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Here’s what you need to know
Nvidia takes a big byte. The tech giant continues to surpass earnings expectations, posting strong first-quarter numbers despite looming concerns related to China.
Retail giant shelving doubts. Macy’s just beat first-quarter earnings expectations but cut its 2025 guidance because of tariffs and cautious consumer spending.
Gap year for growth. According to a U.N. agency, America’s trade war could lead to seven million fewer jobs around the world, slowed international growth, and a rising global income gap.
Hold the guac. President Donald Trump would prefer not to talk about “TACO” trade — a Wall Street acronym coined to mean “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
Elon Musk isn’t buying it. He just broke ranks with the Trump administration, going after the president’s “big, beautiful” tax bill for growing the national debt.
Tesla wants Musk in the driver’s seat. Top shareholders sent a letter to the board demanding that its CEO spend at least 40 hours a week at the company amid its struggles.
It’s all rocket science. SpaceX’s Starship rocket went farther than it had before in its latest test launch, but it still lost control, marking three crashes in three launches.
Steering into headwinds. Amid struggling U.S. sales and macroeconomic pressures, auto giant Stellantis has found its next CEO: 25-year company veteran Antonio Filosa.
Alexa, cancel this ride. Stellantis’ car software deal with Amazon — which was supposed to create “a sustainable, software-defined future” of driving — is winding down.
Has Tokyo drifted too far? Demand for Japan’s 40-year bonds has plunged, and the country is becoming a case study in what happens when investors lose patience with deficits.
Fast fashion, slow approval. Shein is reportedly preparing to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange as its IPO launch stalls with Chinese regulators, a recurring theme.
Watt’s next?
When Microsoft scrapped an Ohio data center and Amazon reportedly reconsidered leases, analysts sounded the alarm on AI demand. But industry insiders say the real challenge isn’t appetite — it’s infrastructure.
Hyperscalers are facing grid constraints, soaring land costs, and speculative real estate markets that have distorted perceptions. Power access, not demand, is the limiting factor. Data center insiders say 75% to 85% of future capacity through 2029 is already pre-leased to major tech companies such as Meta, Google, and Amazon — with over $300 billion in AI infrastructure spending projected this year alone.
What’s slowing growth is the electric grid. Many utilities are overwhelmed with requests for capacity they can’t deliver, prompting massive wait times and steep deposits — up to $30 million — to secure future access. Some data centers are now requesting 500-plus megawatts per site, enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. And speculative land buying has only made matters worse.
Still, analysts expect AI-related demand to continue rising. Efficiency gains may help, but the shift toward energy-hungry inference workloads will further strain capacity. Until power supply catches up, growth in AI infrastructure will depend less on capital and more on kilowatts. Quartz’s Jackie Snow has more on why the AI market might have to grid and bear it.
Loan rangers could go private
President Donald Trump wants to show Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the door. Trump said he wants to end government control of the mortgage behemoths and take them public, marking a potential reversal of the post-2008 bailout that put them under federal conservatorship.
The pair is the scaffolding of America’s mortgage market, backing roughly 70% of U.S. loans. While they don’t make home loans directly, they buy and bundle them into securities with a federal guarantee. That guarantee turned into a taxpayer rescue during the housing crash, and the “temporary” federal conservatorship has lasted 16 years.
Now, Trump is eyeing a private-sector reboot — which isn’t a new idea. Congress has flirted with the idea over the years. But housing experts warn the move could push up mortgage rates — or just take longer than Trump’s term to finish. If successful, the move would cap an effort to shrink the government’s role in housing finance. But critics warn that reprivatization could raise mortgage costs and rattle a still-struggling housing market.
Still, Trump made one thing clear: If disaster strikes again, the government’s safety net isn’t going anywhere. The guarantee stays — even if Fannie and Freddie don’t. Quartz’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig has more on why a “temporary” fix has lasted 16 years.
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