The Economy Lost Jobs and Stocks Had Their Best Week Since April.

Bad news for workers turned out to be good news for stocks

The Nasdaq gained 5.19% over the week, the S&P 3.58%, the Dow 2.96% — the strongest week since April, on a jobs report that showed the economy shedding positions.

The S&P closed at 7,757.64, having touched fresh all-time highs twice during the week. The Nasdaq finished at 26,690.62, the Dow at 54,036.93.

The logic runs through interest rates rather than through profits. A weak labour market makes it harder for the Fed to justify raising rates, and lower rates make every future dollar of company earnings worth more today. So a report that was bad for people looking for work was read as good for people holding shares.

Here’s why it lands on your desk: this is one of the more counter-intuitive relationships in markets, and it holds only while inflation stays contained. If prices reaccelerate, weak employment stops being good news and becomes the worst kind.

Source: CNBC / FXEmpire

Fifty-Nine Thousand Investors, Two Rounds, Both Sold Out

Pre-IPO investing used to require being accredited, connected, or wealthy enough to access venture rounds.

Mode Mobile’s current Reg A+ offering is SEC-qualified and open to everyday investors at $0.52 per share, with a $1,000 minimum.

The company has raised $71.7M+ from over 59,000 individual investors across its previous rounds — both of which sold out entirely.

Mode has reserved the Nasdaq ticker $MODE and has publicly stated a target for a potential IPO.

A ticker reservation is not a guarantee that a listing will occur.

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The odds of a September hike halved in a single afternoon

Friday’s report cut the market-implied chance of a quarter-point increase from 55% to 42%.

The two-year Treasury yield, which tracks rate expectations more closely than anything else, fell to around 4.2%. That repricing is most of what drove the equity rally.

Wednesday’s consumer price index is the test. Economists polled by Reuters expect 3.4% annual inflation, with core at 2.5%. Producer prices follow Thursday and retail sales on Friday.

If inflation comes in hotter than forecast, the argument that weak employment protects you from higher rates collapses immediately. That is the single scenario this rally is not positioned for.

Source: Reuters / CME FedWatch

He Said It Before Anyone Was Paying Attention

Scott Bessent went on record before anyone was paying attention.

“A new economic reordering.”

His words.

Your retirement.

A direct line most Americans haven’t drawn yet.

There’s an IRS-approved position sitting inside the retirement account you already own.

It was designed exactly for a moment like this.

Bessent already told you what that moment looks like.

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Chips came back hard, and still have ground to make up

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up more than 70% in 2026 — yet remains roughly 15% below its late-June high.

Both things are true at once, and the gap between them is July’s selloff. One strategist described that episode as positioning having become too crowded and expectations too exuberant, with the month spent working it off.

The rebound has been real. Second-quarter earnings growth across the S&P 500 is now tracking near 48% with more than 85% of companies reported — against a 24% estimate when the season began.

The read for a long-term holder: the underlying earnings have consistently beaten, while the share prices have swung on sentiment. Over a quarter, sentiment wins. Over years, earnings do.

Source: Reuters / FXEmpire

Page 339

Everyone celebrated the SpaceX IPO last week.

$1.75 trillion. The biggest listing in history.

But the most important line wasn’t the valuation.

It was the footnote Musk buried on page 339 of the S-1.

A 14-word disclosure revealing exactly what he plans to do with the $75 billion windfall from the IPO.

Not rockets. Not Starlink. Not the chatbot.

One small, publicly traded company that builds the permanent power infrastructure his empire can’t survive without.

Wall Street is still chasing the headline ticker at 80x sales.

The footnote points somewhere else entirely.

Dylan Jovine has the name, the ticker, and the full breakdown.

“The Buck Stops Here,”
Kelly Maguire
Behind the Markets