News Recap • Week 33 2025

Check the news below and make sure to visit my latest Market Recap as well.

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Macro

• Mon President Trump signed an executive order to extend the tariff pause on Chinese goods by another 90 days. It was done just hours before the prior extension was set to expire. (CNBC)
• Mon E. J. Antoni, Chief Economist at the Heritage Foundation, was nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni would replace Erika McEntarfer who was fired by Trump himself on August 1st. (CNBC)
• Mon Trump backtracked on his gold tariff idea from last week, now saying that gold will not face any tariffs. (CNBC)
• Tue The US Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% year over year in July, slightly less than the 2.8% forecast. However, the core CPI actually came in hotter than expected at 3.1% compared with a 3.0% forecast. Investors seemed to look at the data from the bright side, perhaps looking through any short-term tariff impact that showed up in the numbers. Both the S&P and Nasdaq rallied more than 1% to new record highs while the odds of a rate cut in September increased to near certainty. (CNBC)
• Tue India’s consumer inflation declined for a ninth straight month, coming in below estimates at just 1.55% in July. Food prices continued to deflate, falling 1.76% in July after a 1.06% drop measured in June. The low inflation leaves room for a looser monetary policy and further stimulus for the economy. (CNBC)
• Wed Trump has reportedly narrowed his search for the next Fed chair to 11 names. These include Jefferies’ Chief Market Strategist David Zervos and BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer for Global Fixed Income Rick Rieder. However, Trump himself said shortly after the report that the list is actually closer to 3 or 4 names. (CNBC)
• Thu One of the potential Fed Chair picks, David Zervos, repeated his call for an immediate 50 basispoint rate cut. Trump is likely taking this into consideration when evaluating his options. (CNBC)
• Thu Two days after the mostly in line CPI data, the US Producer Price Index came in much hotter than expected. The PPI surged 0.9% for the month of July, way above the 0.2% consensus estimate. The annual headline inflation rate jumped to 3.3% while the core reading increased to 2.8%. Both were well above forecast. The equity market shrugged it off though, closing more or less flat on the day. (CNBC)
• Thu Retail sales in China rose 3.7% in July compared to a year earlier, far below the 4.6% estimate and the 4.8% growth rate in June. Industrial output also missed the 5.9% growth forecast, coming in at 5.7%. The Hang Seng dropped almost 1% on Friday but still ended the week with a 1.65% gain. (CNBC)
• Thu Japan’s GDP grew by 0.3% in Q2 and 1.2% annualized. Economists had expected an expansion of just 0.1% quarter over quarter. The Nikkei 225 rallied 1.71% on Friday and 3.73% for the week, simultaneously breaking out to a new all-time high. (CNBC)
• Thu The UK economy expanded by 0.3% in the second quarter, slowing from the 0.7% growth in Q1 but beating expectations for 0.1%. (CNBC)
• Fri US retail sales increased a solid 0.5% in July, in line with expectations. At the same time, the figure for June was revised up from 0.6% to 0.9%. (Reuters)
• Sat Trump and Putin met in Alaska to negotiate a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. While few details were released from the meeting, both parties called it a productive meeting. (Reuters)

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Other

• Mon Nvidia and AMD will pay 15% of their China chip sales revenues to the US government in exchange for an export license to sell their H20 and MI308 chips in China. (CNBC)
• Mon Paramount acquired the US right to TKO Group’s UFC for $7.7 billion over seven years, beginning in 2026. The deal is for all 43 annual UFC live events which will be streamed exclusively on Paramount+ in the US. (CNBC)
• Tue AI startup Perplexity placed an unsolicited bid to buy Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. The move comes after The Department of Justice proposed Google divest Chrome as part of an antitrust suit last year. It seems highly unlikely that Google will even consider the offer though. (CNBC)
• Wed Crypto exchange Bullish went public on Wednesday, pricing its IPO at $37 per share. It opened at $90, rallied to $118, and closed its first day of trading at $68. (CNBC)
• Thu The Trump administration is reportedly in talks with Intel to take a stake in the company. Intel stock jumped 7% on the news which came just days after Trump called for the CEO to resign due to his ties to China. (CNBC)
• Thu Berkshire Hathaway revealed that it bought more than 5 million shares worth about $1.6 billion in UnitedHealth. The stock jumped almost 12% on Friday after the news. (CNBC)
• Sat Current and former OpenAI employees are looking to sell nearly $6 billion worth of shares to the company’s investors, including SoftBank and Thrive Capital. The deal would value the company at $500 billion, a big jump from the latest valuation at $300 billion. (Reuters)

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Earnings

• Mon C3 AI on Monday reported preliminary financial results and a restructuring of its global sales and services organization. The company now expects to report revenue between $70.2 and $70.4 million for its fiscal Q1 2026, a big decline from last year’s $87.2 million. Furthermore, its quarterly GAAP losses are now expected to expand from $72.6 million last year to almost $125 million this year. CEO Thomas Siebel called the results “completely unacceptable”. Shares plummeted 25.58% on Monday to a new 2.5 year low but clawed back some of the losses on Wednesday. Clearly not everything in AI is booming. (CNBC)
• Tue Stablecoin issuer Circle reported earnings for the first time since going public on June 5, delivering $658.1 million in revenue after a 53% jump from a year earlier. The company also announced that it will build its own layer 1 blockchain. After an initial pop, the stock faded and closed Tuesday with a modest 1.27% gain and continued to slide on Wednesday and Thursday to the lowest level since its first week of trading. (CNBC)
• Tue Trading platform eToro beat expectations in Q2, largely driven by increased retail trader activity during the April tariff turmoil. With trading activity normalizing, the future looks a little less promising for eToro. The stock dropped 8.25% on Wednesday after the report and another 5.4% on Thursday, now trading at its lowest level since the May IPO. (Reuters)
• Tue Recent AI IPO CoreWeave reported $1.21 billion in revenue vs $1.08 billion expected. It had more than tripled from a year earlier. Guidance for the current quarter and full year also exceeded expectations. And yet, the stock plummeted almost 21% on Wednesday after the report and extended its losses by 15.5% on Thursday. (CNBC)
• Wed Danish wind energy giant Vestas delivered a disappointing report with revenue coming in at €3.745 billion vs €3.952 billion expected. Earnings came in at €34 million, also below the forecast of €51 million but still much better than the €156 million loss in the same quarter last year. The stock fell 1.37% on Wednesday after the report after a volatile trading session. (Euroinvestor)
• Wed Matas reported 6% revenue growth to DKK 2.074 billion, beating expectations for DKK 2.069 billion. EBITDA also beat expectations, coming in at DKK 302 million. Shares jumped 6.87% after the report. (Euroinvestor)