Luke Kawa1/21/25

Stocks jump as tariffs take backseat to AI

The first trading day of the Trump administration saw more talk about AI than tariffs, fueling a sharp retreat in the US dollar and a rally in stocks.

The S&P 500 gained 0.9%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 jumped 1.9%.

Industrials were the best-performing S&P sector ETF; energy was the only decliner.

Reports that the president plans to announce a joint venture for US AI infrastructure dubbed “Stargate,” which includes Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI, sent shares of those companies, as well as Nvidia, upward.

Trump’s pledge to put the American flag on Mars drove rocket-esque gains for Rocket Lab USA, Redwire, and Intuitive Machines, among others.

Somewhat ironically, one stock that wasn’t joining in the risk-on party: Trump Media & Technology Group, which slumped double digits.

Moderna surged after receiving a grant in excess of half a billion to develop a bird flu vaccine.

Palo Alto Networks caught a bid after Morgan Stanley reaffirmed its bullish stance on the company.

That’s not to say the 25 executive orders and commentary from the president were uniformly positive for stocks across the board, as electric-vehicle stocks like Tesla, Rivian, and ChargePoint all slumped amid directives that may hurt their top lines. Meanwhile, more traditional, ICE-oriented vehicle companies did well, with General Motors in particular benefiting on the heels of an upgrade from Deutsche Bank.

Apple dropped amid negative analyst company around the company, which has struggled with soft demand in China.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, which was sued by the DOJ at the end of last week, also plummeted.

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What Wall Street’s looking for from Micron’s Q3 earnings report

A year ago, Micron’s monthly volumes on Robinhood were about 6% of Nvidia’s. Now, they’re running more than double that of the AI chip leader.

Micron wafer

markets

Luke Kawa6/24/26

Wendy’s spikes on heightened attention from Reddit’s retail traders

From flipping burgers to being flipped by retail traders:

It seems Wendy’s may now be a meme stock?

Shares are up over 30% in early trading, with the ticker being the most mentioned on the WallStreetBets subreddit over the past 12 hours, per SwaggyStocks.

As of 9:03 a.m. ET, more money had changed hands trading Wendy’s stock in the premarket than Microsoft, Palantir, Apple, Amazon, or Meta.

(I’m no doctor, but I think pairing this with a short-lived meme stock of 2025, Krispy Kreme, could result in negative health outcomes.)

User u/ElegantCombination43 recently tried to stir up support by posting in r/wallstreetbets that redditors “need to save Wendy’s before it’s too late,” adding that “we’ll all be out of a job” if it goes bankrupt.

On Tuesday morning, the fast food chain announced a C-Suite shuffle, hiring Steve Cirulis from Potbelly to serve as chief financial officer and chief strategy officer.

Wendy’s could certainly use a shot in the arm to bolster its operations: trailing 12-month sales and adjusted earnings per share for Wendy’s are flat and lower, respectively, since the end of 2023.

Anyhow, Wendy’s fries are superb and second to none. Don’t @ me.

Leverage in the AI trade is even scarier than the debt used for its build-out

US stocks get the hiccups, Korean markets throw up, US stocks catch a fever.

Screaming Man

markets

Helena Cheng6/22/26

Google invests $75 million in film studio A24, forms AI partnership

Google is investing roughly $75 million in independent film studio A24 as part of an AI partnership, according the Wall Street Journal. The investment marks Google’s first direct stake in a film studio.

Under the agreement, A24 will work with Google DeepMind to develop and test AI tools for filmmaking and production workflows, the Journal reports.

The deal comes as A24 continues to expand its business beyond indie films into television, music, and live events. Since its 2013 launch, the studio has produced Oscar-winning films such as Everything Everywhere All at Once. Its revenue has more than doubled over the past two years, according to the Journal, and the company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a Thrive Capital-led funding round in 2024.

Google’s investment comes as major technology companies increasingly deepen ties with media companies as generative AI tools become more integrated into creative industries. For Google, the partnership also expands DeepMind’s reach into entertainment and film production.

The firm and TV industry is pushing to develop AI tools that can be integrated into the time-consuming and expensive production process. In a sign of the potential value of such tools, in March, Netflix announced it would acquire Ben Affleck's startup InterPositive, which is building AI film-making tools, for $600 million.

markets

Helena Cheng6/22/26

Getty Images surges following OpenAI partnership

Getty Images is surging in early trading after the company announced a multi-year licensing and product partnership with OpenAI.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will license Getty’s library of images, videos, and metadata for use in training and improving its AI models, while Getty will integrate OpenAI’s generative AI tools into its own products and services.

The deal comes as Getty faces growing pressure from generative AI tools that can create stock image-like images in seconds, threatening parts of its traditional licensing business. Getty posted revenue of $226.6 million in Q1, down 2.5% year over year on a currency-neutral basis.

Getty was one of the earliest major content companies to challenge AI firms in court, suing Stability AI in 2023 for allegedly scraping millions of copyrighted images without permission to train image-generation models.

The OpenAI deal follows Getty’s 2025 licensing agreement with Perplexity, which gave the AI search company access to Getty’s library and required image credits with links to original sources.

Before the announcement, Getty shares had been trading below $1 for months. The stock surged by 124% in early trading, erasing its year-to-date losses as investors are waiting to see if Getty can turn its licensed content library into a more valuable AI asset.

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