Market's biggest driver

Oil prices are now the stock market's biggest driver, Powell headed for congressional grilling, Tesla stock pops 9% on robotaxi launch, Circle stock extends rally for 3rd day, and Nvidia CEO Huang begins selling shares under $865M plan...

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Market Briefing
June 24, 2025

Good morning.

The Fast Five → Oil prices are now the stock market's biggest driver, Powell headed for congressional grilling, Tesla stock pops 9% on robotaxi launch, Circle stock extends rally for 3rd day, and Nvidia CEO Huang begins selling shares under $865M plan…

World War III won't start with boots on the ground. It'll start with bots. And Elon Musk's new AI firm could play a big part of it. One little-known company could end up being the backbone of his entire operation. And its stock is still 15X smaller than NVIDIA's. Get our #1 AI stock for 2025 » *

Calendar: (all times ET) - Full Calendar

  • Today:
    Consumer confidence, 10:00A
    Powell testifies to House Financial Services Committee, 10:00A

  • Tomorrow:
    New home sales, 10:00A

Your 5-minute briefing for Tuesday, June 24:

BEFORE THE OPEN

As of market close 6/23/2025.

Pre-Market:

US Investor % Bullish Sentiment:
↓ 33.21% for Week of JUN 19 2025

Previous week: 36.67%.

Market Wrap:

• Dow futures +185 pts (+0.4%); S&P +0.5%, Nasdaq +0.7%
• Dow surged 375 pts Monday; S&P +0.96%, Nasdaq +0.94%
• Trump announces ceasefire timeline for Israel-Iran conflict
• Brent and WTI crude drop 3%+ in extended trading
• No casualties from Iran’s intercepted strike on US base
• Powell testifies today amid growing White House pressure to cut rates

EARNINGS

Light earnings week. Here’s what we’re watching:

91 Hedge Funds are Betting on This $3 AI Stock

With the Iran-Israel war raging... global markets are on edge.

But while most investors panic... the same money is preparing to profit.

Because Elon Musk's new AI startup could soon become a critical asset in national defense.

AI technology is being used to develop autonomous military vehicles, surveillance tools, and strategic threat response systems.

And one tiny company could be the biggest winner of all.

That's why 19 billionaires and 91 hedge funds have piled in.

HEADLINES

Fed Chair Powell will have two chances this week to explain to lawmakers why he is resolved to hold interest rates steady, ignoring Trump’s persistent calls to lower borrowing costs.

  • Wall St rallies as rate cut hopes outweigh Middle East turmoil (more)

    • Fed's Bowman open to cutting rates at July policy meeting (more)

  • Oil tanks as Iran's attack on Qatar base spares key energy assets (more)

  • Trump confronts potential for high oil prices after strikes (more)

  • US business activity moderates; inflation pressures building up (more)

  • May home sales increase very slightly, but prices hit another record high (more)

  • Big banks might get one of biggest regulatory rollbacks since 2008 (more)

  • Nvidia CEO Huang begins selling shares under $865 mln plan (more)

  • Tesla stock pops 9% as Musk touts ‘successful’ robotaxi Austin launch (more)

  • Circle stock extends rally for 3rd day as stablecoin momentum grows (more)

  • Hims & Hers stock drops more than 30% after Novo Nordisk breakup (more)

  • Super Micro shares fall on planned $2 billion convertible debt offering (more)

  • Trump Media approves $400 million stock buyback (more)

  • Chewy backer BC Partners seeks to raise $1 billion in block (more)

  • Goldman Sachs launches AI assistant firmwide (more)

DEALFLOW

M+A | Investments

  • FTC clears $13.5B Omnicom–Interpublic ad merger with conditions

  • Spectris snubs KKR for $5.9 billion Advent buyout

  • ProCap BTC SPAC merger launches Bitcoin treasury firm

VC

  • Spinwheel, a consumer credit ecosystem company, raised $30M in Series A funding

  • Snowcap Compute, a superconducting-computing startup, raised $23M in Seed funding

  • Qualytics, an enterprise data-quality platform, raised $10M in Series A funding

  • Meridian, an AI-powered deal-management platform, raised $7M in Seed funding

  • Stackup, a digital asset management platform for crypto operations, raised $4.2M in Seed funding

  • YieldClub, a mobile crypto savings app, raised $2.5M in pre-Seed funding

CRYPTO

  • Fiserv to offer own stablecoin, partners with PayPal, Circle (more)

  • Trump Media says $400M stock buyback won’t affect BTC treasury plans (more)

  • Strategy makes second-smallest Bitcoin purchase since November (more)

  • US investor strikes $1 billion merger to create bitcoin treasury company (more)

BULLISH BITES

📈 Why billionaires are quietly buying this AI defense stock. * 

🤖 OpenAI’s first AI device with Jony Ive won’t be a wearable.

🤑 Young investor demand for alternative assets is reshaping Wall Street's playbook.

📱 Who wants a BlackBerry? Apparently, Gen Z.

🎮 Noted venture capitalist Brad Feld's new game mixes dinosaurs with Asteroids. (Any yes, he built this game himself!)

DAILY SHARES

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