Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and money.
SpaceX is closing in on one of the most anticipated IPOs in Wall Street history, and Aswath Damodaran, NYU's so-called dean of valuation, has now seen the prospectus. He had pegged the company at one point two trillion dollars before the filing, and his revised view after reviewing the numbers will set the tone for how institutional investors frame their bids. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have literally dressed their lobbies in SpaceX branding, signaling just how much prestige and fee revenue is riding on this deal for both banks.
Staying with Goldman, CEO David Solomon acknowledged this week that entry-level hiring may contract modestly as artificial intelligence reshapes the talent mix inside the firm. Solomon was careful to say the bank is still bringing in at least two thousand four hundred interns this year, in line with pre-pandemic levels, but the direction of travel is clear. AI is compressing the need for certain junior roles, and Wall Street is beginning to say so plainly.
Meanwhile at Berkshire Hathaway, new CEO Greg Abel has made his mark on the portfolio. With Warren Buffett formally retired, Abel has concentrated sixty-one percent of Berkshire's assets into just five positions, a bold consolidation that signals he intends to run a tighter, higher-conviction book than many observers expected.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
