Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and money.
Equities are holding modest gains this session, with the S&P five hundred closing up nearly a quarter percent and the Nasdaq one hundred leading the charge, higher by three quarters of a point. Amazon's earnings gave tech the fuel it needed, lifting sentiment broadly and keeping bulls in control heading into the weekend.
Shifting to the policy and legal space, New York State's lawsuit against prediction market platform Kalshi is drawing fresh scrutiny. Legal analysts say the state's real motivation isn't consumer protection but tax revenue — Kalshi currently operates outside the sportsbook framework that generates hundreds of millions in state taxes, and Albany wants that wedge closed.
And in the labor market, artificial intelligence is reshaping how companies hire. Stanford economist Nick Bloom says tech firms are bringing job interviews back in person specifically because coding assessments conducted remotely can no longer be trusted — candidates are using AI tools in real time to answer technical questions, effectively making it impossible to evaluate the human on the other side of the screen.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
