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Amazon's third-party seller ecosystem is showing real cracks. Following an April advertising payment policy change, sellers are staging a quiet revolt — pulling volume toward Shopify and TikTok Shop. When the merchants who built Amazon's marketplace start diversifying away, that's a structural revenue signal worth watching, not just a grievance story.
Shifting to labor, demographics may be doing more heavy lifting in the job market than any algorithm. The aging American population is driving outsized projected growth in home health and personal care roles — already among the largest occupational categories in the country. Healthcare workforce demand is becoming a macroeconomic force in its own right, independent of whatever AI displaces elsewhere.
And in the defense and technology space, a startup called Foundation is deploying humanoid robots in active conflict zones, having sent two units to Ukraine for supply transport demonstrations. The CEO is explicitly positioning humanoids for precision military operations. When venture-backed robotics firms find their first real-world proving ground on a battlefield, the investment thesis around this sector gets considerably more serious, and considerably more complicated.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
