💔Broken Heart Syndrome: May 18, Issue 27

📈 Markets This Week: $SPY ( ▲ 0.6% ) U.S. markets were overall jolly this week, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq enjoying a six-day winning streak up until today, fueled in part by fresh Saudi investments, easing restrictions on chip exports, and of course the trade truce between U.S. and China (all included in this week’s summary). U.S. April inflation saw its smallest rise in over four years (2.3%), despite the Trump-era tariffs, though economists caution it’s still too early to gauge the full impact.

📈 Climbing Wages: Australian wages grew faster than expected in Q1 2025, rising 3.4% YoY. Most of the boost came from public sector workers. Unemployment is holding steady at 4.1%. Rising wages and steady joblessness puts the RBA in a tricky position ahead of its May 20 meeting. While a small rate cut is still widely expected, the RBA now has to watch for inflation.

📈 Dick’s Swings Hard: Dick’s (I giggled) is dropping $2.4 billion to acquire its struggling rival, Foot Locker. The deal is all about stepping into sneaker culture, and appealing to a younger, more urban crowd. Something Foot Locker’s 2400 global stores knows better than Dick’s golf club-wielding suburban audience. Nike is poised to be a silent winner here as UBS analysts projects 35% of Dick’s sales could be composed of Nike’s post-merger.

📈 Trump Nixes Biden’s AI Chip Export Curb: A Biden-era rule aimed at restricting exports of advanced AI chips to countries like China and Russia is getting a major rewrite. The “AI Diffusion Rule,” originally set to take effect this week, is being overhauled by Trump’s Commerce Department. While the original rule raised national security concerns, critics argued it was too vague and risked stifling innovation whilst leaving major players like Nvidia largely unaffected.

📈Huawei Boycott: In a busy week for the Department of Commerce, they also declared that using Huawei’s AI chips anywhere in the world could now violate U.S. export laws. This puts Chinese tech companies in impossible positions. On one hand, they have been denied access to U.S. chips. On the other hand, they risk penalties for using domestic alternatives.

🌎 Trump Secures $600 billion in Oil Money: On May 13 in Riyadh, Trump announced a historic $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to US projects spanning energy, defense, technology, infrastructure and healthcare. Highlights include $20 billion from DataVolt for AI data centers and energy builds, an $80 billion tech pact with Google, AMD, Oracle, Salesforce and Uber and $4.8 billion in Boeing 737s.

🌎 US-China Trade Truce: After two days of Geneva talks, the world’s top economies agreed to a 90-day tariff pause, slashing US duties on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% and China’s on American imports from 125% to 10%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hailed the deal as a “substantial” de-escalation, noting “mutual respect” and agreeing to set up a mechanism for continued economic and trade discussions.

🌎 Make Albania Great Again: Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita is now in Albania, having advised sanctioned ex-prime minister Sali Berisha ahead of his May 11 elections. LaCivita—who’s flown in thrice, staged rallies, scripted TV ads and Zoom calls—has recruited Paul Manafort and Tony Fabrizio to deploy Trump-style messaging blaming incumbent PM Edi Rama for inflation and crime.

🌎 UN Agency Rules Russia Shot Down MH17: On May 13, the ICAO council concluded that Russia violated international air law by firing a surface-to-air missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 aboard—including 196 Dutch and 38 Australian citizens. The UN body deemed the accusations from Australia and the Netherlands “well founded in fact and law”.

💼 UnitedHealth CEO Steps Down: On May 13, UnitedHealth surprised investors as longtime CEO Andrew Witty stepped down for personal reasons and the nation’s largest health insurer pulled its 2025 financial outlook after Medicare Advantage costs surged, triggering its first quarterly earnings miss since 2008. Former CEO and current chairman Stephen Hemsley—who helmed the company from 2006 to 2017—returned immediately as interim chief, vowing to resolve “internal challenges” with “humility, rigor and urgency.”

💼 The Future of EV (batteries) is Here!: GM and LG Energy Solution unveiled plans to commercialize lithium manganese-rich (LMR) prismatic battery cells for future GM electric trucks and full-size SUVs, with pre-production slated for late 2027 and U.S. mass production by 2028. What does this mean? The Ultium Cells joint venture’s new LMR chemistry boosts energy density (more power) by 33% versus top LFP cells at comparable cost, swaps expensive cobalt for abundant manganese, and targets over 400 miles of truck range alongside meaningful pack-cost savings. So, cheaper, more effecient EVs!

💼 Coinbase Hacked: Coinbase revealed that since January bribed customer-service representatives siphoned off names, dates of birth, addresses, ID numbers and some banking details for a subset of its clients—though passwords, seed phrases and funds remained secure. The exchange detected the scheme late, quarantined and fired the rogue agents, and expects the breach to cost about $400 million in reimbursements and security upgrades.

💼 AI’s Coming For Your Job: Microsoft announced 6,000 job cuts company-wide, where software engineers bore the brunt with 817 roles eliminated (40% of local cuts). Product and technical program managers accounted for almost 600 more, and even some AI project leads weren’t spared, while customer-facing teams saw minimal impact. AI is now reportedly writing up to 30% of some code.

🤪 Icy Time Capsule: While testing radar tech over Greenland, NASA stumbles upon Camp Century, a forgotten buried network of tunnels and buildings deep within the ice sheets. Built in 1959, it was part of Project Iceworm, a secret plan to store nuclear missiles under the Arctic.

🤪 Déjà Flu?: Billy Evans, partner of convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Homes (currently serving a 11-year sentence for investor fraud), has reportedly raised millions for a new biotech venture. The startup is named Haemanthus and it is developing laser-based diagnostics for blood, saliva, and urine.

🤪 No More Surprises: As of May 12, The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s new “Junk Fees Rule” will end bait-and-switch pricing tactics often used by live event tickets, hotel stays, and vacation rentals. Hidden charges (towel fees, cleaning charges, booking fee) must now be included in the initial price display.

🤪 Someone Come Check-up On Me: A study of 200,000 U.S. cases of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy, better known as Broken Heart Syndrome, found a consistent 6.5% death rate, with men over twice as likely to die as women. Triggered by severe stress, the condition often leads to heart failure.

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