, beats the old highs from 2007..... 

"Poland reinstates border controls with Germany and Lithuania to discourage asylum-seekers"

The headline is disingenuous. The border controls with Germany are a response to German police literally pushing illegal migrants into Poland.

From ABC News, July 7:

Poland reinstated border controls on Monday with neighboring Germany and Lithuania following similar German restrictions imposed earlier this year aimed at discouraging asylum-seekers.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government recently survived a confidence vote in parliament, announced the restrictions last week. Pressure has been mounting after far-right groups in Poland have alleged Germany was transporting migrants into Polish territory after they reached Western Europe.

The reinstated controls, which began overnight Sunday, will last for an initial period of 30 days, though authorities have not ruled out extending them, according to the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration.

“Illegal migration is simply a crime,” Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said Sunday during a news conference.

The Polish border with Lithuania, which stretches 104 kilometers (65 miles), will see checks in 13 locations. Poland’s border with Germany, 467 kilometers (290 miles) long, will have controls at 52 crossing points....

....MUCH MORE 

Another of the responses: 

And at the Washington Post, July 5: 

Escalating German-Polish border dispute hampers Europe’s free movement 

What the Germans are doing is very similar to what Belarus did in 2021 - 2023:

 And many more.

"FBI launches criminal investigations of John Brennan, James Comey over Trump-Russia probe: report"

 From the New York Post, July 8:

Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-FBI Director James Comey are being investigated for potential criminal conduct related to the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion probe. 

The criminal referral involving Brennan was passed to the FBI by current CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Justice Department sources told Fox News Digital

The investigation into the Obama-era spy chief involves allegations that he made false statements to Congress and is currently underway. 

It’s unclear if the FBI’s probe into Brennan, one of 51 intelligence officials who falsely suggested Hunter Biden’s laptop could be Russian disinformation, encompasses more than his alleged false testimony to lawmakers. 

Meanwhile, the specific nature of the potential criminal matter involving Comey is unclear but an investigation has been opened....

....MUCH MORE 

Related, July 6:

"Obama’s Trump-Russia collusion report was corrupt from start: CIA review"

A lot of the things that Brennan did have a five-year statute of limitations. 

Lying to Congress in 2023 about the inclusion of the Steele Dossier as a predicate in various reports would be one of his actions worth investigating but that is sort of like nailing Al Capone on tax charges. 

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

"Argentina's Economy Grows 7.6% In Q2 2025 As Shops And Building Sites Lead Recovery"

From the Rio Times via MENAFN, July 7:

Argentina's economy grew 7.6% in the second quarter of 2025, official data shows. This is the country's best performance in years, coming after a long crisis marked by high inflation and shrinking incomes.

The main drivers of this growth are a strong rebound in commerce and construction, both of which have responded quickly to new government policies. President Javier Milei's government took office in late 2023 and made big changes.

The administration cut government spending, ended the central bank 's money printing, and removed many rules that made business difficult. These steps helped restore confidence among investors and business owners.

Official figures show private investment jumped 22.7% this year, and construction activity is up sharply. Inflation, which was over 200% in 2023, has dropped fast. By May 2025, monthly inflation fell to 1.5%.

The peso has stabilized, and price rises are now more predictable, making it easier for businesses and families to plan. Trade numbers also show improvement. In May, Argentina had a trade surplus of $608 million, with exports at $7.1 billion and imports at $6.5 billion....

....MUCH MORE 

Also at La Derecha Diario:

Econométrica projects a 7.6% year-on-year growth in the second quarter 

Related at the Guardian, November 8 2023:

Economists warn electing far-right Milei would spell ‘devastation’ for Argentina 
More than 100 economists including Thomas Piketty and Jayati Ghosh publish open letter ahead of country’s 19 November election

Capital Markets: "US Tariffs Stall the Greenback's Upside Correction. RBA Surprises with Stand Pat Decision"

From Marc to Market: 

Overview: The capricious nature of the US tariffs, the tone in which they were announced, while still allowing time (August 1) to negotiate is the main talk. More tariff announcements are expected today. The dollar's upside correction was cut short, and it is weaker against nearly all the world's currencies. The jump in long-end Japanese government bonds (9-15 bp) has not helped the yen, which is the only G10 currency struggling to find traction against the greenback today. Among emerging market currencies, only the Taiwan dollar and Turkish lira are a little softer.

Equities have done surprisingly well today, while bonds have been sold. Nearly all the bourses in the Asia Pacific region advanced, though not Taiwan. Malaysia and Thailand, subject to the first round of tariff announcements fell by nearly 0.5%. Europe's Stoxx 600 is little changed, and US index futures are narrowly mixed, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures slightly higher. Benchmark 10-year yields are mostly 4-5 bp firmer, pushing the UK Gilt yield back to last week's high. The Reserve Bank of Australia caught the market leaning the wrong way as it stood pat. The Australian dollar is the strongest among the G10 currencies (~+0.80%) and the 10-year yield jumped eight basis points. The 10-year US Treasury yield is three basis points higher, a little above 4.41%. The 30-year yield is approaching the 5% threshold. Gold is softer but within yesterday's range and August WTI is consolidating after posting an outside up day yesterday to post a 1.4% gain. It is on the $67-handle today and sporting a softer tone....

....MUCH MORE 

Satellite-Inferred Global Temperature Down Miniscule 2/100ths deg. C In June

From Dr. Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, July 3:

UAH v6.1 Global Temperature Update for June, 2025: +0.48 deg. C

The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for June, 2025 was +0.48 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, down slightly from the May, 2025 anomaly of +0.50 deg. C. 

https://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_June_2025_v6.1_20x9-scaled.jpg 

The Version 6.1 global area-averaged linear temperature trend (January 1979 through June 2025) now stands at +0.16 deg/ C/decade (+0.22 C/decade over land, +0.13 C/decade over oceans).

The following table lists various regional Version 6.1 LT departures from the 30-year (1991-2020) average for the last 18 months (record highs are in red):....

....MUCH MORE 

Pre-Market: GE Vernova Continues Higher Following Yesterday's UBS Initiation (GEV)

Bit slow on the uptake eh wut min schweizer Kollege?

From Investing.com July 7:

UBS starts GE Vernova at Buy as AI-driven power demand to fuel earnings surge 

UBS initiated coverage on GE Vernova with a Buy rating and a $614 price target saying that the surging electricity demand from data centers and a tight supply environment is expected to drive pricing power and long-term profit growth.

GE Vernova, which holds about 35% of the global gas turbine market, is positioned to benefit from a structural upcycle in power generation.

Analysts at UBS see 70% compound earnings growth over five years, its highest estimate across covered companies, driven by AI-related energy needs and long equipment lead times that support pricing....

....MUCH MORE 

In early pre-market trade the stock is up another $11.03 (+2.08%) following yesterday's $13.24 (+2.56%) move. $541.40 last. 

Monday, July 7, 2025

"Why is a private equity firm reaping the benefits of hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies while taking over Minor League Baseball?"

From Lever News, September 12, 2024:

Monopoly League Baseball 

It’s a late August afternoon in Portland, Maine, and the crispness in the air makes it clear that, up here, summer is fading fast. But the sobriety of autumn hasn’t hit yet: It’s Elvis Night tonight and out front of Hadlock Field — the home stadium of the Sea Dogs, the city’s treasured Minor League Baseball team — the people, simply, are going nuts. 

An Elvis impersonator backed by a ramshackle live band smashes through “Hound Dog” while the Sea Dogs’ mascot Slugger, in a bedazzled white pantsuit and big black sunglasses, busts out karate kicks. The band’s guitarist — a sixtysomething man bald except for the very back of his head, where the hair flows bountifully — flings his instrument over his back to shred a solo.

The banners behind the band advertise Horch Roofing’s “seamless gutter leak repair” services. Mustached security guards mimic the Elvis impersonator’s moves. Grinning, Elvis swings into a lovely rendering of the trademark hip shake, then shouts, “Man, they still work!” Squealing in delight, the fans mob Slugger and Elvis for selfies. 

Major League Baseball is the highest level of the sport, where players get paid millions to join the Yankees and the Red Sox. Minor League Baseball is an interconnected series of lower leagues where guys who hope to one day make it to the majors scrape together a living playing in towns like Wichita and Amarillo for teams with names like the Wind Surge and the Sod Poodles. Tickets are cheap; babies and grandparents are everywhere. 

The Portland Sea Dogs are quintessential Minor League Baseball. They’re also part of a newer American tradition: a private equity roll-up. In 2022, the team was acquired by Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), a subsidiary of Silver Lake, a Silicon Valley-based investment firm with over $100 billion in worldwide assets whose portfolio companies generate over $248 billion in annual revenue. There are 120 Minor League Baseball teams operating directly below Major League Baseball — DBH now owns more than 30 of them.

As DBH has grown it’s been boosted, in part, by public taxpayers. In the three years DBH has been in operation, DBH-owned teams have extracted nearly $300 million in public money from local governments throughout the country, according to the Maine Center For Economic Policy.
Columbus, Georgia, is coughing up $50 million in stadium renovation costs. Spartanburg, South Carolina, will spend more than $100 million in part to build a whole new stadium for a DBH-owned team. Those funds don’t go directly into DBH’s bank account — but when local municipalities foot massive bills for stadium repairs and construction, DBH avoids having to spend the money themselves.

A few months before Elvis Night, the Maine State Legislature approved a $2 million tax break for the Sea Dogs. While Maine’s contribution is small compared to other municipalities, the $2 million brings up the same essential question: Why are local taxpayers giving private equity-owned teams any money at all?

There is little proof that subsidies to sports teams benefit the public. There is a lot of proof that private equity ownership negatively impacts the industries it enters and the public at large. But if Portland refused to play ball, it might have encountered the same existential threat facing DBH-owned teams all over the country: the Sea Dogs, Elvis nights and all, could leave town for good.
Pat Garofalo is the director of state and local policy at the American Economic Liberties Project, a think tank that promotes antimonopoly policies. “I’ve spent a lot of time working on ways to stop sports stadium subsidies,” he said. “There’s almost complete consensus among economists: None of this money does anything; the economic benefits are virtually nonexistent.”....

....MUCH MORE 

Who knew?

Recently from The Lever:

Bowling and Private Equity: "Meet The New Kingpin"

"Wall Street Responds To 'America Party'; Musk Denies, Calls Party Filing 'Fake News'" (TSLA)

From ZeroHedge, July 7:

Tesla shares tumbled in premarket trading in New York as investors weighed Elon Musk's move to launch the new "America Party," just one day after President Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law—legislation Musk had publicly denounced. Although Musk has denied founding the party, calling the reports "fake news," the market appears unconvinced.

Tesla's stock, already down 22% year-to-date as of Thursday's close, is poised to lose another 7% if premarket losses carry into the cash trading session.

Wall Street analysts are concerned that Musk is "diving deeper into politics," which could damage the brand, weaken demand, or further distract him from Tesla's core EV and robotics units.

Here's what some on Wall Street are saying, via Bloomberg:

Wedbush (Dan Ives)

  • "Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/ shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story"

  • With the autonomous future ahead and the AI revolution in full force, Musk should avoid acts of provocation. Trump can create more hurdles for Musk as well as Tesla and SpaceX if the political battle intensifies heading into mid-term elections in 2026

  • "We remain firmly bullish on Tesla's AI future but clearly this is not the news we want to see as it adds another perceived overhang to the stock"

  • Maintains outperform on stock with a price target at $500

Global X ETFs (Billy Leung)

  • "This probably isn't what Tesla investors were hoping for. Musk just got back to focusing on the business and the stock was rallying. Now he's dragging it into another political headline cycle"

  • For the stock, the move raises noise and volatility in the short term while long term, the core thesis for Tesla is still about AI, robotics, and autonomy — the political distractions don't really dent that ....

 ....MUCH MORE 

Although the stock is coming back from the worst of the pre-market decline it is still down $18.90 (-5.99%) and back below $300,  $296.45 last.

July 1 - As Tesla Falls Back Under $300 Per Share, xAI Raises $10B in Debt And Equity

As we are fond of pointing out, the endpoints one chooses for a timeline changes the appearance of the presentation and oftentimes is a handy reveal of the writer's biases and intent. For example, yesterday, June 30, Tesla marked the fifteenth anniversary of it's $17.00 IPO. Accounting for the 3:1 and 5:1 stock splits $300 equates to $4500.00 on the original shares.

On the other hand there are people who begin their timeline at the stock's December 2024 all-time high print, $488.54.

And on the third hand are people whose reference period is one year, in which the stock is up 49%....

U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer and Petty Officer Has Helped Save 165 People In The Texas Flash Floods

If I ever find myself in deadly peril, looking up and seeing one of those Coast Guard search & rescue helicopters would definitely be a day-brightener. 

In this case it sounds as if young Mr. Ruskin used brains more than physical prowess to do what had to be done.  A New York Post Exclusive, July 6:

New Jersey native on first rescue mission with Coast Guard helps save 165 Texas flood victims: ‘American hero’ 

A Coast Guard rescue swimmer is already being hailed as an “American hero” after his very first mission — helping to save the lives of 165 Texas flash-flood victims.

“This is what it’s all about, right? Like, this is why we do the job,” said Scott Ruskan, 26, a New Jersey native and former KPMG accountant, to The Post after his work in central Texas.

“This is why we take those risks all time. This is why like Coast Guard men and women, are risking their lives every day,” said Petty Officer Ruskan — who was in charge of triage at Camp Mystic, the Christian girls’ summer camp that saw some of the worst of the flooding.

Raised in Oxford, NJ, Ruskan enlisted in the US Coast Guard in 2021, and after completing basic training, went to Aviation Survival Technician school in Petaluma, Calif., before being stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas. 

He had been on call since November after completing all of his training, familiarizing himself with the Coast Guard’s iconic MH-65 helicopter and enrolling in additional rescue swimming classes as he waited to be called into action.

That fateful call came on the Fourth of July as a massive summer rainstorm led to catastrophic flash flooding in the Lone Star State that has so far claimed at least 80 lives.

Bryan Winchell, a helicopter search and rescue technician with Texas Task Force 1 — a joint partnership between the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service — called the Coast Guard looking to get boots on the ground and in the air for an emergency rapid response near central Texas.

“That’s a little bit outside our area of operation normally, but people were in danger, and we’re a good asset to try and help people out, and these guys were asking for help, so that’s kind of what we do,” Ruskan said....

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/07/uscg-rescue-crew-seen-photo-107724097.jpg?resize=1536,1152&quality=75&strip=all 

A Coast Guard crew participating in rescue missions near Kerrville, Texas with a MH-65 helicopter.
 USCG Heartland 

....MUCH MORE