Anthropic had a tumultuous month. The AI lab surpassed OpenAI in business spending market share for the first time in May, raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation, and filed confidential IPO paperwork after its first profitable quarter. However, on Friday, the Trump administration ordered Anthropic to ban non-Americans, including its employees, from accessing its latest models: the limited-release Mythos 5 and the public Fable 5. This forced Anthropic to pull both models from the market. The White House invoked an obscure export control directive, but the exact cause is unclear; chatter suggests hackers easily bypassed Fable 5’s guardrails, exposing Mythos’s dangerous capability to find software security flaws. This feud follows Anthropic’s earlier refusal to allow government use of its models for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, leading to a supply-chain risk declaration in March. Despite this, business adoption grew. Ramp’s lead economist Ara Kharazian says the controversy may boost Anthropic, noting its best adoption month came after the defense department labeled it a risk. Ramp’s data from over 70,000 businesses shows Anthropic’s share of AI subscriptions rose 2.5 percentage points in May to 41%, surpassing OpenAI’s 39.5% (which was flat). Businesses primarily spend on API calls to Claude Opus models, especially the latest Opus 4.8, which remain available. Mythos had only been released to limited users since April, and Fable 5 was shut down after days. The impact of the White House drama on Anthropic’s IPO prospects is uncertain, but its available models are more popular with businesses than ever.
SpaceX has agreed to acquire Anysphere, the San Francisco company behind AI coding agent Cursor, in an all-stock deal valuing the startup at US$60 billion, giving Elon Musk's newly public company a stronger foothold in enterprise AI tools and software...
U.S. stock futures were little changed Tuesday night as traders awaited the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. S&P 500 futures edged slightly higher, Nasdaq 100 futures added less than 0.1%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 47 points (0.1%).
During Tuesday's regular session, the Dow climbed to new intraday and closing highs, gaining 328.64 points (0.64%) and crossing 52,000 for the first time before closing just below that level. In contrast, the S&P 500 fell 0.57% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.15%. SpaceX shares continued their rally, closing up over 4% and nearly 50% above its IPO price of $135, extending gains to 2% in after-hours trading.
The moves followed Monday's gains after President Donald Trump announced a potential U.S.-Iran deal to end the war. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed both sides had terminated military operations, with an official signing ceremony set for Friday in Switzerland.
Citi Research's head of U.S. equity strategy Scott Chronert expressed optimism on CNBC, stating the market is "in pretty good shape for a solid finish to the quarter" and expects leadership from AI infrastructure stocks in the second-quarter reporting period. He noted that falling oil prices amid Iran conflict resolution could allow the Fed to move to the sidelines, extending the broadening playbook and supporting a path higher into the second half of the year.
Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting marks the first with new Chairman Kevin Warsh. Investors expect the Fed to keep rates unchanged at 3.5%–3.75%, though most Wall Street watchers anticipate Warsh will not submit a dot plot. CarMax and Jabil are set to report earnings before the bell, while traders will also monitor May's retail and pending home sales data.
At a spatial AI convention in Long Beach on Tuesday, Snap unveiled its long-awaited consumer smart glasses, Specs. Priced at $2,195, they are available for preorder on June 16 with a $200 refundable deposit, and are expected to ship this fall in the U.S., the U.K., and France. This price places them above most Meta Ray-Bans (starting at $350) but below the Apple Vision Pro ($3,500). Snap has been developing Specs for over a decade, but its last consumer version was in 2019; subsequent iterations were developer-only. Earlier this year, Snap spun off a new company to focus on bringing the product to market.
Visually, Specs resembles slightly bulkier goggles, with all computing on the device—no puck or tether. It runs on two Snapdragon processors, offers up to four hours of continuous battery life, and a charging case extends that to 20 hours. Features include games with shared multiplayer via “EyeConnect” (activated by eye contact), video viewing (51-degree field of view, 16 million colors), point-of-view recording, internet browsing, productivity apps, and email. A standout feature is contextual AI: look at an object and ask about it to pull up information. The glasses come in two sizes: a 47mm model weighing 132 grams and a 52mm model weighing 136 grams, heavier than Meta’s Ray-Bans but far lighter than the Apple Vision Pro. Privacy protections include a built-in LED light that glows while recording, and user control over data storage.
Snap’s earlier demo in Las Vegas showed fun apps and impressive AI, but the device was heavy and ran hot; the final version appears slimmer. Specs enters a saturated market led by Meta and joined by Google, aiming at tech enthusiasts, developers, and studios with deep pockets. The high price reflects the industry’s ongoing struggle to turn curiosity into profit; even Meta loses money on AR. Snap faces its own challenges: a wobbling stock, declining North American user engagement, and lack of consistent profitability, alongside recent layoffs. Whether Specs can turn this around remains to be seen.
SpaceX has agreed to acquire AI coding startup Cursor in a $60 billion stock deal, just days after the space company’s historic IPO and less than two months after announcing a tie-up between the two. The acquisition is intended to bolster SpaceX’s AI division—built around Elon Musk’s xAI, which SpaceX merged with earlier this year—and help it compete with major AI labs. Despite being a centerpiece of its IPO promises, SpaceX’s AI division has faced restructuring following controversies, including allowing users to generate non-consensual deepfakes of women and children. SpaceX said the acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Before SpaceX’s offer, Cursor was on track to close a $2 billion funding round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and Nvidia, which would have valued the startup at $50 billion. In April, Musk’s company announced a deal to either buy Cursor for $60 billion in stock or pay a $10 billion break-up fee if the deal failed. Cursor had raised $900 million in a Series C in June 2025 and another $2.3 billion in late 2025. Founded in 2022 as Anysphere, Cursor experienced rapid growth as AI-powered coding gained traction.
Signs of SpaceX’s interest emerged earlier this year when xAI hired two of Cursor’s senior engineering leaders, and in April, xAI rented out data center capacity to Cursor—similar to deals SpaceX struck with Anthropic and Google ahead of its IPO. The acquisition comes as xAI was unraveling; all 11 of Musk’s co-founders had left by March, and Musk admitted xAI “was not built right the first time around.” xAI’s Grok chatbot previously called itself “MechaHitler” and allowed generation of nudes and sexual deepfakes. SpaceX’s IPO filings cited such behavior as a risk, and the company faces legal challenges.
SpaceX’s IPO was the largest in history, with a total addressable market of $28 trillion, nearly all ($26 trillion) centered on AI. Since going public at $135 per share, SpaceX’s stock has risen above $200 per share, adding nearly $1 trillion to its valuation. The acquisition of Cursor is expected to help SpaceX deliver on its AI promises.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev announced the company is laying off 10% of its full-time employees—approximately 290 people—without attributing the cuts to artificial intelligence, a departure from many tech peers who have cited AI restructuring for job reductions. Tenev’s note to employees and the company’s regulatory filing framed the move as a restructuring exercise, though he mentioned using “frontier technologies to push our execution even further,” deliberately avoiding the term AI. This reflects declining sentiment toward AI, even as some tech executives profit immensely. Tenev added that companies must operate with smaller teams and “flatter organizational structures,” stating: “We cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team.”
Similar language has appeared in layoff announcements at Amazon, Block, Coinbase, GitLab, and Intuit, indicating that large teams, bureaucracy, and siloed departments are now seen as undesirable, especially as AI tools promise productivity gains. Some analysts suggest this tacitly acknowledges that tech companies over-hired after the COVID-19 pandemic and are now scaling back as expenses—particularly those tied to massive AI usage—accumulate.
Despite the layoffs, many of these companies are performing well. Tech stocks have surged on record revenues, improved profit margins (GitLab reported 88% gross margin last month), rising cloud demand, and expectations of high returns from data center investments. Robinhood itself posted a 15% improvement in first-quarter revenue in April and expects stronger second-quarter results due to rising prediction market fees, subscription revenue, and strong equity and options trading as markets stabilize. The company also said it is closing “a small number” of open roles and will incur approximately $28 million in costs related to the cuts.
Nakivo Reports Q1 2026 Results
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Home » Financial Results, Investments and IPOs » OpenAI Has Confidentially Submitted a Draft S-1 to the SEC OpenAI Has Confidentially Submitted a Draft S-1 to the SEC Preparing its IPO By Philippe Nicolas | June 16, 2026 at 2:01 pm Blog written by OpenAI published June 8, 2026 We recently submitted a confidential S-1.We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it. We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best. This announcement is being made pursuant to Rule 135 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any offers, solicitations of offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Read also : OpenAI Partners with Cerebras OpenAI is partnering with Cerebras to add 750MW of ultra low-latency AI compute to our platform Top News | By Philippe Nicolas | January 16, 2026 | News
IT Press Tour 68: Paradigm4
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During the 68th IT Press Tour in Boston, MA, Joe Zhou, DevRel at JuiceFS (Juicedata), presented the company's file storage approach, comparing it with AWS S3 Files, released in April 2026. Zhou positioned object storage as the de facto backend for modern data infrastructure, citing its simple primitives (PUT, GET, Compare-And-Swap), flat namespace, unlimited scalability, 11 nines durability, multi-region availability, immutability, and low cost (~$0.02/GB/month). However, object stores lack in-place updates, real file hierarchy, efficient batch metadata operations, and are poor for structured data, driving a new generation of databases and file systems (e.g., JuiceFS, Neon) to rebuild richer APIs on top of immutable object buckets.
Zhou described S3 Files as "a decent approach" but limited. It mounts S3 via NFS using EFS as a cache and metadata tier, with 1-to-1 file-object mapping. Defaults optimize for small files (sizeLessThan: 128 KiB), writes land in EFS and offload to S3 after ~60 seconds. Trade-offs include write amplification (appending to large files requires full object rewrite), costly metadata ops (e.g., mv over millions of keys triggers background rewrite), batching delays, S3-wins conflict resolution, no multi-cloud, and complex layered pricing. S3 Files delivers POSIX and hierarchy but fails on in-place updates, batch metadata, execution, and structured data.
JuiceFS addresses these via strict data/metadata separation and file chunking. Community Edition (Apache 2.0) pairs external metadata engines (Redis, TiKV, MySQL, etc.) with any object store, exposed via FUSE, Java SDK, Python SDK, CSI Driver, and S3 Gateway. Files are chunked into 4 MB immutable blocks, so appends rewrite only the last block, and renames are single metadata ops. It supports configurable storage-class tiering. Enterprise Edition adds a Raft-based horizontally scalable metadata engine (3-copy redundancy), distributed data cache, cross-region replication, multi-cloud mirroring, and a soft limit of 500 billion files per volume (one EE deployment: 1.47 PiB, 404 billion inodes). Adopters include MiniMax, HeyGen, GMI, PixVerse, Xiaomi, NAVER, Trip.com, and Fly.io. EE pricing is by source-region capacity only, no per-client fees or JuiceFS-imposed data transfer charges.
Pro: Iran deal doubts
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Traders cheered President Donald Trump's signing of an Iran deal memorandum, but Wall Street remains cautious about whether the conflict will truly end. Trump announced Sunday an agreement to end the monthslong U.S.-Iran conflict, with a memorandum of understanding signed electronically and expected to be formally signed Friday in Switzerland. All three major U.S. stock indexes rallied Monday, pushing the Dow to a record. U.S. crude fell below $80 per barrel for the first time since early March after Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would open and the naval blockade of Iran would end.
However, several strategists warned the deal may be temporary. Piper Sandler's Jan Stuart noted contradictions and lack of detail, while colleague Andy Laperriere said the 60-day negotiation round likely needs extension and could collapse if Iran doesn't concede on nuclear energy. He doubts Iran will agree to a toll-free Strait. Height Capital Markets' Benjamin Salisbury said the MOU may mirror interim deals with calming effects but no durable resolution.
Investors will watch Strait of Hormuz traffic, which nearly shut down since the war began. Evercore ISI's Sarah Bianchi said normalizing traffic will require time for de-mining and restoring security confidence. UBS analyst Henri Patricot predicted Brent crude will stay at $85/barrel through Q3, with demand rebound limiting downside.
Some analysts questioned if the deal benefits the U.S., given war-induced inflation and American casualties. 22V Research's Jacob Funk Kirkegaard said the looming November midterms may have forced Trump into an objectively "bad deal," costing the U.S. and Israel credible military deterrence against Iran.
Nvidia launched a sale of US$25 billion worth of high-grade bonds on June 15, ultimately garnering up to US$85 billion in orders, or more than triple the bond's original size. This is one of several debt offerings this year from tech giants, which are...
Pro: Oil price volatility
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Investors welcomed the prospect of a U.S.-Iran peace deal on Monday, but analysts warn that oil price volatility is likely to persist in the near term due to a lingering geopolitical risk premium. Global oil inventories, depleted by the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, will need time to rebuild and may decline further before new supplies from the Gulf arrive, according to Westpac. ANZ senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes told CNBC that the energy shock is "far from over" and that shipping traffic through the Strait is unlikely to return to pre-conflict levels soon. He cited heavy inventory drawdowns, mine risks, and ship repairs as challenges, estimating a recovery of weeks or months.
International benchmark Brent crude futures for August fell 5.16% to $82.82 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate dropped 5.61% to $80.03, its lowest since March. Hynes noted that $80 will not rebalance the market over the next three to six months, predicting prices in the "low $90s" for the third quarter. He cautioned, "The market is oversimplifying things... Iran's control over the Strait will keep prices elevated."
TD Securities' Bart Melek added that even if flows normalize immediately, some 800 million barrels of inventories could be lost by November. Higher oil prices remain "very much in the cards," with inflationary implications, though China's potential inventory drawdown might prevent massive spikes. Melek concluded, "The market is relieved, but we're not out of the woods yet."
HSBC's Willem Sels noted that the economic effects of the Middle East conflict are already impacting vulnerable economies, particularly in South Asia, where challenging data could cause further volatility.
Stock futures are little changed after Dow posts new record close on potential U.S.-Iran deal
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Stock futures traded little changed on Monday night following a strong session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 468.77 points, or 0.92%, to a new record close and intraday high. The S&P 500 gained 1.65%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 3.07%. In Asian markets Tuesday, South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.61%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.47%. Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat and the Topix slipped 0.38%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures pointed lower than its close.
The rally came after President Donald Trump announced a deal between the U.S. and Iran to end the war in the Middle East. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said both sides declared the termination of military operations on all fronts, with a formal signing ceremony scheduled for Friday in Switzerland. A senior Trump administration official told CNBC that a memorandum of understanding was signed electronically on Sunday.
Trump also said the key Strait of Hormuz would reopen on Friday, sending oil prices down nearly 5% on Monday. Vice President JD Vance told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that the strait would "be opened in a toll-free way for the long term."
Keith Lerner, CIO and chief market strategist at Truist Wealth, said on CNBC that the market reaction was "fairly positive," noting economic resilience beneath the surface. He expects near-term choppiness but said the market has held up well since March lows.
On Tuesday, investors will watch for May’s housing starts and export and import price indexes.
SpaceX 'greenshoe'
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SpaceX underwriters have exercised their overallotment of shares in the historic initial public offering, bringing total funds raised to $85.7 billion, according to an investor relations update Monday. Elon Musk's space and AI company initially raised $75 billion on Thursday, making it the largest IPO ever. Brokers Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had the option to buy an additional 83.3 million shares as part of the "greenshoe" overallotment, which is typically exercised when the stock rises. The additional amount raised exceeds most tech IPOs on record. SpaceX staff wore green shoes on the trading floor Friday in recognition of the option.
Priced at $135 per share, the stock soared 19% on Friday's debut, closing at around $161, pushing the company's valuation past $2 trillion. Shares climbed over 7% more on Monday morning.
Musk told employees at SpaceX's Starbase headquarters in Texas on Friday that the company went public now to raise capital for "a significant growth phase." The funds are expected to complete and commercially fly Starship rockets—the largest ever built—which are designed to be fully reusable and deploy new V3 satellites to expand Starlink internet service. The rockets are still in testing. SpaceX also aims to build AI data centers in space (orbital data centers) and a massive chip factory with Tesla and Intel in Texas. Musk pitched space-based data centers as a solution for AI's power needs, though the technology remains unproven.
SpaceX has a fraction of the revenue of tech megacaps and reported a $4.9 billion loss last year, with total losses exceeding $41 billion since founding. At Friday's close, its $2.1 trillion valuation represented 112 times last year's revenue.
China's retail sales fell for the first time in over three years in May, dropping 0.6% year-on-year, according to data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics. This marked the first decline since December 2022, as the Labor Day holiday failed to boost sluggish consumer spending. The figure was worse than the Reuters poll forecast of no change. Urban fixed-asset investment, including real estate and infrastructure, contracted 4.1% year-to-date through May, more than the expected 2% decline and deepening from 1.6% in the first four months. Real estate investment fell 16.2% in the January-to-May period, while manufacturing fixed-asset investment contracted for the first time since December 2020. Infrastructure investment grew 0.6%. Industrial output was a bright spot, rising 4.5% in May, beating estimates of 4.3% and rebounding from April's near three-year low of 4.1%. The national unemployment rate edged down to 5.1% from 5.2% in April.
The statistics bureau noted an "acute" domestic imbalance between strong supply and weak demand, calling for new technology development and greater employment support. The economy slowed after a strong first quarter, with April data showing broad weakness. In May, the official manufacturing gauge slowed to 50, the threshold between expansion and contraction. During the early May holiday, per capita spending lagged behind 2025 levels as consumers became more price-conscious.
Economists describe a "K-shaped" growth model, with robust manufacturing and exports offsetting weakness in property and consumer spending. Exports saw double-digit growth in April and May, boosted by renewables and AI demand, while the Iran war pushed up commodity costs, easing deflation. Producer inflation rose at the fastest pace in nearly four years in May, but consumer inflation remained modest at 1.2%, as upstream suppliers absorbed higher costs.
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz could rise to nearly 50% of prewar levels within a month if the U.S.-Iran deal is implemented without major setbacks, according to analysts at trade data firm Kpler. Washington and Tehran are expected to sign a deal Friday in Switzerland that will reopen the strait and lift the U.S. naval blockade of Iran. Daily transits could increase to 40, compared to 100 before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. About 20% of global oil supplies previously passed through the strait.
An estimated 118 tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf that are fully loaded could exit within 15 days, but analysts caution this surge is a one-time event and not a durable increase. The key question is how many vessels will enter after the backlog clears. Matt Wright, Kpler’s lead freight analyst, said tankers entering the Gulf could reach 12 per day (50% of prewar levels) in the first 30 days if cautious shippers wait to see how initial transits go. Insurance rates are expected to drop once vessels start moving.
However, risks threaten the reopening. U.S. and Iranian interpretations of the deal differ: Iranian state media says ships can transit toll-free for 60 days, after which Iran and Oman will administer the strait, while Vice President JD Vance told CNBC the U.S. expects long-term toll-free passage. The threat of mines remains unclear. President Donald Trump downplayed it, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that Iran mined large segments of the strait. The global shipping group Bimco warned Monday that the mine threat is still a concern, and chief safety officer Jakob Larsen said the security situation remains volatile and risky for ships to commence transits. Despite this, Frontline CEO Lars Barstad told CNBC that vessels will move quickly once the deal is signed.
The U.S. markets opened the trading week on a high note following the U.S.-Iran framework agreement aimed at ending the Mideast war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a fresh record, and tech stocks rallied sharply, driving the Nasdaq to its best one-day performance since late March. At the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, President Donald Trump confirmed the deal, stating it is signed and the Strait of Hormuz is already partially opened. He noted ships are starting to move out, with full opening expected by Friday. The formal signing is scheduled for Friday in Geneva, with Vice President J.D. Vance attending. Vance told CNBC that while many details remain, the strait is expected to be opened toll-free for the long term, emphasizing that the U.S. holds all leverage regarding Iran's nuclear program.
Crude prices closed about 5% lower in New York on Monday but stabilized in early Asian trading Tuesday. Against the backdrop of easing Mideast tensions, several central bank meetings are scheduled this week. The Bank of Japan is widely expected to raise rates to their highest level in three decades. The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to pause after three consecutive hikes. Kevin Warsh will chair his first Federal Reserve meeting, with no rate change anticipated but his guidance closely watched.
The AI and tech-fueled rally continues. SpaceX surged another 20% in its first full day of trading, with underwriters exercising the greenshoe option, bringing its IPO haul to $85.7 billion and a market cap above $2.5 trillion. Nvidia is reportedly planning a $20 billion bond offering, its first debt market tap since 2021.
In other news, Fox Corp. has agreed to acquire Roku for approximately $22 billion, or $160 per share in a cash-and-stock transaction. Fox will fund the cash portion with cash on hand and new debt, including a $12 billion loan. The deal marks another chapter in media consolidation.
The Dow Industrials hit a new record, with housing starts data due Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Homebuilder stocks show mixed performance: Toll Brothers up 18% in a month, Hovnanian up 25% in a month, D.R. Horton up 14.5% in a month, Lennar up 9% in a month, and PulteGroup up 11.5% in a month, though many remain off their highs.
SpaceX options begin trading Tuesday on the Cboe. On day two of trading, SpaceX stock rose nearly 20% to close at $192.50, giving it a market cap of $2.5 trillion, compared to Amazon's $2.6 trillion.
Workday holds its annual meeting; the stock is down 47% in a year and 48% from its September 2025 high. Of 22 analysts rate it buy or overweight, 21 have a hold. The stock closed at $129.60 on Monday, down 0.9%, with a $173.56 average price target.
In energy, West Texas Intermediate futures trade around $81 a barrel, still 20% above pre-Iran war levels. The S&P Energy sector is down 7.3% in a month and 12.5% from its March 27 high. ExxonMobil shares fell 20% from their March 30 high, closing near $141; Chevron closed at $180.40, down 16% from its March 30 high.
The Russell 2000 hit a new high Monday, up 6% in a month; the NYSE Composite also hit a new high, up 7.3% in three months; the Dow Industrials hit a new high, up nearly 11% in three months; the Nasdaq 100 is off 0.7% from its high; the S&P 500 is down 0.87% from its high.
A real estate project under construction in Yantai, Shandong, on May 29, 2026, symbolizes China's economic divergence: AI-driven tech exports surge while traditional sectors like property slump. Official data expected Tuesday (June 16) for May is forecast to show stagnation. Retail sales, which eked out 0.2% in April (slowest since end of Covid restrictions), are predicted to slow to 0% year-on-year in May, according to a Reuters poll. Industrial output is expected to tick up to 4.3% from 4.1%, while fixed-asset investment (year-to-date) is forecast to drop 2% (worse than 1.6% drop as of April), dragged by a 13.7% real estate investment decline.
Standard Bank's Jeremy Stevens warns of GDP downgrades, saying "we don't see a credible path to 4.6% in Q2:26," instead testing the 4% threshold. He cites the Iran war squeezing manufacturing margins to five-year lows, denting consumer confidence and encouraging cash-hoarding. KKR's mid-year outlook calls property "the single biggest reason we are not more bullish," estimating the drag will narrow to 0.6 percentage points next year from 1 point this year, and digitalization will contribute 2.5 points to GDP by 2027. However, retail and tourism's modest 0.9-point contribution won't prevent overall growth slowing to 4.4% in 2027 from 4.6% this year.
Foreign firms struggle: General Mills is selling Haagen-Dazs stores in mainland China; Audi's new brand sold only 900 cars in May; Lululemon sees weak China growth. Chinese companies expand: Li-Ning signed NBA star Stephen Curry for Curry-branded stores; Midea launched a tech solutions product for overseas factory management. The Pentagon expanded its list of China military-linked firms to include Alibaba and Baidu. BYD predicts 80% of China car sales will soon be electric. A Chinese robot vacuum startup Dreame's funding dilemma highlights cracks in Beijing's tech funding machine.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig defended his agency’s approval of bitcoin perpetual futures in a Monday appearance on CNBC’s “Fast Money,” stating that incumbents always fear the future but the commission aims to onshore internationally developed products under robust U.S. regulations. “It’s time to approve regulated futures contracts that have no expiration date,” Selig said, emphasizing the need to ensure the product is well-regulated domestically.
In late May, the CFTC approved prediction market platform Kalshi to offer bitcoin perpetual futures, or “perps”—contracts with no expiration date that allow speculation without owning the underlying asset. This marked the first time such contracts were allowed in the U.S., and Kalshi has since expanded offerings to other cryptocurrencies. Demand has been high: at a Thursday event, Kalshi reported over $3 billion in notional volume in just over a week of beta testing.
Following the regulatory decision, CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy criticized the approval, citing concerns about high leverage and risk. However, Selig dismissed that argument, rejecting a paternalistic approach that favors one product type. “Options are very complicated,” he noted, adding that proper disclosure and broker evaluations will ensure suitability. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour pointed out that the maximum leverage on its perps is about six times—less than some CME futures contracts.
Selig also denied that political pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration influenced the approval, calling such an insinuation “absolutely absurd.” Donald Trump Jr. is a strategic advisor to Kalshi. (CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship involving customer acquisition and a minority investment.)
CrowdStrike Holdings still looks attractive amid a broader artificial intelligence-linked cybersecurity boom, even after a recent impressive rally, Virtus Investment Partners chief market strategist Joe Terranova told CNBC's " Halftime Report " on Monday. The investor noted that CrowdStrike has more room to run, even after soaring 83% since April 10. Demand for cybersecurity solutions is "really strong" as broad artificial intelligence adoption raises concern that software will be hacked, Terranova added. "I'm buying the momentum," Terranova said. "You can't be afraid of price when the momentum factor is in control." Interest in solutions that detect and repair vulnerabilities in software is on the rise, particularly after Anthropic unveiled its new AI model Mythos on April 7. The debut spurred fears that the technology could be used to facilitate more frequent and damaging software hacks. The Global X Cybersecurity ETF , which trades under the ticker BUG, is up 48% since that April 10 low. CRWD 3M mountain CrowdStrike is up 83% since the April 10 low. Buying opportunity CrowdStrike has lost some of its post-Mythos gains this month due to profit taking and a broader rotation out of the technology sector. And while it has recovered some of those losses over the past week, the stock is still trading nearly 12% below its 52-week high of roughly $785 reached on June 1. Terranova noted that the recent price action makes now a good time to scoop up shares of CrowdStrike, adding that the stock is likely to rally again soon. "Sentiment is a powerful force," Terranova said. "We've energized the bullish sentiment the last several days."