Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk.
President Trump is floating a significant shift in how Washington relates to the technology sector, suggesting the federal government could take equity stakes in artificial intelligence companies. The framing is notable — he called it a partnership, and the political context matters here: the administration appears to be positioning this ahead of November's midterm elections, where voter anxiety around AI is a live issue. Government as shareholder in frontier tech would represent a structural departure from how the US has historically handled industrial policy.
Turning to commodities, wheat is clawing back some ground Friday morning after a rough Thursday session that saw Chicago soft red winter futures drop between five and a half and seven and a half cents. Open interest fell by roughly one thousand six hundred ninety-nine contracts, concentrated in the July position, suggesting traders were unwinding rather than repositioning. The Friday bounce is a technical recovery for now, not a fundamental reversal.
And on the retail side, independent Amazon sellers are sounding the alarm. Third-party merchants who built their businesses on the platform say fee increases have squeezed margins to the point where diversifying onto TikTok Shop and other channels is no longer optional — it is survival. That pressure on sellers could gradually erode the depth of Amazon's marketplace, which is a long-term structural risk worth watching.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
