🚀 Spirit Announces Significant Cuts

Market Overview
Read time 1.4 minutes

Year To Date Performances:

1. Spirit Airlines will furlough 270 pilots effective November 1 and downgrade 140 captains to first officers starting October 1 as the budget carrier prepares for a reduced flight schedule amid weak demand for coach-class travel. The airline, which exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, is shrinking operations to cut costs and regain profitability. The Air Line Pilots Association warned that the move further erodes pilot seniority and careers. At the same time, Spirit cited the need to align staffing with a leaner schedule during slower travel periods. The airline previously furloughed hundreds of pilots ahead of its bankruptcy filing last year.

2. JPMorgan is preparing to impose hefty fees on fintech data aggregators like Plaid, claiming that only 13% of the nearly 1.9 billion API requests it received in June were triggered by actual customer activity. The bank argues that the rest, often used for fraud prevention, product improvements, or even data resale, are overwhelming its systems and contributing to rising fraud costs, with ACH fraud claims tied to aggregators already hitting $50 million and projected to triple. Plaid, the largest source of these API calls, defends the practice as an industry standard and essential for customer alerts, but JPMorgan’s internal data shows just 6% of Plaid’s calls came from real-time user action. Negotiations are ongoing, but fee estimates could reach $300 million annually for Plaid alone, part of a broader backlash against open banking mandates now facing legal challenges.

3. This gold miner, with a pre-money valuation of only C$15 million, is completing a C$2 million pre-IPO equity raise to restart the Gold Road mine in Arizona, USA. The mine and mill, idled since 2021, are in excellent condition to capitalize on current high gold prices. Gold Road is Arizona's only fully permitted integrated gold mill and plans to list on the TSX.V this October. Management aims to reach 20,000 ounces of gold per year by 2025/26. This would generate over US$40 million EBITDA in 2026 and offer a substantial dividend yield paid in physical gold and silver, presenting significant upside from its current low valuation. Learn more. *

4. President Trump said Monday he plans to impose a baseline tariff of 15% to 20% on imports from countries without a trade deal with the U.S., up from the 10% floor he proposed in April. With the August 1 tariff deadline approaching and many countries still outside bilateral agreements, Trump argued it's not feasible to make “200 deals” and said the blanket tariff would apply to “essentially the rest of the world.” While some small nations had been hoping for the lower 10% rate floated by Commerce Secretary Lutnick, Trump’s latest remarks suggest most will face higher duties, similar to the 15% tariffs recently slapped on Japan and the EU. Some outliers, like Brazil and Laos, have already been hit with tariffs as high as 50%.

   Headlines

   1. Chipotle claims that its new AI hiring tool has reduced hiring times by 75%

   2. S&P 500 was down on Monday despite the EU/US trade deal.

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