Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk, your closing bell rundown on the stories moving markets and money.
Tesla shares fell sharply after Wednesday's earnings call left investors cold. Elon Musk offered nothing new on the long-rumored SpaceX merger question, which has become the dominant overhang on the stock. When the headline act doesn't deliver, the market sends a clear message, and today it did exactly that.
Shifting to commodities, cotton futures posted a solid session with front-month contracts gaining as much as one hundred two points. The move came despite crude oil barely budging and the dollar holding nearly flat, suggesting the cotton rally is drawing on its own supply and demand dynamics rather than macro tailwinds. Cattle also held firm, with live futures closing up as much as one dollar and seven cents, though some contracts faded more than a dollar off intraday highs. Cash trade remains unreported for the week, keeping price discovery incomplete heading into Thursday.
And on the fintech front, new research from the Bank for International Settlements confirms what many suspected — outfits like Wise and Remitly have meaningfully undercut traditional bank wire costs on cross-border payments. Stablecoins, despite the hype, still face too much friction to compete at scale. The incumbents are losing ground, just not to crypto.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
