🚀 Trump Tariffs ruled unconstitutional

Market Overview
Read time 1.4 minutes

Year To Date Performances:

1. President Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” suffered a major legal blow Friday when a federal appeals court ruled them unconstitutional, saying only Congress has the power to impose such taxes. The decision voids levies on dozens of countries — including steep duties on China, Canada, Mexico, India, and Brazil — though the tariffs remain in place until mid-October while Trump appeals to the Supreme Court. Still, parts of his trade agenda remain intact: sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminum, expanded earlier this month to cover hundreds of new products, are unaffected and seen as more legally durable. That carve-out could form the backbone of a narrower trade strategy if the high court upholds the ruling, but the uncertainty has injected volatility into Trump’s central economic policy and raised fresh questions about how far presidential power can stretch over U.S. trade.

2. President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook signals a dramatic escalation in efforts to exert political control over the central bank, raising fears about the erosion of its independence. While Trump argues that the Fed has become too powerful and needs reform to lower interest rates and support economic growth, critics warn that such moves could undermine trust in the dollar and destabilize U.S. financial markets. Experts note that the Fed wields significant authority beyond interest rate policy, including regulating banks and overseeing the Treasury system, making its independence crucial for long-term stability. If Trump succeeds in reshaping the Fed board, analysts caution it could politicize monetary policy, weaken investor confidence, and risk inflationary pressures similar to those seen in countries where central banks have lost autonomy. The outcome will depend on court challenges, upcoming board appointments, and whether current governors resist political pressure to align with Trump’s agenda.

3. Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s low-key chief operating officer, has become the architect of the company’s global push to transform its ChatGPT consumer phenomenon into a dominant enterprise business. Since 2023, he has scaled the go-to-market team from 50 to more than 700 and opened new offices in Brazil, India, and Australia, tailoring operations to local developer ecosystems and surging demand from corporations. Clients like Moderna, Uber, and Morgan Stanley are already embedding OpenAI’s models into drug discovery, customer service, and banking workflows. But the expansion also intensifies OpenAI’s delicate rivalry with Microsoft, its \$13 billion backer and distribution partner, as the two increasingly collide over enterprise sales, cloud strategy, and even search. Lightcap insists there’s room for both, but the tension underscores how OpenAI’s next phase will be defined as much by geopolitical expansion and partnership politics as by the quality of its AI models.

   Headlines

   1. The CDC is requiring all workers to come back into the office full-time.

   2. Many states are looking into implementing a special tax on second homes valued at over $1M.

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