Good morning, Quartz readers!
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
OpenAI says its products are going to start thinking soon. The company’s latest models will pause a bit in order to spit out answers to increasingly complex queries.
Campbell’s wants to sell soup without the “Soup.” Here’s why analysts think it’s probably good that the company is considering dropping the word from its name in a rebrand.
Another off-brand Ozempic is hitting the market. Psych-focused Noom has started to sell GLP-1s at rock-bottom prices — at least compared to Novo Nordisk.
JPMorgan Chase wants its employees to head out earl…ier. The bank is capping workweeks at an easy-easy 80 hours to help junior employees avoid burnout.
Larry Ellison is getting really rich, really fast. The Oracle cofounder’s wealth increased more than 50% this year to nearly $200 billion.
Weird economic vibes aren’t rattling Walmart
Americans’ wallets might be in a lot of different places right now, but their money is still going out steadily even if there’s uncertainty about how much is coming in.
And if one set of consumers are having a hard time, there’s always another group who will be there to contribute to corporate America’s bottom line.
Quartz’s Andy Mills spoke with Wall Street Horizon analyst Christine Short about the current retail environment and why Walmart seems to be succeeding where Dollar General is struggling.
Somebody has been Googling ‘monopoly’ a lot lately
Google is in court again dealing with a Justice Department lawsuit, this one over its dominance in the advertising technology market.
Jeff Green, CEO of the Trade Desk, one of Google’s largest adtech competitors, thinks that the search giant should be broken up for the sake of market fairness.
Quartz’s Rocio Fabbro breaks down Green’s comments and how they reflect the temperature of antitrust sentiment out there.
A FRIDAY MARKETS HAIKU
A need, not a want:
Life’s bag of eggs, milk, and bread...
Kroger, the giver.
Kroger’s stock price rose after the grocery giant reported strong second-quarter earnings that revealed, despite shaky economic conditions and ongoing regulatory battles, shoppers are still flocking to Kroger for food and essentials. Quartz’s Francisco Velasquez has the latest.
MORE FROM QUARTZ
💣 A startup named after Lord of the Rings just unleashed a cheap missile into global arms markets
📈 In with Chubb, out with Apple: Tracking Warren Buffett’s portfolio this year
🔗 WeWork founder Adam Neumann is refunding investors in his failed carbon-credit blockchain startup
🍊 Trump media stock has fallen 33% in a month
🍔 McDonald’s is extending its $5 Meal Deal
💸 American Airlines flight attendants just got a big raise after ratifying a new union deal
SURPRISING DISCOVERIES
In space, you can hear a billionaire scream. Polaris Dawn funder Jared Isaacman cheated; he had a microphone when he participated in the first-ever private space walk.
Lando Norris is capable of driving a McLaren slowly. The F1 driver piloted a P1 made of Legos around England’s famed Silverstone Circuit.
The skincare business is really rocky these days. The latest wave of products center around minerals for their main ingredients. (paywall)
You have a good chance of outliving that tree down the block. The average lifespan of an urban street tree is just 19 to 28 years.
A Ukrainian guy in a van is one of the war’s foremost drone experts. Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov has become a minor celebrity for his frontline military tech research.
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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, JPMorgan Chase time sheets, and rocky skincare to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Morgan Haefner.