Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk.
Robinhood is quietly building toward a milestone that would have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago. The retail brokerage ended August with three hundred eighty-four billion dollars in total platform assets, up twenty-six percent year over year, and analysts are now projecting it crosses the five hundred billion mark by twenty twenty-seven. That trajectory reflects a broader shift in retail participation — younger investors are staying in the market and compounding their positions rather than walking away.
Shifting to education and capital allocation, the Gates Foundation has committed one billion dollars to artificial intelligence development, with four hundred million of that earmarked specifically for schools. The goal is individualized AI tutoring both domestically and abroad. But educators are raising a pointed concern — that without careful implementation, the tool could deepen existing inequities rather than close them. The gap between well-resourced districts and under-resourced ones doesn't disappear just because the technology is free.
And in commodities, agricultural markets are under pressure heading into the weekend. Both wheat and cotton are extending Thursday's losses into Friday morning trade, with cotton down as many as sixty-five points and wheat softer across all three major exchanges. A declining crude oil price and a softer dollar are in the mix, but the selling pressure appears to be carrying its own momentum.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
