Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving the needle.
Disney is making a significant strategic pivot, with CEO Josh D'Amaro confirming the company is actively exploring free streaming tiers for Disney Plus. The play here is straightforward — broader reach drives advertising revenue, and ad revenue increasingly matters as subscriber growth plateaus across the streaming landscape.
Shifting to macro, the services sector posted robust growth in July, but the headline masks a more complicated picture underneath. Businesses are flagging persistent input cost pressures and supply constraints, and the response has been deliberate — companies are throttling new hiring rather than absorbing those costs into margins. That's a dynamic the Fed will be watching closely.
And in politics, progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won his primary in Michigan, defeating the party establishment's preferred candidate. That sets up a fiercely contested Senate race in a state both parties consider essential to controlling the chamber. Expect significant outside money to flow into that race between now and November.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
