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Senate Republicans narrowly confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:27:09 GMT

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building on August 05, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

U.S. Senate Republicans on Saturday narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche to be President Donald Trump's attorney general, capping one of the most contentious cabinet fights of Trump's second term after bipartisan concerns over Blanche's independence nearly derailed the nomination.

Blanche won confirmation in a 50-49 vote, with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski opposing him. Senator Bill Cassidy was the deciding vote after announcing Friday he thought Blanche was the best option Trump would put forward.

The vote was the culmination of a weeks-long standoff between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration over Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April and previously ran day-to-day Justice Department operations as its second-ranking official.

Republican senators had raised concerns about Blanche's handling of the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents, as well as his role in establishing Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund and a related tax-immunity agreement for Trump and his sons.

But Blanche overcame those challenges in frantic meetings around Capitol Hill over the last several weeks, ultimately agreeing in writing to narrow the tax-immunity agreement and end the "weaponization" payments, which critics have called a slush fund for Trump's allies, including those who rioted at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Both the tax-immunity agreement, which barred the IRS from auditing previous tax returns of Trump, his sons and their family business, and the fund emerged from Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

Concern over slush fund

Questions remain, though, about whether that commitment is legally binding, and whether Trump, who has said he loves the idea of the fund, could later press Blanche, his former personal attorney, to revive a similar program under another name.

That concern was central to the last two Republican senators Blanche needed to convince — Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski — both of whom met with Blanche on Wednesday after signaling they had not yet decided how they would vote. Murkowski had cited her lack of confidence in Blanche to "check the worst impulses of this administration."

"I take issue with the handling ‌of ⁠the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators," Murkowski said in a post on social media platform X.

Cassidy, who represents Louisiana, criticized Blanche's role in settling Trump's IRS lawsuit but said he ultimately trusted Blanche to give the president candid legal advice.

Blanche will take the helm of a Justice Department that has undergone significant change in the first year and a half of Trump's second term. Under Blanche's leadership, the department has sought prosecutions of Trump's perceived enemies, caused the mass departures of career prosecutors and stated that it served at the direction of the president, a break with longstanding norms of independence.

Crime at record lows

Federal judges have on multiple occasions criticized prosecutors for bringing what they described as weak cases, and grand juries have declined to indict in some instances. Political appointees also removed senior career officials seen as resistant to the administration's agenda, significantly reducing staff in the civil rights division, the ethics office and other divisions.

Blanche has argued that he has helped bring crime to record lows and righted what he says are wrongs brought by the Biden administration against Trump and his conservative allies. Blanche's supporters say he is committed to the Justice Department's core mission of keeping the country safe.

"Mr. Blanche is a tough, fair prosecutor dedicated to the rule of law, and his leadership instills that same zeal throughout the entire Justice Department," Senator Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee who shepherded Blanche's nomination, said on Friday.

Some Republican skeptics have said Blanche, who spent nearly a decade as a career prosecutor in New York, is likely the most palatable nominee Trump could have put forward, and that in a permanent capacity, he is more likely to resist White House pressure.

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U.S. Senate passes short-term funding bill to avert federal shutdown before election

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:48:40 GMT

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 22, 2026.

Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Republican-led U.S. Senate passed a temporary measure to fund federal agencies through December 11 on Saturday, in a move intended to avert a crippling federal government shutdown weeks before the November midterm elections.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed its own short-term funding measure last month. The two chambers will have to resolve their differences before President Donald Trump can sign it into law before current funding expires on September 30 — less than five weeks before the November 3 congressional elections.

Democrats said the Senate version, in contrast to the House version, would prevent the Trump administration from reallocating funding to border security from other programs. It also includes language to allow funding adjustments for housing and food assistance programs.

The Senate measure would also temporarily block the White House budget office from implementing a new rule giving political appointees control over hundreds of billions of dollars in grant money.

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Trump administration to invest $3 billion in minerals projects to boost U.S. defense supply chains

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 06:28:46 GMT

Doug Burgum, US secretary of the interior, from left, US President Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, during an American mining industry roundtable at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The U.S. government will invest $3 billion in critical minerals and battery projects as part of a push to increase domestic production and boost national security and industrial policy, President Donald Trump said on Friday.

"We're reclaiming America's rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world," Trump told more than 200 mining executives, educators, investors and fellow politicians at a roundtable at the State Department aimed at supporting the industry, which he said had not received enough attention from Washington in recent years.

He announced a slew of investments during his speech, including a $1.4 billion conditional loan from the Defense Department's Office of Strategic Capital for Sila Nanotechnologies, which makes lithium-ion battery parts.

The OSC also extended a $400 million conditional loan to scandium miner Sunrise Energy Metals SRL.AX and a $150 million conditional loan to magnet developer Niron Magnetics .

The U.S. Export-Import Bank will lend $58 million to Westwater Resources, Global Advanced Metals and 5E Advanced Materials, which Reuters reported earlier on Friday.

"Critical minerals are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles, and we want these essential products to be mined, refined and made right here in the USA," Trump said.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Security Council official David Copley attended the announcement.

Weapons stockpiles drive mineral demand

The White House needs critical minerals to replenish weapons stockpiles depleted during the Iran conflict and reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese supply chains.

Several executives came with gifts for Trump. Tom Albanese, chairman of deep-sea mining firm American Ocean Minerals , gave Trump a gold replica of a nodule that the company hopes to mine from the Pacific seabed. Trump last year said he may bypass the U.N.-backed International Seabed Authority and issue international seabed mining licenses .

Jim Litinsky, CEO of rare earths firm MP Materials MP.N, which is financially supported by the Pentagon, gave Trump magnets that had been produced for General Motors GM.N in the company's Texas plant.

Other attendees included executives from Lithium Americas LAC.TO, which is building the largest U.S. lithium mine, NioCorp NB.O, which is building a scandium mine to supply defense contractor Lockheed Martin LMT.N, and Energy Fuels UUUU.A, which received a $725 million OSC conditional loan in June.

U.S. forces have burned through large numbers of precision-guided missiles and air-defense interceptors during the five-month-old Iran war. Defense officials and lawmakers have warned that replenishing some inventories could take years given existing production constraints. The Trump administration has disputed reports of significant shortages.

Supplies of minerals including rare earths, tungsten, germanium and scandium are essential for manufacturing precision-guided missiles, fighter aircraft, armored vehicles, infrared sensors and other advanced weapons systems, according to Pentagon officials and defense companies.

Mining schools receive funding boost

The Department of Energy on Friday hosted representatives from all 14 accredited U.S. mining schools to promote mining careers and encourage more students to enter the field.

The department announced $100 million in grants to help boost educational programs and set a goal of doubling the number of mining-related graduates at the nation's universities within two years.

"We need to work on some systemic changes to how we as a nation want to offer our brightest students an opportunity to participate in this industry," said Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson.

The Pentagon also said it would fund $80 million in projects at three U.S. mining schools.

Officials have pointed to China's extensive network of mining universities as a key advantage in its dominance of global mineral production.

Since returning to office, Trump has launched a $12 billion strategic minerals stockpile, backed equity investments in companies developing U.S. mines and processing facilities, and sought to limit defense contractors' reliance on supplies from China.

The administration says government support is needed to counter decades of Chinese investment that left Beijing dominant in the mining and processing of many strategic minerals.

Australia's government on Saturday welcomed the Trump administration's loan to Sunrise Energy Metals, which is developing a scandium mine in the country's New South Wales state.

"The Sunrise Scandium Project hosts the world's largest and highest-grade known scandium resource, which has a range of vital aerospace, defense and clean energy applications," Resources Minister Madeleine King said in a statement.

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Inside the startup drone maker powering Ukraine's deep-strike campaign

Sam Meredith — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 05:21:12 GMT

VIDEO1:2001:20

Fire Point provides capabilities for 60% of Ukraine’s deep strikes, CEO says

Squawk Box Europe

The chief executive of Ukraine's leading arms company says Kyiv has "learned the hard way" that military strength is an essential precursor to diplomacy, describing deep strikes into Russian territory as a core tenet of the country's pressure campaign.

Missile and drone maker Fire Point, which says it currently facilitates more than 60% of Ukraine's so-called "long-range sanctions," has scaled exponentially since being founded in response to Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

The defense-tech startup produced around 200 drones that year, a feat CEO Iryna Terekh described as a "huge achievement."

Since then, the Kyiv-headquartered startup has swelled from three founding members to more than 7,000 employees and Terekh says it "looks realistic" to expect the team to produce more than 100,000 drones by year-end.

"We have to understand that we live, unfortunately, in the same timeline with a completely barbarous, imperialistic neighbor and we can expect whatever," Fire Point CEO Iryna Terekh told CNBC by video call.

"Unfortunately, I was in that naïve state of mind before the full-scale invasion that we will find a way to de-escalate the situation and find a diplomatic way to deal with this, but from what we can observe, this is not something that is possible."

Russia's Foreign Ministry did not respond to CNBC's request for comment. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously framed the conflict as a pursuit to reverse Russia's post-Soviet retreat and revive Moscow's superpower status.

Ukrainian workers use 3D printing and carbon fiber at a secret factory to build and fit wings, components, and fuselages of FP-2 drones, made by the Fire Point defense company, for deep-strike attacks inside Russia that have targeted Russia's energy infrastructure and military logistics hubs, on July 17, 2026 at an undisclosed location in Ukraine.

Scott Peterson | Getty Images News | Getty Images

From Siberia to occupied Crimea, Ukraine's drone campaign appears to have revived hopes that the war could be shifting in Kyiv's favor, although commentators have warned that efforts to raise the cost of the conflict for Russia risk further escalation.

Some analysts have also questioned whether Ukrainian drones alone can force Putin to the negotiating table, with the Atlantic Council's Christopher Isajiw suggesting that progress toward peace may only become possible when continuing the war becomes more costly for the Russian president than ending it.

Ukraine calls for ballistic missile interceptors

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russia's Amazon-style retail giant Wildberries in recent weeks, seeking to squeeze a critical piece of Russia's consumer economy and create a new pressure point for Putin.

Russian forces, meanwhile, have increased the number of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, likely seeking to exploit Kyiv's shortage of ballistic missile interceptors.

Known for flagship products such as the FP-1 series of deep-strike drones and the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile, Fire Point's CEO said the company is doing whatever it can to support Ukraine's deep-strike ambitions.

"I'm very proud and I feel a huge responsibility to be a big part of this. We have to understand that the whole war doctrines are changing live in the moment," Terekh said.

This photograph shows an FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile and a drone FP-1 from Ukrainian defence technology company Fire Point on display at Eurosatory, a land and airland defence and security trade fair, in Villepinte on the outskirts of Paris, on June 16, 2026.

Julien De Rosa | Afp | Getty Images

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy singled out Fire Point as putting Siberia "within reach of Ukrainian precision" following an attack on a major oil refinery in the Russian city of Omsk last month.

The attack was seen as further evidence of Kyiv's long-range drone capabilities in the run-up to a crunch NATO summit in Turkey, where U.S. President Donald Trump told Zelenskyy that the U.S. would allow Ukraine to produce ballistic missile interceptors.

The U.S. president has since cast doubt on plans to allow Kyiv to manufacture Patriots domestically and in Europe, however, raising alarm among Ukrainian officials who fear a winter assault could pose the country's toughest challenge of the war yet.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on international partners to expedite the supply of ballistic missile interceptors to Ukraine, saying that the technology could have saved the lives of those killed in Kyiv on Aug. 5.

Fire Point aims to produce a ballistic missile interceptor for a fraction of the cost of a U.S.-made Patriot. However, Terekh said these efforts require the company to achieve in a few years a program that usually takes two to three decades.

Russian attack kills at least 17 in Kyiv as Ukraine hammers more Wildberries warehouses

'Winter is coming': Ukraine fears its toughest test since Russia's full-scale invasion

Ukraine is raising the cost of war for Russia — and testing Putin's resolve

A hold-up in European funding has also prevented the company from maximizing production of its Flamingo cruise missile, Terekh said.

"The production of Flamingo is not running at full power [at] the moment because we were waiting for the funds for a European loan to come in but we expect to ramp it up to expected maximum capabilities that we named when we started the Flamingo production."

Fire Point: Europe's red tape is a strategic threat

Terekh has previously compared European bureaucracy to the security threat posed by Russian forces.

"Probably I put a little bit too much drama in this phrase, but I really wanted it to be heard because we need to understand that whatever Fire Point achieved, and as well as other Ukrainian manufacturers, would be never possible in any [other] European country, simply because of bureaucracy," Terekh said.

"You take the same people, the same money, the same factories, they would simply not be working in Europe for one simple reason, because of the hold of regulations and I would love to inspire European politicians to review how the bureaucracy should work under such a huge threat that we are all facing now," she continued.

"When we compare these two threats, so the Russians and the bureaucracy, with the Russians you can fight with drones and missiles but how do you fight with bureaucracy when you cannot receive a paper that you need very much to do some job?"

Co-owner of the drone manufacturer Fire Point Denys Shtilerman, Chief Technology Officer of Fire Point Iryna Terekh, and co-owner of the drone manufacturer Fire Point Yehor Skalyha are present at the press conference of the company Fire Point on November 21, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine | Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images

A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, declined to comment.

Alongside diplomatic, financial, military and humanitarian support for Ukraine, the EU recently introduced its largest sanctions package against Russia in four years, targeting almost 220 individuals and entities as it seeks to squeeze the country's economy and its capacity to prolong its full-scale invasion.

"Ukrainians were pretty imaginative in trying an alternative strategy," Alex Kolyandr, director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm, told CNBC.

"I'm not entirely sure it was the right decision to strike Russian oil facilities in March and April … but then I think it was extremely smart to target refining facilities and the main retail company," Kolyandr said, referring to Kyiv's attacks on Wildberries warehouses.

"I understand there was a twofold aim in all that. First of all, to force some economic damage and then to broadcast the message that this is not some kind of faraway colonial war, but it is something much closer to home. And honestly, they are quite successful in that," he added.

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Prediction markets take center stage in latest round of quarterly earnings reports

Ananya Chetia — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 21:38:57 GMT

In this article

Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

The latest quarterly earnings reports from FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment, DraftKings and others shone a spotlight on the burgeoning prediction markets industry.

A growing number of companies are introducing their own prediction market platforms or launching partnerships within the space, said Joel Shulman, the CEO of investment firm Entrepreneur Shares.

As competition continues to grow, the latest earnings reports offer a glimpse at how much companies are willing to bet on its prediction platforms.

DraftKings' platform grows 'faster than expected'

DraftKings' CEO Jason Robins said the company's prediction market platform is growing at a booming pace, having launched in December 2025.

"We had over 600,000 customers so far engaged with our predictions offering, and that's just going to explode this NFL season. I'm expecting millions, so we're excited about it," Robins told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday.

Annualized total volume for DraftKings' predictions platform grew to $11 billion from $2.3 billion between April and July, Robins said on the company's earnings call Friday morning.

He added that other prediction markets have not disturbed DratftKings' business because it caters to a different audience.

"We continue to see only about 1% customer overlap between our sportsbook and the largest prediction market operator in sportsbook states, which tells us these platforms are driving a fundamentally different and largely professional audience," he said.

DraftKing's internal data estimates 80% to 90% of prediction market consumer volume comes from betting syndicates and institutional traders, Robins said during the call.

Owning three key layers of prediction markets — brokerage, exchange and market maker — gives the company an edge against its competitors, Robins added.

DraftKings' second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $114.6 million and revenue of $1.44 billion fell short of the FactSet consensus call for $156.1 million in EBITDA and $1.51 billion in revenue.

FanDuel Predicts moves on from CME

Shares of Flutter closed down more than 11% on Wednesday after the online sports betting and iGaming operator announced that Dan Taylor, CEO of Flutter's international division, would replace Peter Jackson at the helm of the company. Second quarter earnings reported that day also fell short of Wall Street's estimates.

In addition, Flutter said on Wednesday it would move its FanDuel Predicts sports and novelty contracts from CME to Crypto.com. CME will continue to provide financial market contracts, the company said.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"This new exchange arrangement will ensure we can deliver new products at pace ahead of the NFL season start," Jackson said on the company's earnings call. The operator first launched FanDuel Predicts with CME in December 2025, just a few months after volume for platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket soared.

Regulation is also top of mind for Flutter as Kalshi and Polymarket have been subject to scrutiny from state regulators arguing the companies are operating illegal gambling platforms.

More than 40 state attorneys general have also pushed back on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's assertion that it's the exclusive regulator of sports-related event contracts.

Jackson said that FanDuel Predicts has a smoother pathway operating in states.

"Our own prediction market offering FanDuel Predicts allows us to acquire customers ahead of sports betting regulation in new states," he said on the call.

Flutter posted second quarter adjusted earnings of 49 cents per share on revenue of $4.33 billion, versus the FactSet consensus call for 54 cents per share and $4.23 billion. It expects to generate about $50 million in market-making revenue this year.

Coinbase signals prediction market growth

Crypto exchange platform operator Coinbase said in late July that its prediction markets revenue grew 106% on a quarter over quarter basis, and that annualized revenue from this business in the second quarter surpassed $100 million.

Some analysts were not impressed by those numbers.

"Prediction markets run rate of $100M+ in 2Q was below our estimate," KeyBanc analysts wrote in a report after Coinbase posted quarterly results.

Timon Schneider | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Coinbase reported disappointing results for the second quarter, posting a wider-than-anticipated loss of $1.36 per share, versus the 17-cent loss per share analysts polled by LSEG had sought. Revenue also fell short of expectations, coming in at $1.2 billion versus the $1.3 billion forecast.

Robinhood's Rothera rollout

Robinhood launched Rothera in June, an exchange that's licensed with the CFTC and managed through the brokerage's joint venture with Susquehanna International Group. In its second quarter report, Robinhood said that over 3.5 billion contracts had been traded to date.

Event contracts revenue came in at $156 million in the second quarter, according to Robinhood.

"In less than two months since launch, we took approximately 7-8% of total market share among CFTC-regulated venues and roughly 30% average market share compared with the largest market in the specific contracts we listed," Rothera's founders Tom Chippas and Matt Trudeau wrote in a LinkedIn post on Aug. 4.

The founders also highlighted the volume numbers as "evidence" that its "technology and operations can perform under sustained pressure at significant scale."

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment.

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Shares of this digital medical platform jumped more than 100% overnight. Here’s why

Tobias Burns — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:33:38 GMT

In this article

DOCS

Doximity at the New York Stock Exchange for its initial public offering on June 24, 2021.

Source: NYSE

Shares of medical platform Doximity more than doubled at one point in overnight trading Friday after some bold comments on the margin for its new AI search tool.

CEO Jeffrey Tangney said the product brings in 10 times what it costs to run.

"It's early days on our AI search product, but I can tell you we're earning more than 10 times per search in revenue than it costs," he said on Thursday during the company's first-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call.

"Over time, we probably expect the overall AI cost, if anything, [to] go down as models get more efficient, so we feel good about the unit economics there," Tangney added.

Doximity shares were up more than 130% in premarket trading before settling down a bit as the market opened officially. The stock finished up Friday 33%.

Doximity, 1 day

Analysts think these spectacular returns are not yet baked into the company's already solid financials. Doximity reported first-quarter revenues of $156.6 million and adjusted EBITDA of $74.8 million, both of which were above consensus estimates.

The company also raised its full year revenue guidance range up by $6 million, or 5%, to between $671 million and $681 million -- but the huge AI profitability potential is likely not a part of that boosted forecast, analysts said.

"The FY27 raise (which is mostly comprised of the F1Q27 beat) does not reflect a significant contribution from the expanding AI commercial pipeline described on the earning call and in callbacks," Jessica Tassan at Piper Sandler wrote to clients in a Friday note.

Tassan said she thought that management is taking a "conservative approach" to AI search revenue in its FY27 outlook.

Shares of Doximity, which sported a market value of $3.7 billion before Friday's surge, were down 50% for the year before the results.

Short squeeze

CEO Tangney suggested that the AI search is resulting in not only higher profitability but also a larger addressable market.

"Frankly, the [total addressable market] that this unlocks for us within health, within pharma has been a real surprise and upside for us," he said.

Longer-term margins could swell along with the increasing market size.

"[AI search is] reinforcing confidence that [Doximity's] elevated AI investments will ultimately support attractive long-term margins," Michael Cherney at Leerink Partnerships wrote to clients on Thursday.

While great news for Doximity, the huge upswing the in the stock on Friday morning is bad for anybody who is shorting it.

About 17% of shares available for trading were sold short heading into the earnings results, according to FactSet. As those short sellers are forced to unwind those positions, it likely added fuel to Doximity's surge.

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Rockstar Energy founder builds Celsius stake, wants to take over as CEO

Robert Frank — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:23:09 GMT

In this article

CELH

VIDEO1:3701:37

Rockstar Energy founder builds Celsius stake, wants to take over as CEO

Squawk on the Street

The billionaire founder of Rockstar Energy has purchased millions of shares of Celsius Holdings and is calling for the ouster of that company's CEO after its earnings miss this week.

Russ Savage now controls more than 12 million shares of Celsius, he told CNBC. Celsius markets its energy drinks to athletes and health-conscious consumers and has exploded in popularity in recent years.

Savage founded Rockstar in 2001 and sold it to PepsiCo in 2020 for a final purchase price of more than $4 billion, he said.

Savage's stake in Celsius amounts to roughly 4.7% of the company and would be worth about $300 million at current stock levels. While Savage has been quietly advising Celsius to change its cost structure and marketing strategy for over a year, he now says new leadership is needed.

"The CEO, the COO, the brand manager and the marketing manager all need to be fired," Savage told CNBC.

Celsius said in response that it is seeing continued demand and resilience across its base.

"We welcome ideas that are potentially value-creating from all Celsius Holdings shareholders," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "We remain focused on executing our total energy portfolio strategy to drive durable, long-term growth. Members of our Board and management team have engaged with Russ Savage many times over the past several years."

Russ Savage, founder of Rockstar Energy.

Courtesy: Russ Savage

Celsius shares plunged 18% on Thursday after the company's second-quarter earnings missed analyst expectations, coming in at 36 cents per share versus the 43 cents expected by Wall Street, according to LSEG. Revenue of $817.9 million fell below the $870 million expected, and net income attributable to common shareholders fell by more than half compared to last year's second quarter.

On the company's earnings call, Celsius Chairman and CEO John Fieldly cited a product rationalization program and deliberate pause in innovation as main reasons for the shortfall. He said the company was managing the integration of Alani Nu, which it acquired last year for $1.8 billion, and of the Rockstar brand in the U.S. and Canada, which it acquired from Pepsi also last year as part of a long-term strategic partnership.

Pepsi continues to own the Rockstar brand internationally.

Fieldly said on the earnings call that the company may have been overly aggressive in reducing the number of products being sold to make way for newer lines. Still, he said, the company sells 1 out of every 5 energy drinks in the U.S., and the sector remains strong.

"We are a key growth driver for the energy category, and we are just beginning to unlock the full potential of our expanding portfolio," Fieldly said.

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Savage, who was born Russell Weiner and started Rockstar with a $50,000 mortgage against his California condo, said he offered advice to Celsius over a year ago, but was largely ignored. He said Celsius has too many layers of management, with too many costs, and no real accountability.

"They need one person making the decisions, paying attention to every detail, not a circle of people in a firing squad," he said.

Savage said the implication in the earnings call, that Celsius gave up shelf space to make way for its other brands, was a dire signal. In the fast-moving and hypercompetitive energy drink space, it's difficult for brands to reclaim shelf space once they've lost it, he said.

"Once you lose shelf space, you're dead," he said. "The chains will give it to Red Bull or Monster."

Savage said he's offering to take over as CEO before the problems become too deep to fix. When building Rockstar, he said, he managed every detail — from sales and marketing to sponsorships, packaging, distribution and innovation. He said the same type of cost-conscious, driven leader is needed at Celsius.

"I'm publicly volunteering to do it," he said. "The CEO has lost credibility with the investment community."

Savage said he's owned Celsius shares on and off for more than two years. He started acquiring his most recent stake in March, when the stock fell to the low $30 range. He said he bought the stock thinking it was undervalued and poised for a recovery. But he blamed what he called management missteps for the shares' continued decline.

"I didn't think they would wreck it this badly," he said. "Now I'm trying to help fix it."

Celsius stock now trades at almost out $28 per share after a sharp gain on Friday following CNBC's report of Savage's stake.

Celsius Holdings 3-day chart.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct a direct quote attributed to Russ Savage. He said: "They need one person making the decisions, paying attention to every detail, not a circle of people in a firing squad.

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‘SaaSpocalypse’ debate intensifies as software stocks swing wildly

Jordan Novet — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:22:17 GMT

In this article

Michael Cannon-Brookes, co-CEO of Atlassian.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

The "SaaSpocalypse" was raging this week. Then it got a reprieve.

The pennies-on-the-dollar acquisition of one-time highflyer Airtable, followed by plunges in HubSpot, Datadog and Figma on earnings reports, all served to underscore investor concerns that artificial intelligence models are eating away at the value of costly software products.

"I do think that companies are going to continue to use these coding agents to build functionality to maybe act as a little bit of pressure on renewals," said Matt Hedberg, a software analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

But by the end of the week, Wall Street was reminded that there's still juice left in an industry that, not long ago, was viewed as driving innovation and was trading at hefty market multiples.

Twilio, a provider of cloud-based communications software, and Atlassian, which sells collaboration tools, each saw pops of well over 20% on Friday after reporting quarterly results. Cloudflare, which helps protect websites from cyber attacks, gained 5.6%.

Box CEO Aaron Levie, who's been evangelizing cloud software since he started his file-sharing company more than two decades ago, was particularly impressed with Atlassian, which reported its most profitable quarter since 2021.

"Huge Atlassian quarterly beat," Levie wrote on X. "There was a misplaced thesis over the past 6 months that somehow agents would be bad for certain software categories. There's definitely truth in this in some areas, but many were parsing this poorly."

VIDEO9:4309:43

Salesforce CEO Benioff: Software industry is still alive, well and growing

Levie's reaction reflects a level of nuance that's not always apparent in the sell-it-all trade. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has spent months trying to convince investors that his company's longstanding software for sales, marketing and customer service won't be vibe-coded away. Salesforce has lost more than 40% of its value since the end of 2024 despite accelerating revenue growth and consistent margins.

Salesforce and its software peers have been under pressure, less because of their current growth rates and more because of the increasingly popular view that tools like OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code will slowly — and then rapidly — hollow out their economics.

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF plummeted 24% in the first quarter, its worst performance since 2008. However, it's since rebounded sharply and is now down just 3% for the year, while the Nasdaq is up 15%.

'Pencils down'

RBC's Hedberg said sentiment was so bad in the first quarter that clients didn't even want to discuss software.

"People were pencils down in the space," he said. "They just didn't feel like it was worth their time to meet with software companies back then, and that was even high-quality companies."

That attitude has become a big problem for venture-backed software companies that raised money at hefty valuations in the pre-AI era and are now trying to figure out what's next for them. There haven't been any notable SaaS IPOs this year, and 86% of private deal value in the first half of 2026 went to AI companies, according to PitchBook data.

Concerns were amplified on Tuesday, when Italian software buyout firm Bending Spoons said it had agreed to buy workflow management startup Airtable for less than $1.3 billion. At its peak in 2021, Airtable was valued at nearly $12 billion.

Bending Spoons, which held its own IPO in July, owns brands including AOL, Evernote and Vimeo, and now has a market cap of $28 billion.

VIDEO2:1802:18

Datadog CEO shares why new AI capabilities help securitize agents

Squawk on the Street

Two days after the Airtable deal, HubSpot had its worst day on the market in a decade, sliding 19% and bringing its loss for the past year to over 50%. Datadog, which sells monitoring software, also sank 19% on Thursday, the steepest slump since its IPO in 2019. Still, the stock has been an outperformer, climbing 72% this year.

Datadog said its biggest AI client, which analysts suspect is OpenAI, has cut usage since June.

"There's these reminders that we're not out of it," Hedberg said. "Everything's not smooth sailing."

The mood improved after the close on Thursday, thanks to stronger reports from Atlassian, Twilio and Cloudflare. Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes credited his company's research and development teams for working hard to give customers "the best quality at the best price and the best speed."

The report came five months after Atlassian slashed 10% of its workforce, or 1,600 jobs, which Cannon-Brookes said at the time was necessary to "self-fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales, while strengthening our financial profile."

Atlassian's 35% surge on Friday marked its best day since the company went public in 2015. It's still down 8% this year after losing one-third of its value in 2025.

Rishi Jaluria, another RBC analyst, said some of the pop for Atlassian is likely attributable to short covering, meaning that investors who bet against the stock by borrowing shares and selling them are now buying them back.

"Everyone says Atlassian is going to get crushed by Claude Code and OpenAI Codex, and so they're done," said Jaluria, who doesn't cover the company. "Any proof point that says, oh wait, this company isn't dead, is going to result in a short squeeze."

WATCH: We do not think AI will kill 'SaaS' but slow decay is bad enough: CLSA

VIDEO9:2109:21

We do not think AI will kill 'SaaS' but slow decay is bad enough: CLSA

Squawk Box Asia

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BlackRock is finding solid tax-free yields in this corner of the bond market

Darla Mercado, CFP® — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:13:13 GMT

Investors seeking tax-advantaged yield can still find some solid opportunities, but they'll need to be selective, according to BlackRock's Patrick Haskell. Municipal bond issuance is on pace to exceed $580 billion this year, according to BlackRock. At the same time, flows of new cash into muni bonds hit $56.6 billion in the first half of the year, the second-best start to any year, the firm found. "The key for the second half will be patience," said Haskell, head of the municipal bond group at BlackRock. "There will be opportunities, but you want to buy the right credits, the right structures and the right levels. We are cautiously optimistic in the second half." A favorite among wealthy investors Municipal bonds are a favorite of the high-income crowd. Generally, they are safer than their corporate counterparts, as they tend to be backed by the full faith and credit of the taxing authority. Though their nominal yields are lower than corporate bonds, they offer income that's free of federal taxes – and investors who live in the issuing state may also receive income that's exempt from state and local levies. Tax-free yield is more valuable to individuals in higher income brackets. An individual who's in the 32% federal tax bracket and subject to the net investment income tax would have to find a taxable bond yielding 5.45% to generate the same income they'd get from a 3.5% tax-free muni bond. Preferred muni bond sectors at BlackRock Haskell's team is staying neutral on duration but continues to like parts of the long-end of the muni bond curve, including those in the 20- to 22-year range. The risk with these longer-dated issues is that their prices are more sensitive to fluctuations in rates – known as duration risk. "If you want to take duration risk, you'll want to do it in muni bonds because you get compensated for that risk," he said. Haskell's team is also staying high in quality and coupons, trimming lower-coupon exposures in favor of those that are upward of 5% that the firm thinks are better poised to handle periods of market uncertainty. In particular, Haskell's team likes revenue bonds, particularly in the housing and transportation sectors. These bonds are issued by public agencies but are backed by dedicated revenues from certain projects, like housing developments or toll roads. The S & P Municipal Bond Housing Index has a yield-to-worst of 4.34% — or a tax-equivalent yield of 7.33%, assuming an investor who's subject to a 40.8% effective tax rate. The yield-to-worst yardstick measures the lowest potential yield a bondholder would receive short of an issuer going bankrupt, and incorporates early retirement dates, like call or put options. Meanwhile, the S & P Municipal Bond Transportation Index has a yield-to-worst of 4.06%, or a tax-equivalent yield of 6.86%. Haskell also likes select corporate-backed municipal bonds. These bonds are issued by a government but backed by a corporation, and can involve industrial development or pollution control projects. The S & P Municipal Bond Corporate-Backed Index has a yield-to-worst of 4.39%, or a tax-exempt yield of 7.42%. "I will tell you that munis in general are in a good situation," Haskell said.

The stakes for next week's inflation data just got higher. Here's what's ahead

Sarah Min — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:07:59 GMT

The stakes for next week's inflation data just got higher, now that Friday's jobs report introduced a new wrinkle to the interest rate outlook. Stocks were higher Friday , capping off a strong start to the month after the latest nonfarm payrolls report showed a surprising loss of jobs in July . Nonfarm payrolls fell by a seasonally adjusted 23,000 last month, while the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The shocking report was nevertheless cheered by investors, who took the weakness in the labor market as a sign that the Federal Reserve won't hike rates in September. That fear had been growing on the Street in recent weeks, after three dissenters at the last central bank meeting in July voted to raise rates. On Friday, the odds of the Fed raising rates by a quarter point at next month's meeting fell to 42%, from 55% the day before. Treasury yields retreated, with the yield on the 2-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve policy, falling to around 4.2% — another boon for equities. Raising the ante That ups the ante for next week's consumer and producer price index numbers for July. The Fed has been alert to the dangers of higher inflation, and has expressed confidence in the labor market. But the horrible jobs data suggests the central bank may have to think about weakening consumer spending as well. "They're going to have to pay attention to both of their mandates, both full employment and stable prices," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. Friday's labor report "thrust a lot more importance on what has become [the] most important pieces of economic data: CPI, PPI, and PCE. And next week, we'll get two of those." Economists aren't expecting much relief on the inflation front. The July consumer price index is expected to rise 3.4% compared to the same month a year ago, according to FactSet consensus estimates. That's a hair softer than the 3.5% increase in June, but still far above the Fed's 2% inflation target. The worst potential outcome would be an unexpectedly hot report that suggests the U.S. is headed for stagflation, marked by stubborn inflation and sluggish growth, forcing the Fed to raise rates at the same time as consumers deal with both a weaker economy and higher prices. By contrast, investors hope for a softer inflation report that will let the Fed stay on hold in September. In recent weeks, some economists and investors have argued that pricing pressures aren't as bad as feared, especially if easing U.S.-Iran hostilities mean oil prices can also come down. Many are confident that a deal will soon be reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even if there is no definite timeline. In such an environment, Fundstrat's Tom Lee has argued that the S & P 500 can climb to 8,000 over the next few weeks, a level that is not too unreasonable given that the broader index was last trading around 7,750 — only 3% away. For now, it's clear there's no shortage of exuberance in the market. On Friday, the major averages notched their best week since April, with semiconductors coming back in a big way from July's rout. Investors are hopeful that last month's artificial intelligence unwind skimmed enough of the froth from the market, so that stocks can continue to climb for another few weeks at least. The S & P 500 twice breached fresh all-time highs this week, on Monday and Tuesday. The Nasdaq Composite ended the week more than 5% higher than last Friday. But with investors parsing over every data point in hopes of determining what the Fed might do next, at a time when the central bank itself is releasing less communication, the potential for volatility is high. "It is a picture that gets more complicated for the Federal Reserve," Hogan said, "and what they do with monetary policy." Week ahead calendar All times ET. Monday, Aug. 10 Earnings: Simon Property Group Tuesday, Aug. 11 8:15 a.m. ADP Weekly Employment change (07/25) 10:00 a.m. Existing Home Sales (July) Earnings: Super Micro Computer , Lumentum Holdings , Cardinal Health Wednesday, Aug. 12 8:30 a.m. Consumer Price Index (July) 8:30 a.m. Hourly Earnings (July) 8:30 a.m. Average Workweek final (July) 2:00 p.m. Treasury Budget (July) Earnings: Coherent Thursday, Aug. 13 8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Benefit Claims (08/08) 8:30 a.m. Producer Price Index (July) Earnings: Applied Materials , Tapestry Friday, Aug. 14 8:30 a.m. Retail Sales (July) 10:00 a.m. Business Inventories (June) 10:00 a.m. Michigan Sentiment preliminary (August)

Russia sanctions bill honoring Lindsey Graham breezes through Senate, heads to House

Irit Skulnik — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 19:21:22 GMT

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 30, 2025.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Ser | Via Reuters

The Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved a Russia sanctions bill that was long championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., before his death last month.

The legislation, named the The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, aims to hurt Russia's war effort in Ukraine by penalizing purchasers of Russian oil and Russian leaders. It passed with bipartisan support 86-11 and will now proceed to the House, which is on recess until September.

U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July

Jeff Cox — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 19:14:22 GMT

VIDEO3:4803:48

U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July

Squawk Box

The U.S. economy saw an unexpected declined in jobs during July while the unemployment rate edged lower, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday in a snapshot that showed a slowing employment picture.

Nonfarm payrolls fell by a seasonally adjusted 23,000 for the month, compared with a downwardly revised 20,000 for June. The Dow Jones consensus forecast had been looking for a gain of 83,000.

At the same time, the unemployment rate slipped to 4.1% as the labor force participation rate fell further to 61.4%, its lowest in more than five years, another indication that fewer Americans were working or looking for jobs.

In addition to the weak numbers for June and July, the final count for May was revised down to 63,000, or 66,000 lower than the prior estimate. The revised numbers brought the 12-month average down to just 34,000.

"The July employment report solidified that the labor market is not out of the woods quite yet," said Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter.

The drop was led by a 50,000 decline in local government education and a loss of 19,000 retail jobs. Financial activities also posted a fall of 14,000 and leisure and hospitality lost 40,000, a possible consequence of the World Cup tournament ending.

Healthcare, which has been the leading sector for job creation, rose by 22,000, which was below its 12-month average of 36,000. Construction also saw an increase of 22,000.

Private payrolls did increase for the month, up 30,000 as government jobs declined by 53,000.

While jobs held flat, worker pay also saw virtually no gain during the month. Average hourly earnings increased by just 2 cents, bringing the 12-month average down to 3.2%, below the forecast increase of 3.5% and the lowest since May 2021.

The report comes with Federal Reserve policymakers split on where interest rates should head in an economy where the labor market had been improving from a moribund year in 2025 while inflation has remained well above the central bank's 2% target.

In recent days, several Fed officials have spoken in favor of raising rates as soon as September if the pace of price increases doesn't ease. The Federal Open Market Committee last week voted 9-3 to hold its benchmark rate in place.

Following the jobs report, traders shifted their bets on when the Fed might hike. Odds for a move in September fell to 44% and to 58.3% for October, according to the CME Group's FedWatch gauge of futures prices.

Stock market futures, meanwhile, posted solid gains amid the expectations for a more dovish Fed. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up close to 200 points and Treasury yields plummeted after being around the flatline earlier in the session.

"This morning's report is a game changer in the sense that all of the recent focus has been on inflation and this report highlights the risks that are embedded in the labor market as well," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management. "Before today, many were expecting that the Fed had no choice but to raise rates in order to fight stubbornly high inflation, because the job market was so strong, but this report shows that isn't the case."

Details of the report confirmed the weak headline numbers.

Household employment, which measures the total of people reporting that they are working and is used to calculate the unemployment rate, fell by 87,000. However, the unemployment rate declined because of a decrease of 264,000 in the labor force. Outside of the Covid era, the participation rate is at its lowest since the middle part of 1976.

"While the unemployment rate is falling, that is mostly for the wrong reason—not enough workers," wrote Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank. "Immigration compensated for the aging of the workforce in the first few years of the post-pandemic expansion, but that's not happening anymore."

The employment-to-population ratio fell again, slipping to 58.9% for its lowest level since May 2014. An alternative jobless measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons held steady at 7.9%.

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The unwind of Situational Awareness isn't the only reason the AI trade is back

Kevin Stankiewicz — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:51:29 GMT

It was a clearing event after all. It's been just over a week since the forced unwind of the high-flying Situational Awareness hedge fund, and the artificial intelligence trade is now standing on solid ground after a turbulent July battered the market's old leaders. The best part is that the hedge fund's reckoning last Thursday isn't the only reason for the sustained reversal of fortunes. The biggest winners of late in our portfolio tell the story of a sturdier AI trade: Microsoft , Corning , Eaton , Intel and Amazon . This covers the performance since the July 29 close through Thursday of this week. The entire top 10 consists of AI winners, in some form or another. Prior to the Situational Awareness meteor, nine of the 10 stocks were lower during the month of July. The lone exception was Microsoft , which had been crushed in June and had started to perk up into July. Jim Cramer figured this may be the case on the morning of July 30, as reports emerged that Situational Awareness was facing a margin call and its brokers were seeking buyers for its public stock portfolio. The fund, run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, was using a lot of borrowed money to make bullish bets on AI infrastructure providers, including chipmakers, and to bet against companies with perceived disruption risk, like enterprise software vendors. In recent weeks, those previously successful trades went wayward — hardware names were falling, and software was rising — culminating in the forced unwind. "I have always believed that when you clear out the people who have to sell, like this gentleman, you get a bottom," Jim said before the market opened. "This is a clearing event ... because he's not the only one." The market ripped higher last Thursday, with semiconductor stocks and data center suppliers soaring, while the rebounding software group took a breather. But the comeback for stocks like networking cable maker Corning and chipmaker Intel didn't stop there because the news that followed reinforced the notion that the AI buildout is alive and well. That has given investors the confidence to step back into stocks that looked like damaged goods just a few weeks earlier. We've done the same , buying more of Corning, Intel and semiconductor materials supplier Qnity Electronics this week. On Thursday, we also added memory-chip maker Micron Technology to our Bullpen watchlist . Of course, some of the AI winners grew to become overheated in late June and were due for a pullback anyway. Speculation that perhaps the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates at its late July meeting added to the profit-taking last month. But the revelations from Situational Awareness ultimately put the past few weeks of trading in a different light. In certain cases, non-fundamental forces were likely at play to the upside — and to the downside. Then came the earnings reports, which have helped support most of our top 10 recent winners beyond just last Thursday's session. The market has refocused on the underlying businesses of AI infrastructure providers, and the companies that are performing well are getting rewarded for it. Among the most notable reports came from the company at the top of the leaderboard: Microsoft. The tech giant last Wednesday night delivered an impressive number for its Azure cloud unit and, on the software side, showed surprising traction for its AI assistant Copilot. The Azure and Copilot performance, coupled with relatively strong free cash flow compared to its hyperscaler peers, helped soothe investor concerns about all its AI spending. The stock surged 15.5% last Thursday and from there added another 11% through this Thursday's close. Amazon's earnings report last week is another seminal event in the AI trade resurgence. While Amazon Web Services growing a better-than-expected 37% was nice, CEO Andy Jassy's earnings call defense of the company's aggressive AI investments was the real story. It gave investors a better appreciation for the potential return on all this AI spending — and, by extension, offered support for the durability of the investment cycle. That has benefited not just Amazon's stock, but also the data center suppliers like chipmakers, Corning, gas turbine maker GE Vernova , and Eaton, which supplies electrical equipment and cooling technology for AI servers. The suppliers have also benefited from Amazon, Google parent Alphabet , and Meta Platforms raising their capital expenditure forecasts for this year, and from Microsoft suggesting it plans to invest more next year. These signals, coupled with the Jassy masterclass, made the market feel more confident that capex from the spenders hasn't peaked yet, which is good for the vendors. Eaton's own strong earnings report last Friday offered concrete evidence of how it's benefiting from all this spending. No need to assume. Nvidia's presence in the top 10 performers is especially heartening, considering the leading maker of AI chips has been in a frustrating position all year long . Up until the July 29 close, the stock had advanced a mere 2% year to date. It's been off to the races since, and some of the gains this week can be attributed to SpaceX's earnings report after the close Tuesday. CEO Elon Musk said the rocket-and-AI company would exclusively use Nvidia chips for its data centers, while also signaling massive investments in new computing power next year. That's great news for Nvidia, of course, and supportive of data center suppliers more broadly. The only companies in our top 10 that do not provide AI infrastructure are CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks . The cybersecurity providers have emerged as AI winners in their own right, though, thanks to heightened risk of cyberattacks in the age of AI. Their stocks had incredible rallies beginning in the spring into July as the market came around to this view, before cooling off in July. They've heated back up amid reports that advanced AI systems from OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms have unknowingly hacked into other companies. The bottom line? The AI trade is in a different place than it was earlier this year, with at least one leveraged buyer on the sidelines. But its recent resurgence is more than justified by the facts on the sturdier ground. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Trump revives effort to fire Fed's Lisa Cook

Kevin Breuninger, Megan Cassella — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:38:17 GMT

Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook participates in a board meeting at the Federal Reserve on March 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

President Donald Trump is "considering" firing Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, the White House said this week, reviving an effort that had been stymied by the Supreme Court in June.

White House presidential aide Dan Scavino, in a letter to Cook dated Wednesday, said there is "sufficient reason to believe that you made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements."

Those are the same allegations Trump and his allies floated when he first moved to fire Cook from the central bank last year. Cook denied the charges and filed a lawsuit challenging her dismissal.

A federal court blocked Trump from firing Cook while her suit was pending. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling in late June, upheld that decision against a challenge the president.

But Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the court's decision did not stop Trump from trying again to remove Cook over the mortgage fraud allegations. Any new attempt to fire her would require additional steps in order to protect Cook's Constitutional due process rights, Roberts wrote.

Scavino, Trump's deputy chief of staff and director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, wrote that he was sending Wednesday's letter "pursuant to the Supreme Court's opinion."

He instructed Cook to provide an "explanation for your false statements and accompanying evidence" within three weeks.

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Cook, told CNBC in a statement that the allegations "are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve."

"No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent — there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook," Lowell's statement said. "As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed."

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the White House's letter.

Trump's initial move to fire Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, came as he ramped up his efforts to pressure the Fed to slash interest rates.

The mortgage-related allegations were surfaced by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who has been criticized as an "attack dog" for Trump.

Pulte has also targeted other of Trump's perceived political foes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also faced allegations of mortgage-related wrongdoing.

— CNBC's Dan Mangan and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.

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Gold bugs spend $180 million betting all's clear for metal as bond yields stall

Oliver Renick — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:22:56 GMT

In this article

One-ounce gold bars at the Valcambi SA precious metals refinery in Balerna, Switzerland, on Friday, Sept. 9, 2025. Valcambi SA, Switzerland's largest refiner, processes up to 2,000 tons of precious metals a year at its site in Balerna on the border with Italy. Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

They are called gold bugs for a reason, because they sure are hard to get rid of.

Despite a 25% decline in gold from its high in January, proponents of the precious metal are storming into bullish call positions after almost two months of sideways action gives way to a rally Friday following weak jobs data.

Almost $100 million of call options in the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF were likely bought on Friday, SpotGamma data show, compared to about $25 million of puts bought. It's the same for the miners: over $80 million of GDX calls were bought, compared to just over $9 million in puts. Options volume in both surged, according to Cboe LiveVol data, with GLD on pace for twice its 30-day average and GDX quadrupling its typical trading volume.

SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), 5 years

After an incredible 100% year-long rally through January, gold prices reversed this year as Treasury yields and the dollar firmed in the first half of the year and the explosive bull market in tech stocks vacuumed up investor dollars from around the world.

The aggressive call-buying suggests gold bulls think regime change could be afoot. After touching 4.7 percent, the 10-year yield stalled out this week, stabilizing below multi-year highs as the dollar pulled back to the lowest since mid-June.

Despite speculation over interest-rate hikes by new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh, a weak U.S. jobs report on Friday arguably bolstered the case for doves. Nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly declined in July, falling by 23,000 amid a drop of 53,000 government jobs.

U.S. 10-year Treasury, YTD

Gold prices typically move inversely to real interest rates. They also might be getting a boost from foreign buyers, according to the Arora Report's Nigam Arora.

"The trigger for this move off the lows a few days ago was very aggressive buying by Chinese individual investors in the domestic gold ETFs," Arora said via text. "The catalyst appears to be Beijing's latest moves to make it harder for Chinese capital to move offshore."

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Burger King overtakes Wendy's as the nation's second-largest burger chain

Amelia Lucas — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:19:39 GMT

In this article

Burger King and Wendy's signage.

Getty Images

Burger King has overtaken Wendy's as the second-largest burger chain in the U.S. by systemwide sales, retaking its crown six years after losing it to the rival chain.

The change in positions follows the two companies' diverging results over the past two years.

Wendy's has reported shrinking U.S. same-store sales for six straight quarters. Its domestic same-store sales slipped 7% in its latest quarter, the company reported on Friday.

Meanwhile, Burger King has been embarking on a turnaround and has seen its domestic same-store sales rise over the past five quarters; the Restaurant Brands International chain on Thursday reported U.S. same-store sales growth of 8.5% for its second quarter.

McDonald's holds onto its spot as the number one burger chain, with a significant lead. Although the company only reports its systemwide sales on a global basis, it held about 48% of the U.S. burger market share in 2024, according to Barclays. For comparison, at that time, Wendy's had an 11.4% share of the market, while Burger King had a 10% hold.

Wendy's initially overtook Burger King through the success of its nationwide breakfast launch. But staying number two has been a rocky road.

Both Wendy's and Burger King had to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent supply chain issues that led to soaring food costs. Then came the consumer pushback against rising menu prices and a pullback in restaurant spending.

In late 2022, Restaurant Brands announced a turnaround plan for Burger King's U.S. business after a year of lackluster sales. The strategy has focused on improving its food quality, investing in marketing and remodeling restaurants.

While Burger King tried to find its footing, Wendy's was dealing with a revolving door of chief executives at a time when consumers were growing even more value conscious and beef costs were soaring.

In 2024, Wendy's longtime CEO Todd Penegor retired after eight years in the role. PepsiCo executive Kirk Tanner succeeded him but left after a little more than a year to lead Hershey's. CFO Ken Cook took over as interim CEO until Wendy's tapped former Potbelly CEO Bob Wright as his permanent replacement in May.

"Our quality differentiation has eroded, our value proposition has weakened, and we have not consistently delivered the experience customers expect from Wendy's," Wright said on the company's earnings conference call on Friday. "These issues have weighed on traffic and created pressure on the restaurant economic model, which is the heartbeat of this business, and this is reflected in our latest results."

Now Wendy's is planning to embark on its own turnaround to revive sales, meaning that Burger King can't rest on its laurels.

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Trump says he will appeal to Supreme Court after lower court blocks White House ballroom

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:14:02 GMT

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media alongside posters of his proposed White House ballroom amid construction at the White House on May 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

A U.S. federal appeals court ordered President Donald Trump's administration on Friday to stop construction on a $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing, dealing the Republican leader a major setback in a case testing his presidential authority.

"Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House," and cannot fundamentally reshape it without congressional approval, the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-1 opinion.

The order upheld a preliminary injunction won by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued last year after the administration tore down the East Wing and began building a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom without seeking authorization from Congress.

"Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help," the panel's majority wrote.

The appeals court placed its ruling on hold for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump, who has increasingly claimed that the ballroom project is a security necessity, referred to the structure as a "military center" in a post on Truth Social on Friday and said the administration would appeal to the Supreme Court. He called the decision "horrendous" and politically motivated and said it left him, other White House officials and visitors exposed to attack.

"This unjust decision must be overturned by the Supreme Court in its entirety," Trump wrote. He said the ballroom plan includes bomb shelters, medical facilities, shielding from drones and missiles and other security features that are "all tied together as one big, expensive, and very complex unit."

National Trust President Brent Leggs said in a statement that the ruling marked "a great day for our country and for the American people's right to voice their opinions about the historic places they cherish, including the White House."

Trump appealed after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, twice blocked above-ground construction on the site while allowing underground work to continue.

The ballroom plan, which the administration has described as necessary for large formal functions and to preserve the safety of the White House, is the grandest of several Trump efforts to reshape central Washington's landscape of government buildings and national monuments.

A judge in a separate lawsuit recently said Trump's name was illegally added to the exterior of the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and ordered its removal.

Appeal to national security

In the ballroom case, Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said during D.C. Circuit arguments on June 5 that the courts have no role in weighing the privately funded project. He said the National Trust's "architectural preference" should not take precedence over national security concerns, claiming evidence that the former East Wing left the president and others in the White House vulnerable to attack.

The Democratic-appointed judges in the appeals court's majority — Circuit Judges Patricia Millett and Brad Garcia — said their order does not permanently bar construction of a ballroom, but halts above-ground work during the lawsuit and until the White House secures approval from Congress.

National security arguments "are not an automatic get-out-of-law-free card," the opinion said.

"The bold assertion that the Executive can act with utter lawlessness, destroying treasured national landmarks and harming the interests of individuals, and that no court can stop it flouts our constitutional order," the judges wrote.

Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, whom Trump appointed during his first term, said in her dissent that the trial judge's injunction blocking the project "is beyond the proper province of the federal courts" and that construction should be allowed to continue.

"The district court seized supervision of construction at the White House, and my colleagues affirm this judicial overreach," Rao wrote.

Trump has defended his ballroom's price tag, which has doubled from initial projections. Trump said in a post on Truth Social in May that the cost rose because "it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original ⁠proposal" and promised "it will be magnificent, safe, and secure!"

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Here are three key takeaways from the disappointing July jobs report

Jeff Cox — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:09:18 GMT

Job seekers speak with employer representatives and browse information tables as they attend an Inspire Together job and resource fair in Los Angeles, California on July 29, 2026.

Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

Nonfarm payrolls in the U.S. unexpectedly declined in July, but so did the unemployment rate, leaving investors with mixed signals on how to process the latest jobs report.

Here are three key takeaways:

Misleading numbers: The payroll decline of 23,000 wasn't quite as bad as it looked and the drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1% wasn't nearly as good as it looked. The main reason for the red headline number was a loss of 53,000 government workers, a development economists say was largely owing to seasonal factors that could get revised away. Private payrolls actually rose by 30,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell due to yet another decline in workers employed or actively looking for a job.
The vanishing labor force: On that labor force theme, the participation rate edged down to 61.4%, now off 0.7 percentage point this year alone due to the exodus of nearly 1.4 million people. There's a strong degree of immigration noise in that number, but it still changes the dynamics by which policymakers will evaluate the labor market. A 4.1% unemployment rate suddenly doesn't seem as impressive with participation at its lowest in 50 years outside of the Covid era.
Whither the Fed? Markets reacted to the report by taking a September rate hike off the table. Not so fast: Central bank policymakers may take more signal from the lower unemployment rate as they could view it as an indicator of a relatively stable labor market. A common theme in post-report commentary from Wall Street on Friday was that Fed officials likely will set this report aside and quickly turn their focus to next Wednesday's consumer price index inflation reading — while acknowledging that weak payrolls growth at least takes the urgency out of a September increase.

They said it:

"This report is like a hall of mirrors, tricking investors with different signals about whether labor's recovery is stalling." — Kevin Gordon, head of macro research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

"We agree that the [July] jobs report was a bit dovish on net. But we are sticking with our call that the Fed will hike by 75 [basis points] this year, starting in [September]. The Fed is likely to remain more focused on inflation than labor. The [July] CPI report is a bigger event than today's jobs numbers." — Aditya Bhave, U.S. economist, Bank of America.

"Although the stock market is likely to welcome the dovish implications of the report, investors should be wary of the future growth potential of an economy where fewer people are working." — Peter Graf, chief Investment officer at Amova Asset Management Americas.

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Trump teased an Iran deal that didn't come, but markets soared. Here’s why it keeps happening

Kevin Breuninger — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 17:50:12 GMT

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 6, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

The Trump administration this week sparked enthusiasm that the U.S. and Iran could soon strike a deal on the Strait of Hormuz, driving down oil prices and sending stocks soaring — only for no deal to emerge.

If that sounds familiar, it may be because President Donald Trump has claimed dozens of times that the U.S. is close to an agreement that will end the war it began more than five months ago.

Investors have reacted to many of those claims with bursts of buying on hopes a breakthrough is near, even as the war instead appears to be widening and progress on Trump's chief stated goal — containing Iran's nuclear ambitions — is at a standstill.

"There's tremendous optimism bias in the market," Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told CNBC.

Markets continue to assume incentives for both the U.S. and Iran favor a diplomatic end to the war. But some investors seem to "see a deal as a time machine" that will reset the Middle East to its prewar status quo, even though that's unlikely to happen, Croft said.

The conflict of late centers on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for the global oil trade that has became a source of major leverage for Iran.

Tehran's ability to effectively close the strait — an open, untolled international waterway before the war started — triggered a global energy supply shock that drove up gas prices, exacerbated inflation and raised alarms about oil reserves.

"The President's preference is always diplomacy, but he reserves all options to ensure that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNBC by email.

Even those who believe diplomacy remains a viable path to peace acknowledge the future of the strait presents an intractable problem.

"There still appears to be a fundamental difference over the fate of Hormuz: Iran wants to impose a service fee, while the US wants the pre-war situation restored, i.e., international, free waters in the Strait," Claudio Galimberti, partner and chief economist at Rystad Energy, said by email.

Bessent, Trump teased imminent deal

The oil market is eager for any hint of progress toward reopening the strait. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent provided a major dose of optimism Tuesday morning when he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that a deal to ensure "freedom of movement" in the strait could come in a matter of hours.

"We are in talks with the Iranians," Bessent said. "There is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict."

VIDEO5:0405:04

Treasury Secretary Bessent: We may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the Strait of Hormuz

Squawk Box

Oil prices tumbled right after Bessent's remarks, while stocks blasted higher and bold yields pulled back, as investors' optimism coincided with an artificial intelligence-fueled tech rally.

Crude prices remain highly elevated from their prewar levels, however, as traders bounce between hope for a durable solution in the strait and bracing for a military escalation by the U.S.

The market "remains trapped in a spiky muddle-through dynamic," Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, told CNBC in an email.

"While Iran and Oman may agree on a narrow Hormuz management plan, we do not see the broader and durable settlement between the US and Iran that Hormuz normalization requires and the crude markets want to see," he said.

Bessent's comments to CNBC nevertheless buoyed outlooks that were already brightening, in light of Trump's Sunday evening announcement that he was aborting a large-scale attack on Iran because "the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to."

That claim — which echoed myriad other times that Trump has threatened to decisively obliterate Iran, only to pull back — helped pump stocks on Monday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to a record close.

Trump added more fuel to the fire Tuesday night, when he said a deal to reopen the strait "could happen" as soon as Wednesday or Thursday because "a lot of progress has been made."

Despite extending Bessent's time frame for a possible deal, Trump's comments continued to raise investors' expectations on Wednesday, with the Dow hitting another record-high close and oil prices holding steady.

Iran pushes back on Trump

The galloping momentum in equities came in spite of Iran's repeated insistence that it is not actively negotiating with the U.S.

Rather, Iran has said it's in talks with Oman, another regional power that borders the Persian Gulf, to hash out their own agreement on shipping through the strait.

Trump has angrily asserted that U.S.-Iran talks are ongoing despite Iran's "duplicitous" claims otherwise. He also continues to insist the U.S., which has reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf region, is in full control of the strait. Vessel traffic, however, remains far below prewar averages, when 20% of the world's oil would pass through the waterway.

On Thursday, any expectations of an imminent deal on the strait appeared to be at least temporarily dashed, after Iranian state media reported a draft plan that would block passage for U.S. and Israeli ships and impose other restrictions.

The Trump administration quickly appeared to dismiss that draft as a nonstarter.

'Deeply entrenched optimism bias'

As the war drags into its sixth month and stockpiles of both oil and key munitions reportedly dwindle, analysts wonder how much longer markets will jump at the dangling hope of a deal.

"The cycle of headline-driven price pullbacks may lead to confidence that the economic cost of the conflict is containable," but the shrinking U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve signals "waning global buffers," RBC wrote in a July 28 strategy note.

Rapidan's McNally warned oil prices could shoot back up to peak levels "if both sides are unable to contain military escalation or continued inventory de-stocking dissipates the market's deeply entrenched optimism bias and calls on prices to curtail consumption."

Galimberti, of Rystad, told CNBC, "My hunch is that if they want to avoid a costly stalemate, with oil prices quickly escalating back to April levels or above and little to no Iranian flows, they will need to start bridging the differences and move their respective red lines towards the center."

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Falling long-term unemployment isn't good news, economists say — what it means for jobseekers

Greg Iacurci — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 17:48:28 GMT

Job seekers wait in line to enter a job fair on June 30, 2026, in Carson, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Long-term unemployment fell in July — which, on its face, sounds like a good thing. But labor market data suggests otherwise, economists said.

In fact, long-term unemployment appears to have declined for the "wrong" reasons, they said.

The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more — the official barometer of long-term unemployment — fell by 64,000 people from June to July, to about 1.8 million people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

Of all unemployed workers, 25.5% are long-term unemployed, down sharply from 27.3% in June.

VIDEO3:4803:48

U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July

Squawk Box

But those downward moves seem to be driven by an exodus of workers from the labor force, and that would be a negative trend for households and the economy, experts said.

"We are in this low-hire environment where people are having a really hard time," said Cory Stahle, a senior economist at Indeed, a job site.

"We're maybe seeing a case where people are saying, 'I just can't find a job, so I'm just going to stop looking,'" he said. "If I've been unemployed for seven, eight, nine, 10 months, at what point will I take a break from that because it's not yielding a whole lot?"

The risks of long-term unemployment

A job seeker at a job and resource fair in Los Angeles, California, on July 29, 2026.

Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

Withdrawal from the labor force due to discouragement poses financial risks at a micro and macro level.

The long-term unemployed are generally ineligible for unemployment benefits after six months, and perhaps even sooner depending on the state.

Such people would be without their regular income from work as well as social assistance, putting financial stress on households at a time when gasoline prices and the overall inflation rate remain elevated, economists said.

VIDEO8:2308:23

Experts react to the July jobs report

Squawk Box

Individuals also generally have a harder time finding jobs after long absences, and the long-term unemployed tend to earn less when they eventually find a new job, economists said.

Meanwhile, "it's really hard to continue growing [the] economy if [you] don't have the workers to support that growth," said Stahle.

Other signs of a tough job market

Employer hiring has been muted since 2024, according to federal data. Since then, the hiring rate has hovered at its lowest levels since 2014.

Meanwhile, layoffs have been historically low, creating little churn and leaving fewer vacancies for job seekers.

Job growth has also been relatively muted.

Employers have added 26,000 jobs per month, on average, in the 12 months from August 2025 to July 2026. The average was 66,000 the prior year, and 142,000 the one before, according to federal data.

Hiring also hasn't been broad, making it especially tough for workers outside fields like healthcare that are adding jobs with more regularity, economists said.

"Hiring displays little sense of active momentum, and with some concentrated contributions that we have highlighted in prior months (in areas like healthcare), there is some hiring happening, but it is concentrated," Rick Rieder, head of the Global Allocation Investment team at BlackRock, a money manager, wrote in an analysis Friday.

Ultimately, it's a good time to have a job — and not a good time to be out of one, Stahle said.

One way job seekers might find more success in the current environment is by parlaying skills in industries that are hiring at a more rapid pace right now, Stahle said.

For example, someone with information technology experience might consider looking for a job within a hospital system or elsewhere within the healthcare sector, he said.

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Why the U.S. is struggling to control food safety

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:58:26 GMT

In this video

Digital Original

Why the U.S. is struggling to control food safety

Tens of thousands of people across 47 states are reporting illness linked to the cyclospora outbreak that started in mid-May. While pressure is mounting at the FDA to resolve the outbreak, experts tell CNBC issues in the U.S. food safety arena have been mounting for years. CNBC's Brandon Gomez explores the challenges facing both the private and public sector when it comes to controlling outbreaks of this magnitude.

06:56

Fri, Aug 7 202612:58 PM EDT

Brandon Gomez

Devan Burris

Crypto’s infrastructure era arrives, with AI agents poised to reshape demand

Tanaya Macheel — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:47:55 GMT

In this article

VIDEO5:2405:24

Crypto's bet on AI agents

Crypto

For years, the crypto industry's biggest challenge has been finding users beyond traders. Now, some of its largest companies think they've found them in AI agents.

Although speculation still underpins much of crypto's business, companies are trying to build a second growth engine by turning agents into users of crypto wallets, stablecoins and payment networks.

For example, this summer, Kraken said it's rebuilding its app to be able to give users access to AI agents capable of continuously monitoring markets, identifying investing opportunities and executing trades in real time. Coinbase launched a new tool that will allow agents like ChatGPT or Claude to execute crypto trades using natural language instructions. And in May, Circle announced a strategic expansion with its home-grown Arc blockchain, which is designed to be infrastructure for the agentic economy, where AI agents handle more of the operational and contractual work currently managed by humans.

The bet marks a big shift for an industry that has spent much of the past decade trying to convince consumers that crypto would be a better form of money than traditional currencies, or a more efficient way to move it than traditional transaction rails. AI agents may be the first users that naturally need what crypto was built to provide, the thinking goes. Unlike humans, agents are built to operate online, which makes digital wallets, programmable money and always-on payment networks more of a technical requirement than a behavioral shift.

"Anyone [can] have an isolated account inside their main Coinbase app that they can just give to an agent," Lincoln Murr, AI product lead at Coinbase, told CNBC of the new Coinbase for Agents experience. "You can imagine this doing all sorts of things on your behalf — whether it's trading or rebalancing a portfolio to your specifications, whether it's paying for premium information like access to S1 funds to help you make trading decisions. The whole idea is to give agents access to money, and through that financial independence, improve their set of capabilities to pretty much anything on the internet."

Crypto's bridge to AI

The overlap between crypto and AI has pushed stablecoins, the more practical back-office players that have historically kept the crypto casino running, to the front of the conversation.

Unlike bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, which have fluctuating prices, stablecoins are designed to maintain a fixed value and are thus widely viewed as more practical for payments. And because they can move around the clock and be programmed directly into software, they offer infrastructure that AI agents can use without relying on banks or card networks.

"Conventional banking systems are really poorly suited to real-time agent-to-agent, machine-to-machine commerce," said Joseph Chalom, CEO of the ether treasury firm Sharplink. "The reason why this is becoming a bit of a crypto story is not that the primary thing that's going to be exchanged is crypto. It's just at the end of the day, stablecoins and smart contracts allow AI agents to send payments and settle transactions … automatically, without requiring human oversight."

Circle has leaned into that opportunity by marketing its flagship USDC stablecoin as programmable digital dollars for internet-native payments. AI agents represent a new source of transaction volume for the company, tied less to crypto trading and more to everyday software activity. However, the stablecoin race has been heating up since the passing of the Genius Act regulatory framework a year ago, and as a result, traditional financial firms increasingly want to issue their own stablecoins rather than relying on third-party issuers like Circle.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle's CEO, said adoption of the company's new Arc blockchain for agentic activity "drives the adoption of our stablecoin network [and] will continue to expand the network effects we have," which will help grow the amount of USDC as well as the transactional activity related to it and the monetization of it.

"Banks that want to build tokenized deposits can build on top of Arc, and they can create and redeem that using USDC as the globally interoperable rail, so there are ways for us to work with and alongside all these different players," Allaire added.

Less speculation, more sophistication

This part of crypto's evolution also comes in the middle of a crypto bear market, where the price of bitcoin has been sitting more than 40% off its October peak and speculative money has been chasing hotter opportunities like the tech IPO market, predictions markets and perpetual futures. Bitcoin's popularity among the world's biggest institutions has also translated into lower volatility for the flagship cryptocurrency on both the upside and the downside.

Couple the price inaction with the fact that crypto exchanges are focused not only on financial infrastructure over trading, but expanding their tradable assets and financial services offerings beyond cryptocurrencies — to equities and commodities trading as well as payments, banking and lending.

Whether new agent demand materializes remains to be seen, but if nothing else, the introduction of agentic trading to help sharpen investing decisions could mark a new level of maturity for the industry, pulling it further away from the wild west days of crypto.

"The barrier to building more intelligence and trading strategies for the average user [is] lowering" with agentic trading, said Cameron Winklevoss, president of crypto exchange Gemini. "It used to be that [if you're not] retail, you're a heavily capitalized high frequency trader or proprietary trading firm — there is an ocean between that and the average retail user … and that ocean narrows quite a bit."

That's a bet Kraken is making with its new agentic trading experience, hoping it will "unlock a lot of access, a lot of engagement from everyday people" in addition to its core user base of institutions, trading firms and professional traders.

"The fun casino days of bitcoin are over," said Kamo Asatryan, chief data officer at Kraken. "There's opportunity to really discuss with AI — regarding any given asset that you're interested in — what it means for you … whether that's bitcoin or a random meme coin or even an equity."

"You still see volatility with prices," he added, "but as you get more utility built into the general financial ecosystem, that volatility goes away more and more. It's never going to disappear, but it'll be less jagged."

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Chesky says Airbnb will spend ‘a lot more’ on AI as earnings beat and stock surges 15%

MacKenzie Sigalos — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:28:54 GMT

In this article

ABNB

VIDEO2:5002:50

Airbnb CEO says AI is the ‘number one explanation’ for accelerating growth

Squawk on the Street

Airbnb shares surged 15% Friday after the company delivered one of its strongest growth quarters in years and raised its full-year outlook — a turnaround CEO Brian Chesky is directly crediting to artificial intelligence.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC after the earnings report, Chesky said Airbnb will spend "a lot more" on AI tokens this year than it originally forecast because the cost of inference "pales in comparison" to the revenue and productivity the company is getting back.

Airbnb is cutting product-development time by roughly 60%, shipping about 80% more features year over year and keeping headcount roughly flat even as AI spending rises sharply, Chesky said.

"I think now it's safe to say AI is the best thing to have happened to Airbnb," he said. "I think we're becoming an AI-native company, and I think that is probably the number one explanation for our results."

That conviction marks a sharp turn for Chesky. A year ago, Chesky said the question inside the company was essentially, "Is AI good for Airbnb or is AI bad for Airbnb?"

The shift is notable for a CEO who has long approached technology more like a designer than a traditional engineer.

Chesky went to the Rhode Island School of Design and studied industrial design before co-founding Airbnb. Years later, he would become close with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — and eventually introduce the two men, helping spark the relationship that led to their work together on AI hardware.

Now, Chesky is trying to bring that same design-first sensibility to Airbnb's own AI overhaul.

Top Democrat proposes killing tax breaks for overseas oil production

Garrett Downs — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:00:01 GMT

In this article

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) speaks to reporters after a roundtable on rising energy costs on Capitol Hill on March 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

Sen. Martin Heinrich will introduce a bill, shared exclusively with CNBC, to end tax breaks for U.S. oil and gas companies that operate overseas while the industry reaps massive profits as the war with Iran spikes oil prices.

The bill comes days after President Donald Trump ripped major U.S. oil and gas producers for making "too much money" amid the conflict that has raised gasoline prices, and warned that companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron are going to have to "give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price." Trump has, at the same time, pushed U.S. oil and gas companies to invest in Venezuela after he ousted the country's former president, Nicolás Maduro.

Heinrich, D-N.M., who is the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the bill would "help put American energy development on an even playing field with energy development that's happening in the Middle East or anywhere else."

"Oil majors shouldn't get a tax break for going overseas to produce energy, but that's essentially what our current tax policy does," he said. "At a time when oil majors are making billions in profits per quarter, they can afford to pay their fair share."

According to Heinrich's office, the bill would eliminate preferential tax treatment for overseas oil and gas extraction income, shifting the tax code so overseas fossil fuel profits are treated the same as other foreign business income.

It would also close tax code provisions that allow companies to generate additional foreign tax credits from shale oil and tar sands development by including them as combined foreign oil and gas income.

Companies scoff at airlines' cheapest business class tickets. 'The real value is flexibility'

Leslie Josephs — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:13:11 GMT

In this article

United Airlines Polaris lounge in Chicago

United Airlines

CHICAGO — No advanced seat selection, lounge access or flight changes included with a C-suite executive's business-class ticket? Absolutely not, some companies say.

Delta Air Lines joined United Airlines last month in launching stripped-down business-class fares for certain flights, taking the same approach they used to carve up coach class to their more expensive cabins as carriers get customers to pay more for perks in the sky.

That's a new headache for companies' business travel managers.

AerSale — which leases aircraft and engines and offers maintenance and other services — likely won't block basic premium options altogether for its hundreds of traveling employees. But those tickets would be impractical for many of its workers, said Jackie Carlon, the Doral, Florida-based company's senior vice president of marketing and communications.

"The real value is flexibility," Carlon said. "Paying a bit more, it's not necessarily a cost to us — it's insurance."

What's included with basic business — and what's not

With the new fares, the cheapest option for long-haul international flights won't come with things like access to an airport lounge or the ability to pick a seat for free in advance. Perhaps most important for business travel, no changes are allowed without paying a fee on top of a difference in fare.

Delta said change fees for basic business class could range from none at all up to $400, depending on the route, and from $99 to as much as $500 for cancellations.

Because work trips can change on a dime, a restrictive ticket in business class can cost a company even more if travelers have to buy a whole new flight. Only a small proportion of a corporation's business travelers usually fly in top-tier cabins, but the higher fares could further drive up travel costs.

The difference in fares, meanwhile, could be several hundred dollars to close to $1,000, if not more.

On United, for example, the least expensive fare in the airlines' lie-flat pod Polaris cabin doesn't come with access to the Polaris business-class airport lounge, which features a bar, sit-down dining, a rest area, showers and other amenities. The traveler also can't pick a seat in advance without paying a fee and no changes are allowed. Travelers can cancel the flight with a fee. United doesn't disclose its fees for the new fares, and a spokeswoman said the amounts vary.

For a flight going from Newark, New Jersey, to London Heathrow on Oct. 1 and returning Oct. 8, the "base" Polaris ticket was going for $4,490, while the standard fare was $4,890, and it was $5,390 for a flexible, refundable ticket.

Airlines say it gives customers more of a choice.

"We support our corporate travel partners by giving them full control over which fare products are available to their business travelers based on their own policies and business objectives," Delta said in a statement. "We continue to see strong demand for premium travel."

Corporate considerations

Dane Molter, senior vice president at Navan Group Travel Marketplace, which reported $9.1 billion in gross booking volume in the 12 months ended Jan. 31, said clients who use the platform are seeking more detailed policy controls that could determine which fare an employee books for a trip.

"Travel managers are asking a sensible question: Does the lower upfront fare still represent good value if it lacks flexibility, seat selection, lounge access or other benefits their travelers expect?" he said in a statement.

Whatnot valued at $20 billion as live shopping continues to boom

Ian Thomas — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:02:12 GMT

Timon Schneider | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Building on the growing popularity of livestreamed shopping, startup market Whatnot said on Friday that it has closed its latest round of funding at a $20 billion valuation, nearly doubling its valuation from less than a year ago.

Whatnot, which said that it has more than 650,000 new people joining its platform each week, said in a release that it had already passed the $8 billion in gross merchandise volume it saw last year. Buyers have also more than doubled over the past year.

With the funding from this latest round, a $545 million Series G led by Iconiq, Lightspeed and Avra, the company plans to invest in ways for sellers to grow on the platform, according to Grant LaFontaine, co-founder and CEO of Whatnot.

"This investment allows us to build better tools, bring AI to more parts of the selling experience, help sellers reach more buyers, expand into new markets, and continue building the world's biggest and most trusted marketplace," LaFontaine said in the statement.

Whatnot, which ranked No. 8 on this year's CNBC Disruptor 50 list, raised a $225 million Series F round led by DST Global and CapitalG in October 2025, valuing it at $11.5 billion. In January 2025, it raised $265 million in a Series E round, valuing it at nearly $5 billion. The company has raised approximately $1.5 billion since its founding in 2019.

More coverage of the 2026 CNBC Disruptor 50

That rapid valuation growth reflects the rapidly expanding live commerce market, valued at upwards of $22 billion and of which Whatnot says it commands roughly 60%.

But competition in that space is continuing to grow from e-commerce giants like eBay and Fanatics, as well as TikTok's Shop Live.

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Iran's chief negotiator accuses Trump of 'theater diplomacy' with Hormuz traffic near standstill

Anniek Bao — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:06:10 GMT

In this article

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Dec. 2, 2025.

Shadati | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Iran's chief negotiator has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of staging "theater diplomacy," as Washington and Tehran offer conflicting accounts of bilateral engagement aimed at ending their monthslong hostilities.

"'Massive attack coming … wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.' That's theater diplomacy on loop," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and top negotiator, wrote in a post on X on Thursday in an apparent gibe at Trump.

The remarks came days after Trump called off planned strikes and said the outlines of a deal had already been settled with Tehran. Iranian officials have rejected the claim, saying no talks were underway.

The conflict is meanwhile broadening across the region, with Gulf energy infrastructure and key shipping choke points under renewed threat.

Saudi Arabia is bracing for "multiple coordinated attacks" by Iraqi militia factions working with Iran-backed Houthis, a Saudi official told CNN. Intelligence reports from Saudi Arabia and regional governments reportedly indicated that the groups planned to strike the kingdom "in the very near future" under the guidance of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

GAO finds Elon Musk's DOGE inflated claims of $110 billion in savings for federal government

Lora Kolodny — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 22:19:52 GMT

Elon Musk listens to U.S. President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 11, 2025.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Elon Musk's DOGE promised to slash $2 trillion in federal spending and to make the federal workforce lean and efficient. But even the cost savings it has claimed in an online "Wall of Receipts" of the smaller amount of $110 billion didn't check out, according to a report the Government Accountability Office published Thursday.

The GAO evaluated $110 billion of savings DOGE claimed on a website with its "Wall of Receipts" from cuts including federal contracts, grants and leases. The GAO said it found multiple "issues limiting the transparency and reliability of these reported savings." Including additional categories beyond contracts, grants, and leases, DOGE tallied $215 billion in cuts, the GAO said.

The findings further undercut claims by Musk and President Donald Trump that they have made meaningful cuts in government spending and call into question the effects of the DOGE effort that slashed federal spending with little notice to agencies and slashed hundreds of thousands of government jobs.

The GAO found that of the 13,476 contracts DOGE claimed it terminated, "no termination action" was taken on 2,503 of them. The report also noted DOGE had claimed $113 million in savings from cuts to 264 leases, but GAO found that information overstated the savings. The leases cut and referenced on DOGE's website "actually summed to $53.5 million" in savings, the report found. Of the 264 leases, about 108 were already in the termination process before DOGE was formed after Trump began his second term as president, the GAO report also said.

Hollywood is cranking out billion-dollar movies again. 'Spider-Man' just joined the ranks

Sarah Whitten — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:55:46 GMT

In this article

"Toy Story 5," "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" and "Spider-Man Brand New Day."

Disney | Universal Pictures | Sony

Billion-dollar films are back in Hollywood.

The theatrical industry welcomed its fourth billion-dollar film of 2026 this week as Sony and Marvel's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" surpassed the coveted benchmark. It joins the three-comma ranks alongside Universal's "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," Lionsgate's "Michael" and Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story 5." The group should soon be joined by Universal's "The Odyssey," which has tallied $912 million globally through Sunday and is set to play in theaters through at least mid-September.

Box office analysts expect Warner Bros.' "Dune: Part Three" and Disney and Marvel's "Avengers: Doomsday" to also reach the billion-dollar figure later this year.

As it stands, this is the highest number of billion-dollar film releases in a single year since the Covid pandemic shuttered movie theaters and halted production six years ago.

In 2019, nine films pulled in at least $1 billion at the box office. Seven of those films were Disney titles. Its co-production of "Spider-Man: Far From Home," in partnership with Sony, and Warner Bros.' "Joker" completed the list.

On Wednesday, Disney touted the success of "Toy Story 5" as helping to propel its studios division during its most recent quarter even as the live-action "Moana" and "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu" films fell short of expectations.

Of course, modern blockbusters are benefitting more from higher-priced tickets both for standard screenings and premium large format showings. Imax, Dolby Cinemas, ScreenX and 4DX have all reported record ticket sales because of films like "The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."

In 2025, more than 16% of tickets sold for domestic showtimes were for these PLFs, according to data from EntTelligence. That's up from 15% in 2024 and 13.8% in 2023. These premium tickets can cost upward of $25 or more in places like New York City or Los Angeles, but average around $18.22 a piece nationally, EntTelligence reports. That's up 8% from 2023.

Standard movie tickets, too, are getting pricier. In 2019, the average movie ticket cost a little more than $9, according to data from Cinema United. Now, the average is closer to $13.50, EntTelligence reports.

Still, the hauls are a promising signal for a film industry that's still chasing 2019 levels, even with the benefit of higher prices.

The domestic annual box office is currently on pace to cross $10 billion for the first time in seven years. Through Monday, the year-to-date haul stands at $6.2 billion, down 11% from 2019.

"The billion-dollar club has always been treated as a special box office milestone," said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. "It's also one that's become more challenging to achieve since the pandemic."

"The sheer number of films crossing this threshold can be a good indicator of a banner year," he added.

Unlike 2019, the 2026 class of billion-dollar films are spread across multiple studios and include not just sequels and franchise films but a musical biopic and a cinematic retelling of a 2,700-year-old epic poem.

The broad success signals to Hollywood that it can take more risks on genre films and spread the wealth among more players.

The resurgence in the number of billion-dollar films has been fueled in part by younger demographics that Hollywood and Wall Street previously worried would abandon cinemas in favor of their phones.

"The demise of the theatrical experience has once again been greatly exaggerated," said Mike Polydoros, CEO at cinema marketing firm PaperAirplane Media. "Driving much of this resurgence is the growing influence of Gen Z, which accounted for 49% of 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day''s opening-day audience and 30% of 'The Odyssey''s opening-day crowd."

VIDEO4:3504:35

Gen Z is fueling the box office comeback

CNBC Digital Original Video

Generation Z, whose members range from around 14 to 29 years old, is one of the most active moviegoing demographics, and Gen Zers attend more films per year than some of their older peers. It also accounted for nearly 40% of all movie audiences in North America in 2025, Rentrak reported.

And the return to movie theaters isn't just happening domestically, but internationally, too. The foreign market is vitally important to Hollywood.

Among the the four films that have generated at least $1 billion globally this year, more than 50% of box office receipts have come from outside the U.S. and Canada.

"Notably, there has never been a film released domestically that has ever earned over a billion dollars in North America alone," Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, told CNBC. "Only 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' has even come close, with $936.7 million."

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.

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