Latest / Key Markets & Headlines / Key Markets & Headlines — Monday, July 6, 2026
Transcript
- Key markets and headlines for today. The most market-moving story this morning centers on Nvidia and the broader artificial intelligence sector. Asian technology stocks took a hit after a report surfaced that Nvidia’s next-generation AI server rack system, known as Kyber NVL one forty-four, has been delayed by more than a year due to manufacturing difficulties. The research firm SemiAnalysis posted on social media that Nvidia encountered setbacks in constructing the printed circuit boards for this platform. Nvidia hasn’t commented publicly, but the news is landing at a time when investors in AI stocks are already jittery. Even minor setbacks are triggering outsized reactions after the sector’s years-long rally. Last week, global tech stocks whipsawed on headlines suggesting possible overcapacity in the AI buildout and intensifying competition. This delay is likely to fuel further volatility and debate about the sustainability of AI-driven gains, especially as the sector faces questions about supply chain resilience and the pace of innovation. Turning to other major stories in equities and corporate news. Amazon has successfully deployed another batch of satellites for its broadband service, moving closer to challenging SpaceX’s Starlink. A United Launch Alliance Atlas Five rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Thursday, carrying twenty-nine satellites for Amazon’s Leo network. With more than three hundred ninety satellites now in orbit, Amazon says it has completed enough launches for initial service later this year. Chris Weber, vice president of business and product for Amazon Leo, noted that there’s still significant work ahead, including raising these satellites to their final orbits. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas Five has handled about sixty percent of Amazon’s launches so far, but future missions will use the company’s new Vulcan rocket. This marks a significant milestone as Amazon ramps up its efforts to compete in the satellite broadband market. Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company, is reportedly in early talks with Samsung to manufacture a custom AI chip. According to sources cited by The Information, Anthropic is still determining what the processor should do, its power, and how it would fit into server infrastructure. While Amazon’s Trainium chip, Google’s tensor processing units, and Nvidia’s graphics processors remain central to Anthropic’s computing strategy, the company is looking to diversify its chip supply amid surging demand for AI services. This follows OpenAI’s unveiling of its first custom AI chip with Broadcom last month, as generative AI companies seek to tailor hardware for greater efficiency. In regulatory news, Alibaba has won a temporary reprieve from a US law that forced all of its lobbyists to drop it as a client. A federal judge ordered the Pentagon not to treat Alibaba as a Chinese military company with respect to lobbying restrictions until she resolves the company’s legal challenge. The law, which took effect last week, bars the Defense Department from working with any company represented by lobbyists who also work for entities blacklisted for allegedly aiding China’s military. This provision forced lobbying firms to choose between Chinese clients and US defense contractors, leading many to abandon Chinese tech companies. The judge’s order gives Alibaba breathing room as the case proceeds and could set an important precedent for US efforts to curtail Chinese corporate activities. Baillie Gifford, the UK-based investment firm, has offered its staff a voluntary exit program. Chief executive Tim Campbell informed UK employees they have the option to leave the firm on enhanced terms, according to an internal update. Baillie Gifford says the move is part of its ongoing evolution to remain relevant to clients and well positioned for the future. The voluntary exit program is designed to give staff flexibility as the firm adapts to changing market conditions. Blackstone’s QTS data center unit is abandoning plans to build its portion of a massive two thousand one hundred acre data center campus in Virginia. After years of legal battles and local opposition, QTS executives decided it wasn’t worth pursuing the project in court. Attorneys for the firm confirmed the decision in a recent court filing. The cancellation marks a setback for what would have been a landmark mega site, roughly twice the size of New York’s Central Park, with city-sized power requirements. In the entertainment sector, Minions & Monsters, the seventh film in the animated franchise, topped the US and Canadian box office over the July Fourth holiday weekend, bringing in sixty-one point four million dollars. While that’s below the franchise’s record debut in 2015, it reinforces Illumination’s reputation as a powerhouse in animated filmmaking. The studio, founded by Chris Meledandri, has enjoyed major successes with the Minions series, The Secret Life of Pets, and adaptations of Dr. Seuss classics. Crusoe, a data center upstart that supplies AI computing power to companies like Meta and Oracle, is in talks to raise about three billion dollars in a funding round that could triple its valuation to around thirty billion dollars. The company was valued at ten billion dollars in October, and its last round was co-led by Valor Equity Partners and Mubadala Capital. Discussions are ongoing, and the final valuation hasn’t been set, but the deal underscores the intense investor interest in companies powering the AI boom. ElevenLabs, an artificial intelligence startup specializing in realistic voice generation, is reportedly in early talks to let employees sell shares in a secondary offering that would value the company at roughly twenty-two billion dollars. That would double its valuation since February. The tender is expected to occur by September, though talks are still preliminary. ElevenLabs has seen rapid growth, surpassing five hundred million dollars in annual recurring revenue, and markets its AI voice tools for advertising, audiobooks, call centers, and sales training. Hyundai Motor showcased its Atlas humanoid robot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, marking the robot’s first live public demonstration since its production-ready version debuted at CES in January. Developed by Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics unit, Atlas performed goal celebrations and handed the match ball to the referee during a Round of Sixteen match between Brazil and Norway. Hyundai plans to manufacture up to thirty thousand humanoids annually in the US starting in 2028, primarily for use in its Georgia plants. ITV has agreed to sell its media and entertainment arm to Sky, which is owned by Comcast, in a deal worth up to one point six billion pounds, or about two point one billion dollars. The sale includes ITV’s free-to-air TV channels and the ITVX streaming platform, with one point two billion pounds in cash and up to two hundred million pounds in contingent payments tied to advertising performance. ITV Studios, which produces and distributes content, will remain as a standalone London-listed company. ITV expects to return approximately nine hundred fifty million pounds to shareholders after reducing debt and covering separation costs. Microsoft is launching a new business unit called Microsoft Frontier Company, backed by a two point five billion dollar investment. The unit will embed six thousand experts at clients worldwide to help design, deploy, and improve AI systems at scale. Microsoft says the initiative is already working with global clients such as the London Stock Exchange Group, Unilever, and Novo Nordisk. The goal is to help customers amplify their capabilities with AI and refine their market positions. Micron has broken ground on a major expansion of its factory in Hiroshima, Japan, a one point five trillion yen, or nine point three billion dollar, project to produce advanced memory chips. The facility will make high-bandwidth memory chips crucial for AI processors like Nvidia’s, with equipment installation scheduled to begin in the second half of 2028. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is providing up to five hundred billion yen in support. Micron is also building two leading-edge fabs in Boise, Idaho, and outside Syracuse, New York, as part of a pledge to increase DRAM production in the US. South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are also ramping up manufacturing capacity to meet surging AI demand. OpenAI has reportedly discovered a way to sharply reduce its computing costs for inference, according to The Information. Engineers at OpenAI say they’ve found techniques to cut inference costs in half, reducing the number of Nvidia GPUs needed for free or non-paid ChatGPT usage to just a couple hundred. It’s not yet clear how these efficiency gains were achieved or how long they’ll last, especially as larger models continue to be developed and require more resources. The news highlights the ongoing race among AI firms to optimize performance and reduce costs as demand for generative AI services grows. Samsung is expected to report an operating profit of about eighty-six trillion won, or fifty-six point three five billion dollars, for the April to June quarter. That would be an almost eighteen-fold increase from a year earlier and mark Samsung’s third consecutive quarter of record operating profit. The surge reflects a prolonged shortage in the global memory market, with AI infrastructure demand continuing to outpace supply. However, analysts caution that reported earnings could fall short if Samsung books a larger-than-expected provision for employee bonuses. SpaceX is reportedly exploring the idea of building a ground-based network to provide mobile service, according to people familiar with internal discussions. President Gwynne Shotwell discussed the possibility with investors earlier this year. Engineers at SpaceX are working on upgraded Starlink satellites to enable mobile connections, and company leaders believe the mobile market could be even bigger than providing Wi-Fi for homes. Spotify has asked prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket to remove its logo and clarify that neither company has a partnership with the streaming service. This comes after Spotify identified users manipulating rankings tied to prediction market bets, specifically regarding Malcolm Todd’s song “Earrings,” which was artificially boosted to the top of Spotify’s charts. Spotify removed over five hundred thousand artificial streams and reached out to both companies after discovering the issue. The manipulated numbers had already been used to settle a Kalshi market, which attracted three million dollars in trading. The incident raises questions about the integrity of prediction markets and the potential for manipulation in digital music rankings. StubHub is under investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over widespread reports of cancelled or undelivered World Cup tickets. Since the 2026 FIFA World Cup began, fans have reported that StubHub cancelled their tickets days or even hours before kickoff. StubHub blames the cancellations on transfer problems tied to FIFA’s ticketing platform, but consumer complaints point to a broader pattern known as “ghost ticketing,” where sellers list tickets they don’t possess and cancel when they can’t deliver. Paxton has pledged to use every available tool to hold StubHub accountable and help affected fans. Tesla’s vehicle sales for the second quarter beat Wall Street’s expectations by a wide margin, delivering four hundred eighty thousand one hundred twenty-six vehicles worldwide. That’s a twenty-five percent jump from a year earlier and well above analyst estimates of fewer than four hundred thousand. Despite the strong showing, Tesla’s deliveries still trailed China’s BYD, which sold five hundred fifty-seven thousand ninety fully electric cars. Maintaining robust EV sales will be critical for Tesla as it adopts a more conservative approach to capital expenditures. In a related development, Tesla has expanded availability of a three-row version of the Model Y SUV in the US and Puerto Rico. The Model Y Long Wheelbase, or Model YL, was first introduced in China last year and is aimed at middle-class families. The expanded offering follows Tesla’s better-than-expected second-quarter deliveries. Uber has paused most of its planned food delivery expansion in Europe, scrapping launches in five of the seven countries it had targeted for this year. This comes just five months after Uber announced its European expansion as part of a push to deliver an additional one billion dollars in gross bookings over the next three years. Turning to macroeconomic and policy news. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment is opening up one of its largest investment businesses to outside investors for the first time. The wealth fund is transferring a twenty-five billion dollar credit portfolio to its alternative asset manager, Mubadala Capital, under a long-term management agreement. This will allow the platform to raise third-party capital for the first time, with Mubadala committing an additional four point six five billion dollars to support expansion. The move reflects Mubadala’s bullishness on private credit, particularly as banks retreat from direct lending in Europe and Asia. In equity markets, Morgan Stanley strategists say investors are rotating into AI hyperscalers and other lagging parts of the US stock market as momentum fades in semiconductor-related stocks. The team led by Michael Wilson recommends hyperscalers over semiconductors for the near term, noting that these companies offer attractive optionality within the AI ecosystem, strong core businesses, and underappreciated cost-cutting levers. Hyperscalers are also likely to temper expectations on capital expenditure growth after poor stock performance in recent months. In commodities, oil prices fell as energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz continued and OPEC Plus signaled higher supplies, raising concerns about a potential glut. Brent crude dropped below seventy-two dollars a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate hovered near sixty-nine dollars. Oil and gas shipping along a US-protected corridor in the Strait of Hormuz showed signs of recovery Sunday after a spate of unexplained vessel detours. Meanwhile, major OPEC Plus members, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to a modest increase in collective quotas for next month, adding one hundred eighty-eight thousand barrels a day and rolling back some earlier production curbs. On the geopolitical front, President Donald Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday. The summit is expected to be tense, with issues ranging from US views on Greenland and European defense spending to the ongoing Iran war. Trump, who arrives in Turkey on Tuesday, will also meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the full defense alliance convenes. Trump has pledged to end Russia’s war with Ukraine quickly but has been frustrated by a lack of progress. European leaders, whom Trump has criticized for tepid support in the Iran conflict, are calling for renewed US and European efforts to support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The White House has been preoccupied with the Iran conflict, leaving US-brokered talks between Kyiv and Moscow stalled. Trump also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday about Ukraine and the upcoming summit. In event-driven and deal news. Honeywell International’s spinoff, Solstice Advanced Materials, is in discussions to merge with specialty chemicals firm Element Solutions. According to the Financial Times, negotiations are ongoing and a deal could be reached as soon as this week, though nothing is finalized. A merger would create a market leader in advanced materials with a combined enterprise value of about twenty-seven billion dollars, including debt. The move would also strengthen Solstice’s position as a supplier of advanced chipmaking materials. Thales has beaten rival French defense firm Safran in the race to acquire Exail Technologies, a Paris-based manufacturer of submarine drones. Thales will pay one hundred thirty-four euros per Exail share, a forty-four percent premium to the unaffected share price, implying an enterprise value of three point nine billion euros, or about four point five billion dollars. Thales has signed a binding agreement for the thirty-five point five one percent stake owned by the Gorgé family and plans to acquire the rest of the company via a mandatory tender offer. The acquisition taps into surging demand for submarine drones amid the Strait of Hormuz mine crisis. EasyJet has agreed in principle to a takeover offer of more than five billion pounds from Castlelake, a US investment firm. The offer of six pounds ninety per share in cash gives the airline an equity value of five point two billion pounds, or six point nine billion dollars, rising to five point five billion pounds on a fully diluted basis. This is Castlelake’s fifth bid, and EasyJet had previously called earlier proposals “highly opportunistic.” The new offer is about six percent higher than the last. The two sides have also agreed to extend the deadline for a firm offer to August third. EasyJet’s most attractive assets include a modern Airbus fleet, hundreds of aircraft orders, and prime landing slots in London, Milan, and Geneva. Genuine Parts has attracted a cash bid for its auto-parts arm from O’Reilly Automotive as it seeks to refocus on its industrials business. The unit could be valued at ten billion dollars or more, according to people familiar with the matter. A sale could be announced by the end of the summer, though Genuine Parts could still decide to keep the unit or pursue a spinoff without O’Reilly. Another bidder could also emerge. Shares of Genuine Parts closed thirteen percent higher on Thursday, while O’Reilly Automotive fell two point six percent. Novartis has agreed to buy British biotech company Myricx Bio for up to one point five billion dollars. Myricx shareholders will receive one point one billion dollars upfront and up to four hundred million dollars in milestone payments. Myricx is developing a new class of antibody-drug conjugates, including two lead candidates targeting proteins commonly found on breast and lung cancers. The acquisition gives Novartis a novel method for delivering potent cancer treatments directly to tumors, even after cancers have become resistant to current therapies. Blue Owl Capital’s private credit funds have again been hit with the industry’s largest redemption requests, forcing the manager to cap withdrawals for a second straight quarter. Investors in the thirty-four billion dollar Blue Owl Credit Income Corporation asked to pull eighteen point eight percent of shares, or three point six billion dollars, in the second quarter. The smaller Blue Owl Technology Income Corporation saw shareholders request thirty-eight point one percent, or one point one billion dollars. Blue Owl joins industry peers like Apollo, Ares, BlackRock, and Blackstone in imposing a five percent redemption limit as investors accelerate out of private credit funds. SK Hynix is considering paying about zero point five percent of the proceeds from its upcoming US listing to the banks working on the deal. The company may issue as much as two point five percent of its total shares, with the final deal size still to be determined. Based on SK Hynix’s latest market capitalization of about one point one trillion dollars, the offering could raise around twenty-six point five billion dollars, translating to more than one hundred thirty million dollars in total fees at the zero point five percent payout rate. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are leading the share sale. While the fee percentage is small by US standards, it would still be one of the top fee events for an Asian company this year. Looking at notable trends and charts. Small and mid-cap stocks have been outperforming their large-cap peers year to date, according to Strategas. However, market valuations remain elevated, making it difficult to call the market anything but expensive at current levels. There are also signs that the semiconductor trade may be starting to roll over, with the upcoming SK Hynix American Depositary Receipt listing this week seen as a potential leading indicator. In the data center sector, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called for a prohibition on data centers in rural Texas, reflecting growing concerns about the environmental and infrastructure impacts of large-scale data center expansion. That wraps up today’s key markets and headlines. Thanks for listening.