Welcome to the deep dive. We're here to give
you that shortcut, you know, to being really
informed without getting buried in headlines.
Exactly. We've gone through a whole stack of
sources, articles, notes, all that, and pulled
out what you actually need to know. Think of
this as your quick way to get up to speed on
the big shifts. Markets, tech, politics. Music.
Even the weather across the U .S. We're trying
to connect the docs for you. Right. So today
we'll hit Wall Street. the latest in AI. A pretty
interesting political clash. Some music updates,
and yeah, what Mother Nature's been up to. Okay,
let's dive right in. Wall Street first. We saw
some gains, generally positive. The Nasdaq actually
hit another record high. Yeah, it's seventh since
late June, around 20 ,640, but you know, trading
was kind of light. Cautious optimism, maybe.
What's driving that caution, though? Is it inflation
worries? I think that's a big part of it. The
June CPI report just came out. It showed a 0
.3 % rise. That's quite a jump from May's 0 .1%.
OK, 0 .3. So that translates to about 3 .5 %
annually. Pretty much. And the word from the
sources is that tariffs are really starting to,
well, bite. Meaning prices are up on imported
stuff. Exactly. Things like coffee, furniture,
electronics, apparel. Yeah. You're seeing it
there. And politically. I saw President Trump
called for rate cuts saying prices are low. Right.
Well, the White House suggested this somehow
proves he's stabilizing inflation. It's interesting
framing. But what does this actually mean for
the Fed? Does this CPI number make them less
likely to cut rates? Oh, definitely. Trader bets
for a July cut basically vanished right after
the report. It adds, you know, complexity. Got
it. And speaking of tariffs impacting things.
That huge Waters and Bechtin -Dickinson deal.
Yeah, $17 .5 billion stock and cash. And Bechtin
-Dickinson was struggling with that unit because
of tariffs, wasn't it? That's the report, yeah.
Waters thinks this deal doubles their potential
market in clinical labs to like $40 billion?
Massive! But the market reaction was mixed. Well,
Bechtin's stock went up, but Waters dropped pretty
significantly, like 14%. Worries about debt and
complexity, I think. Okay, let's shift to tech.
NVIDIA. big news there. Mm -hmm. They're set
to resume selling those advanced AI chips to
China. The H -20 GPU, for example. After the
U .S. had banned them previously, why the change?
It seems like it's part of bigger trade talks,
maybe involving rare earth minerals. AMD is apparently
going to resume shipments, too. Interesting.
But are people happy about this? Lawmakers? Well,
some are definitely concerned, calling it dangerously
inconsistent with the previous tough stance.
It's that classic tension trade versus security.
And still on AI, that energy and AI summit in
Pittsburgh. Huge investment numbers being thrown
around. Yeah, something like $90 billion announced
just for Pennsylvania. Wow. From who? Pig names.
Google's putting $3 billion into hydropower for
data centers. CoreWeave's building a $6 billion
AI data center. Blackstone's committing $25 billion.
It really feels like an AI arms race, doesn't
it? Totally. But not just software. It's the
infrastructure, the power. These AI data centers
use a ton of electricity. Right. Stressing the
grid. Absolutely. So these investments are fundamental.
OK. And quick on crypto, that big regulation
bill. Yeah, it failed a procedural vote in the
Senate. So crypto week kind of stalled out. OK,
move into politics. This is, well, it's about
the Jeffrey Epstein files. Right. The Trump Justice
Department under AG Pam Bondi did a systematic
review. And their finding? Essentially, nothing
to see here. No incriminating client list found.
Reaffirm the suicide ruling. How did that go
down, particularly with Trump supporters? Not
well in some circles. It sparked what some reports
called an open revolt. People felt betrayed.
Any specific reactions? Yeah. Figures like Benny
Johnson called it the worst response from Trump.
Michael Flynn said the affair isn't going away.
Matt Walsh basically said, we don't accept obvious
bullshit, strong stuff. What was Trump's own
response to the backlash? He called the files
a hoax made up by, you know, Obama, Hillary,
Comey, Biden folks, and punted the decision on
releasing anything more to AG Bondi. And what
about Congress? Did they try to force the release?
Democrats tried. They put forward a measure to
publish all the files online. House Republicans
blocked it. 2 -11, 2 -10, write down party lines.
Even though some Republicans, like Speaker Johnson,
has said they should release everything. Exactly.
Shows a real split, or maybe just complicated
internal politics there. Okay, let's switch gears
completely. Music. What's happening? Well, some
drama for Beyoncé. Unreleased music and tour
plans were stolen from her choreographer's car.
Laptops, hard drives. Gone. Oh wow. Any leaks
yet? Not that we've seen, thankfully. She's apparently
beefed up security. Understandable. What about
the charts? Drake dropped a surprise single.
What did I miss? Debuted at number two? Who's
number one? Alex Warren's Ordinary is still there,
sixth week. And Morgan Wallen, still huge, two
songs in the top five. Anyone else making waves?
Keisha, her new independent album, just titled
Pronounced Period. OK. It debuted at number one
on several Billboard charts. Album sales, final,
Dance Electronic, a really big moment for her
artistically and commercially. That's great for
her. What else? Blackpink released their first
single of 2025 called Jump. kicking off a tour.
And the Zac Brown band announced a new album,
Love and Fear, with some cool collaborations.
Like who? Dolly Parton, Snoop Dogg, Marcus King.
Plus they're doing a residency at the Sphere.
Wow. Busy times. And you have one more wild card
music story. Oh yeah. A jazz musician in NYC
apparently scared off a stalker by screaming
death metal vocals at them. You're kidding. From
what band? Kitty! You really can't make this
stuff up. Yeah. Okay, finally, let's check the
weather. What's the main story? Heat. Pretty
much coast to coast above normal temperatures.
Give us some examples. Okay, New York City's
looking at a heat wave. Feels like over 100 degrees
Fahrenheit. Florida's got heat alerts, feels
like 105 to 110. Oof. California. Inland areas
are roasting 100 to 110. Even got a statement
from Governor Newsom about it. Phoenix hit 107
actually. And it's not just heat, right? Storms
too. Yeah, definitely. There's a potential tropical
system in Vest 93L brewing in the Atlantic. Where
is it headed? Towards the Gulf. Expected to bring
heavy rain. may be flooding from Louisiana across
to the Florida panhandle. Flood watches are up.
Anywhere else. Severe storms hit the upper Midwest.
Hail, flash floods, even a few tornado warnings
up in North Dakota. And the Southwest monsoon
is starting. So Arizona gets storms. Scattered
storms, yeah. With the usual risks there. Dust
storms, haboobs, flash floods. OK, so wrapping
this all up, quite a week. NASDAQ record, that
CPI jump. The huge AI investment number, nearly
90 billion. And then just oppressive heat, feeling
like 110 in places. It really shows how everything's
kind of tangled together, doesn't it? Trade deals
affect ships. Tariffs affect mergers. Stolen
music makes news. It's all connected, even when
the stories seem totally separate. So the final
thought for you is, in this world just flooded
with information moving so fast, what does it
actually mean to be well -informed? Yeah, especially
when you see these deep, sometimes hidden connections
between everything. Something to chew on. We'll
leave you with that. Thanks for joining us on
the Deep Dive.