☕️ US unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.

In today's newsletter:

📉 US unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July

🏭 SK Hynix reviews its $3B China plant

🍎 Apple tests Chinese memory chips for iPhones

🤖 Alibaba will charge big users of new AI model

🏛️ Senate delays crypto CLARITY Act to September

Plus: 🌍 7 macro news, 🏢 9 corporate news, 💰 7 deal flow, and 📑 6 research & reports.

📊 Before The Bell

• The US economy unexpectedly shed 23,000 jobs in July, a sharp miss against forecasts of an 83,000 gain and a sign the labor market is cooling faster than Wall Street expected.
• The losses were led by a 50,000 drop in local government education, 19,000 in retail and 14,000 in financial activities, while healthcare added 22,000, below its 36,000 monthly average, and prior months were revised sharply lower.
• Unemployment slipped to 4.1% but only because more people left the workforce, with participation at 61.4%, a five-year low, and wage growth stalling as hourly pay rose just 2 cents, cooling annual gains to 3.2%.

• SK Hynix is weighing strategic options for its roughly $3 billion chip-packaging plant in Chongqing, China, potentially bringing in an outside investor rather than selling outright, as US export controls tighten around its Chinese operations.
• The trigger is Washington's revocation of SK Hynix's "validated end-user" status, which from December 31, 2025 blocks equipment upgrades at its China sites, raising doubts about those plants' long-term competitiveness in advanced chipmaking.
• Shares fell 4.88% after the Bloomberg report, as SK Hynix redirects spending home with a $13 billion advanced-packaging plant in Cheongju, South Korea, targeting high-bandwidth memory chips it supplies to Nvidia.

• Apple is testing memory chips from China's CXMT for products including iPhones and MacBooks, aiming to soften a component shortage driven by AI-fueled demand, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
• The early talks with CXMT, China's largest chipmaker by market value, center on supplying components for some devices sold in China, according to the report, though Apple and CXMT did not respond to requests for comment.
• The move follows a broader industry shift, with laptop makers HP and Acer already using CXMT memory chips in devices sold outside the US to ease the same supply crunch, the newspaper said.

• Alibaba plans to start charging heavy commercial users of its next Qwen AI model, seeking a cut of the revenue they earn from it, marking a shift for software the company had largely let customers run for free.
• The move mirrors rival Moonshot, whose Kimi K3 license requires anyone reselling the model as a service and generating more than $20 million in annual sales to strike a commercial deal, with Moonshot seeking up to a 30% revenue share.
• The strategy shows Chinese AI firms converging on a "freemium" model that starts cheap or free and charges for heavy use, with U.S. firms like DigitalOcean already paying to deploy Chinese models priced at roughly a third of Anthropic's.

• The US Senate has pushed its vote on the CLARITY Act, the main bill to set rules for the crypto market, to at least Sept. 14 after Majority Leader John Thune dropped plans to act before the August recess.
• Traders on Polymarket now put the odds of CLARITY becoming law by year-end at about 14%, down from above 80% earlier this year, after Republicans failed to line up the 60 Senate votes needed to advance it.
• The delay leaves roughly 14 scheduled workdays in Washington before midterm campaigning, with unresolved fights over stablecoin rewards banks want restricted, illicit-finance safeguards, and Democratic demands that Trump divest from crypto businesses.

🌍 Macro News

• Trump again considers firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook, White House says. LINK
• Senate passes watered-down Russia sanctions bill to satisfy Trump. LINK
• Global food prices hit three-and-a-half-year high amid heatwaves, conflicts. LINK
• Trump unveils $3 billion in minerals projects to cut China reliance. LINK
• Iran and Oman agree on shipping route through Strait of Hormuz. LINK
• China's central bank has been moving gold into Hong Kong. LINK
• Congo to probe reports of uranium hidden in cobalt exports. LINK

🏢 Corporate News

• Cambricon's first-half revenue more than doubled as China boosts AI chips. LINK
• US Treasury sanctions two crypto exchanges tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. LINK
• Trump Media drops planned Crypto.com ventures, including CRO token vehicle. LINK
• Microsoft opens fourth Azure cloud region in India, in Hyderabad. LINK
• Porsche SE families push Volkswagen management to speed up overhaul. LINK
• Zillow cuts over 500 jobs despite strong revenue growth. LINK
• Lyft's bookings hit record $5.50 billion, but profit missed estimates. LINK
• ION Investment Group fell behind on office rent in three countries. LINK
• Ondo Finance founder's estate sues CEO over alleged control seizure. LINK

📈 Stocks

📑 Research & Reports

• India ties Canada with 22 major AI firms, BIS study finds. LINK
• AI infrastructure boom boosts US output faster than housing bubble did. LINK
• Insurers want more private credit exposure but lack in-house expertise. LINK
• US consumers grew more optimistic in July as inflation expectations eased. LINK
• One in five Americans use AI for financial advice, few trust it. LINK
• Citi raises Brent forecast to $80 amid ongoing US-Iran tensions. LINK

💰 Deal Flow

• Firmus Technologies raises $2 billion to build Asia-Pacific AI data centers. LINK
• Lumilens emerges from stealth with $700 million Series C funding. LINK
• Whatnot raises $545 million to expand AI tools for sellers. LINK
• Legal AI startup Harvey nears $500 million raise at higher valuation. LINK
• Robinhood's WonderFi deal reflects Canada's struggle to scale tech firms. LINK
• Red Violet raises $108.6 million in public share sale. LINK
• NavVis raises €73.7 million to expand digital-twin platform, AI roadmap. LINK

📅 Market Calendar

📚 Finance Resources

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