A Hundred Billion Dollars Unlocked. The Stock Went Up.

The day everyone dreaded arrived. The stock rose three percent.

SpaceX’s first lockup expired this morning, freeing up to 911.5 million shares worth roughly $101 billion. Shares climbed above $112 instead of falling.

The free float more than doubled — from about 640 million shares to roughly 1.55 billion, taking the tradeable portion of the company from 4.9% to 11.8%.

The reason it did not collapse is in the structure. SpaceX used an unusual nine-stage staggered lockup rather than the traditional single expiry. Today released only the first tranche, up to 20% of eligible insider shares. A second release of 319 million follows on August 12, with more through to early December.

Here’s why it lands on your desk: the market had six weeks to prepare for a date printed in a public document, and it did. That is the whole difference between a shock and a schedule — and it is why reacting on the morning is usually the worst moment to act.

Source: Quartz / Motley Fool / ZeroHedge

Four Days in Jeddah, and No Signature Anywhere

Dear Reader,

It was July 1974.

At 8am in the morning, a government jet took off from Andrews Air Force Base with the Secretary of the Treasury on board.

The official story was a routine diplomatic tour. He’d shake some hands, pose for a few photos, and fly home. Nothing there for a reporter to chase.

But the tour was a cover story. William Simon had four days in Jeddah, on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, to talk King Faisal into what this promotion characterizes as one of the biggest money deals of the century.

The king agreed on one condition: the deal must remain, in his own words, “strictly secret.”

Outside Nixon’s inner circle, almost no one knew.

Simon came home with a deal. Nothing was signed and nothing went to Congress for a vote. The two sides shook hands, and that was that.

And that handshake may have influenced the value of every dollar you’ve earned, saved or spent in the fifty years since.

That deal coincided with a long period of wealth creation. Over the fifty years since, the number of American millionaires has grown by an amount that some estimate at roughly 1,000 a day.

I always took that for a one-time event. Porter Stansberry didn’t. In fact, he believes a similar arrangement may be taking shape again — a new dollar, a new commodity, a new deal he contends is being struck in the back rooms of Washington, D.C.

And he just went on camera to reveal the five companies his research indicates sit at the heart of it.

A third of the tradeable stock is sold short

S3 Partners data show 35% of SpaceX’s available float is currently held short.

That figure explains part of this morning’s move. When a heavily shorted stock survives the event that was supposed to break it, some of those positions get closed — and closing a short means buying.

The context is severe. SpaceX touched a record low of $104.83 on Monday, 22.4% below its $135 offering price and 53.5% below the June peak of $225.64. The selloff has erased more than a trillion dollars of market value.

The reason it matters: heavy short interest cuts both ways. It adds pressure on the way down and fuel on the way up, which is why these stocks move further than the news alone would justify.

Source: Bloomberg / S3 Partners

Renewed for a Sixth Season Before the Fifth Aired

This entertainment company just made streaming animation history.

Skybound Entertainment’s Invincible was just renewed for Season 6 before Season 5 even aired, making it the longest running animated series in Prime Video history.

Even better? The first two seasons alone generated an estimated $450 million in value for Amazon.

SAnd since then, Skybound has expanded Invincible into a full ecosystem, including a mobile game, Invincible VS, that crossed 1 million players.

Skybound also has a new franchise, Stillwater, commissioned by Amazon MGM, a rare vote of confidence from one of the biggest studios in the world.

Now, you have the opportunity to invest in Skybound as they continue building franchises that turn niche IP into billion dollar universes.

✱

Gold at multi-week highs, oil steady near eighty

Iran reached an agreement with Oman for a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

That took the remaining risk premium out of crude, which settled near $80. Gold moved the other way, reaching multi-week highs as geopolitical uncertainty kept safe-haven demand alive.

SpaceX and Nvidia also announced a partnership on an orbital AI data centre, two days after Elon Musk said SpaceX would use Nvidia chips exclusively. Warner Bros. Discovery reported before the bell; Airbnb, Lyft and Cloudflare report after the close.

If you hold energy or gold exposure, today is the cleaner read of the two: the war premium has now largely drained out of oil, while gold is still being bought for reasons that have nothing to do with Hormuz.

Source: Yahoo Finance / TheStreet

The Rules Changed Quietly, and the Bill Comes Later

Hello,

Most Americans don’t realize they’re losing money to taxes until it’s too late.

Not because they cheated. Not because they were reckless.

But because the rules changed — quietly.

With tax laws shifting in 2026 and Washington rewriting retirement policy, doing nothing could mean paying more than you expected later.

There is a simple retirement move many people overlook — one that may help reduce future taxes and prevent unpleasant surprises.

This free guide explains what’s changing and how prepared savers are adjusting before tax season hits.