Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk.
CrowdStrike is the equity story of the day, surging eleven percent after posting a record second quarter. The cybersecurity firm has now climbed sixty-one percent this year, with management crediting what they're calling a Mythos moment — essentially the argument that frontier AI threats are driving enterprise demand for more sophisticated security infrastructure. The market is buying that thesis hard.
Shifting to macro, the dollar found fresh footing Wednesday after personal spending and income data for July came in above expectations, and second quarter personal consumption was revised higher. That combination of upside surprises pushed bond yields up alongside the greenback, reinforcing the narrative that the US consumer, while stretched, is not yet broken.
And in a story that sits at the intersection of tech, regulation, and social consequence, Meta has agreed to an eighteen billion dollar settlement with attorneys general across dozens of states and territories over claims its platforms caused harm to children. The company will also implement changes aimed at limiting teen screen time, though critics are already questioning whether the structural fixes go far enough to meaningfully change how young users experience the apps.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
