🔔 The Opening Bell

Good morning.

The markets are at record highs.
The tariff deadline just moved.
And Elon Musk just detonated a new political bombshell.

That’s the setup heading into this week—when earnings, rate chatter, and Trump’s tariff talks will collide with a suddenly more uncertain political landscape.

Also, you guys do not like collectibles—more than 50% of our readers think collectibles investing is “dopamine-fueled gambling.” Understandable, though. Poll results at the bottom of today’s edition.

Plus:

Elon Musk founded a new political party
Short-Term T-bills are quietly outperforming
The White House says there’s “zero chance” of recession
And a polyworking dev just got fired from multiple jobs—again

All that and more below.

We also want to showcase a stock: Surf Air Mobility $SRFM ( ▲ 6.1% ) , which has strong momentum and a recent insider buy from $PLTR ( ▲ 1.7% ) ($2,153,952 in shares on June 18th).

The Best Electric Aviation Stock to Keep an Eye On
Looking for the next big EV opportunity? The market is expanding rapidly, and one stock is standing out with its innovative approach and strong industry partnerships. Find out more about this potential game-changer.

Get a full report here.

📰 Market Headlines

Stocks closed at record highs before the holiday weekend, as the S&P 500 jumped 1.7% to 6,279.35 and the Dow gained 2.3%.

🇺🇸 America’s Newest Party?

Over the weekend, Elon Musk dropped his most disruptive move yet: launching the America Party, a new political faction aimed at flipping a handful of Senate and House seats in 2026.

But this might not be about winning Congress. It looks like it might be about influencing the GOP—without running a full slate of candidates.

“It’s the SpaceX design process—delete part of the process, optimize the design, accelerate cycle time—applied to national politics.”

—from a Twitter analyst’s take on Elon’s real play

Trump isn’t thrilled.
$TSLA ( ▼ 6.66% ) shareholders are rattled (Tesla shares dropped 7% premarket on the news)
And politicians don’t know what to make of it yet either.

But if even a few of Musk’s candidates win, he gains a powerful seat at the table—without having to form a full third-party coalition.

Read why some insiders say this might be his smartest move yet →

🧠 Make yourself heard

Hope you found some value in our alt investments guide this weekend. Let us know which category you’re most interested in learning more about, and we may tailor future Saturday deep dives accordingly!

Which alternative investment are you most interested in learning more about?

Private Credit

Private Equity

Cryptocurrency

Real Estate/Farmland

Infrastructure

Commodities

Structured Products

👇️ Bullet-Point Briefs:

📈 S&P 500 closed at a record 6,279. Dow jumped 2.3%. But the real winner? Short-term Treasury bills are quietly outperforming their long-term counterparts. A guide to determining whether T-bills are a good investment for you →
🧾 Trump signed the "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law on July 4. Critics say it adds $3.9T to the deficit. He says it’ll grow the economy faster than debt. Here’s what it means for your money.
🌎 Tariff deadline extended from July 9 to August 1. The pause on Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs now runs three more weeks—but trade tensions are already rising.

😱 Fear and Greed Index

✈️ The BYD of Aviation Stocks?

Here’s why Surf Air Mobility makes for an interesting aviation stock:

Deep relationship with Palantir $PLTR ( ▲ 1.7% )
Fully-functioning business already (350,000 passengers and ~$119 million in revenue last year)
“One of the most ambitious AI-enabled software platforms in aviation”

Get the full stock report and decide for yourself →

🧐 Headlines of Interest

📉 Recession odds plunge: from 66% to 22% on Polymarket in two months. But the White House says the odds are exactly zero.
💸 Passive income case study: A 37-year-old mom now makes $6,300/month in passive income—and just shared the full breakdown.
🧑‍💻 Polyworking scandal: Soham Parekh, the dev who secretly worked multiple full-time jobs, is in headlines after getting outed by several companies.

🐦️ Twitter roundup

We’ve gone through and picked out some Twitter posts we think you’ll get value from.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s thesis on why the “Big, Beautiful Bill” is going to get the US out of debt, not into more of it →
What are you actually investing in when you buy Bitcoin treasury company stocks? 🤔
A day-by-day rundown of what’s coming up in the stock market this week

🤖 AI/Future/Tech News

VinFast Auto secured a $510 million private credit loan from Deutsche Bank and SeaTown Holdings International.
Malaysian Airlines sealed deals with Airbus worth $20 billion during Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's European tour.
Brookfield Asset Management scouted the purchase of Sofitel Dubai The Palm in a potential $545 million transaction.

🪙 Crypto

Ethereum surged 57% over the past 90 days as the GENIUS Act promised to reduce regulatory uncertainties around stablecoins and smart contracts.
The US Secret Service built an international network to combat cryptocurrency crime, recovering nearly $400 million from scammers.
More than 60 countries signed on to the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), requiring platforms to track and report transactions starting in 2027.
Decent Labs unveiled a new tokenization platform for US founders that combines legal and smart contract infrastructure.

💡 Ideas, trends, and analysis

Gen Z layoff fears flared up, with 64% expecting job loss in the next year.
A Zety survey found 78% believe President Donald Trump's tariffs will make debt harder to manage.
Hong Kong tapped AI supercomputing at over 90% capacity since December, fueled by a $418.6 million government subsidy.

⚔️ Trade wars

President Trump signed tariff letters to 12 countries, offering "take it or leave it" terms with duties as high as 70%.
China curbed public tenders for EU medical devices worth over $6.3 million, retaliating against Brussels' ban on Chinese firms in large procurement contracts.
Beijing and Washington rescinded export curbs on key industrial goods, including rare earths, aircraft engines, and chip design software.

🌍 International Markets

🇮🇳 India's securities regulator SEBI, barred Jane Street Group from accessing its securities market after the US firm allegedly made $4.3 billion through alleged index manipulation.
🇨🇳 China's industrial output growth slowed to 5.8% year-on-year in May, down from April's 6.1%, while retail sales beat expectations at 6.4%.
🇹🇼 Taiwan launched its annual 10-day Han Kuang military exercises, mobilizing thousands of reservists to simulate defense against a potential Chinese attack.

🎤 What you said last time

“It’s humorous to think of investing in collectibles and see the high percentage for “No” here. Cryptocurrency and especially meme crypto is the same thing. Anything is only worth what you can get someone else to pay for it.”

🚚 Market movers

Microsoft slashed 9,000 jobs, or 4% of its global workforce, in its largest layoff round this year.
Oregon’s legislature failed to pass a transportation funding bill, leaving the state’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) preparing for layoffs.
A $415 million casino merger between Sun International and Peermont was scrapped.

📊 Earnings this week

📢 We want to hear from you

We love hearing from you, and we deeply appreciate your feedback.

⭐️ What did you think of today's edition?

5 stars – Bullish on Stocks & Income 🐂

3 stars – Got the job done 👍

1 star – Bad news bears 🐻

📺 What to watch today

A King of the Zoo gets his Crown

That’s all for today. Did I miss anything? Smash the reply button to let me know.

Cheers,
Brandon with Stefan & Wyatt

Examples that we provide of share price increases pertaining to a particular Issuer from one referenced date to another represent an arbitrarily chosen time period and are no indication whatsoever of future stock prices for that Issuer and are of no predictive value. Our stock profiles are intended to highlight certain companies for YOUR further investigation; they are NOT stock recommendations or constitute an offer or sale of the referenced securities. Do your own research.

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