• Markets: Investors did not have a happy hump day. As bond yields rose yesterday following the Fed’s decision to keep interest rates steady despite inflation (more on that below), stocks plunged, giving the Dow its worst day since April 2025.
• Stock spotlight: Hims & Hers fell after the FTC sued the company, claiming it shared users’ health information with advertising platforms, including Meta and Snap. The company denied the allegations.

STEADY, AS SHE GOES

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Fed keeps acting like a teacher who refuses to answer any questions about what’s going to be on the test. While announcing yesterday that interest rates are staying unchanged, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh continued with his tight-lipped approach to communicating future rate expectations.

But…if one were to guess from the few clues out there, it looks like rate hikes could be on the horizon:

• Yesterday’s decision to keep rates stable wasn’t unanimous. Three regional Fed presidents—out of 12 total members on the committee that sets borrowing costs—voted to hike rates.
• Investors largely expect the Fed to hike rates at its next meeting in September, with some analysts saying surging oil prices reaccelerating inflation will necessitate the move.

For now, though, the Fed held its benchmark rate steady in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

Vague king

Still, anyone looking to predict the future isn’t getting big hints from Warsh. The central bank released a concise statement that was almost identical to the one it issued after Warsh’s first rate meeting as Fed chair last month, containing little about its plans other than to “deliver price stability.” The statement noted that the economy is growing “at a solid pace,” despite uncertainty from the Iran war. It also acknowledged that inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target rate, which it attributes to supply disruptions.

Unlike Warsh’s predecessors, who would often give markets a subtle heads-up regarding impending rate changes, he prefers big-picture statements about monetary policy and having investors guide Fed decisions. He thinks central bankers keeping mum forces government bond traders to interpret the economic situation themselves, which the Fed can use to inform rate moves.

Big picture: The lack of hand-holding from the Fed has led to increased volatility in bond markets and a breakdown in investor consensus about future rates. With less certainty than usual, investors priced in a 30% chance of a rate hike ahead of yesterday’s meeting, according to the FedWatch tool.—SK

      

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World

Tour de headlines

Adobe Stock

📉 Meta is spending almost all of its free cash flow on AI-related spending. Meta reported earnings after the market closed yesterday and revealed that its free cash flow was down 91% in Q2 2026 compared to a year prior. The company is still making money, it’s just also spending a lot of it. Meta’s capital expenditures for its AI systems, like servers and data centers, increased 83%, to $31.08 billion. Some of Meta’s investment is already delivering returns, though, as it reported AI improvements led ad revenue to grow by 27%. Meta’s stock fell by nearly 10% in after-hours trading following the report.—HVL

📈 Microsoft held capex plans steady and announced an Azure milestone. The company that gave the world Clippy beat Wall Street’s expectations for its fourth-quarter earnings. For the first time, Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform topped $100 billion in revenue in the fiscal 2026 year, up 41%. The service is larger than Google Cloud but still smaller than Amazon Web Services. The company also left its capital expenditures plan unchanged, news that investors welcomed in the face of burgeoning AI spending elsewhere. Microsoft stock rose by nearly 9% in after-hours trading.—HVL

🤐 Fauci takes the Fifth. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who led the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, repeatedly refused to answer questions during a tense Senate hearing yesterday, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times (which, as you may recall from any cop show, is the right to avoid self-incrimination). Sen. Rand Paul, who led the hearing and aggressively questioned Fauci about the origins of the pandemic, said there would “be repercussions” for his refusal to answer questions. Fauci, for his part, criticized Paul’s “obsession with calling for my prosecution,” and said the senator had only sought his testimony in hopes of getting him to say something that would land him in hot water.—AR

Special delivery

Nick Iluzada

Look, up in the sky! It’s not a bird or a plane…it’s a drone carrying your burrito. The company that lets you order takeout with just a few clicks because calling a restaurant is too much effort is now refining even more sophisticated tech for its new drone delivery business, DoorDash Air.

The US’ largest delivery company said yesterday that it received a certification from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate a commercial drone delivery service. However, DoorDash doesn’t expect to launch these deliveries until the fall.

If you want futuristic food delivery before then, you’ll need to be in one of the locales where DoorDash currently partners with Alphabet’s Wing or Flytrex—partnerships the company said it will keep even as it becomes a competitor.

DoorDash plans to pull off an act of coordination even more complicated than getting your whole family to agree on which restaurant to order from. It aims to use its software edge and build “the full stack” to facilitate drone deliveries, including ground infrastructure and handoff systems.

Why drones? Like DoorDash’s delivery robot Dot, the drones are intended to cut costs per delivery, as well as speed them up, especially three- to five-mile trips, which the company said typically take 25% longer than shorter trips, in part because finding human delivery people takes time.—AR

      

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TERMINAL DIAGNOSIS

Ken Cedeno/Getty Images

Dulles Airport, perhaps most famous for having people movers that have been dubbed “mobile torture chambers,” will receive a $22.5 billion makeover, President Trump announced yesterday. The plans would maintain the classic exterior design, but gut the antiquated interior, bringing the airport’s infrastructure into the 21st century.

President Trump, who was personally involved in the new designs, unveiled the plans in the Oval Office alongside United CEO Scott Kirby—whose airline handles roughly 70% of traffic at Dulles:

• Congress hasn’t appropriated the funds for the extreme makeover, and Trump said the airlines would cover some of the costs. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said bonds will be issued and United is “going to partake in part of the payment.”
• Travel platform View From The Wing expressed concerns, saying the high price tag would make it unlikely for United to be able to offer low-cost fares.

What improvements are coming to the airport featured in Die Hard 2? Its existing concourses will be streamlined and expanded (and, in some cases, bulldozed and replaced). And its current underground rail system will be extended to bring passengers all the way to their terminals, removing the need for the dreaded “people movers” that have bridged that gap since the airport opened in 1962.

Looking ahead…Trump said the ambitious project could hopefully be completed in two years—though the airlines originally expected it to take 60 years.—DL

      

Molly explains the internet

A whale of a t-shirt

New Bedford Whaling Museum

The online world can be a beautiful yet confusing series of tubes. On Thursdays, the Brew’s Molly Liebergall untangles them for you. But…Molly is on vacation IRL, so Abby will disentangle the web this week.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade—and when life hands you bad reviews, make t-shirts. That lesser-known adage has served the New Bedford Whaling Museum well. The Massachusetts historical center has had trouble keeping the merch it made featuring a negative review of the venue on its shelves ever since the internet got wind of it. The one-star Google review, left by a disappointed visitor in 2020, called the museum the “worst aquarium ever.”

To be clear, at the time, the museum dedicated to the region’s once-prominent whaling industry had no aquarium—but it did have lots of giant whale skeletons. It has since installed a small tank, though no whales swim in it.

That hasn’t stopped online shoppers from scooping up the now viral t-shirts and hoodies bearing the review on the back and a whale skeleton on the front:

• The internet’s quest to make the tops the hottest look since whalebone corsets began in November with a TikTok video showcasing them that got 96,000 views.
• Last week, an Instagram post announcing a restock was picked up by news outlets, which led to a 250% increase in sales compared to the week prior, the museum told the Associated Press.—AR

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News

What else is brewing

• US Central Command announced that it had launched a “heavy wave” of strikes on Iran during the early hours of Thursday local time, in retaliation for the attacks Iran initiated on Wednesday against US forces and allies in the region.
• Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was charged with aiding terrorism by Russia.
• Ferrari has reportedly already hit its 2026 sales target for the Luce—its first-ever all-electric vehicle, which was designed by former Apple designer Jony Ive and debuted to much internet mockery.
• Jared Leto was accused of sexual misconduct by 10 women in a new BBC documentary. The actor has denied the allegations.
• eBay and three former executives agreed to pay $56 million to settle a lawsuit lodged by a Massachusetts couple who claimed the company’s employees harassed them, including by sending them cockroaches and a bloody pig mask.
• BTS won’t submit its new album for the Grammys, with its members saying they hope “music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.” That appears to be a reference to a new Asian Pop Music category, which specifies the use of Asian languages.
• Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter who won an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly” in the movie Once, died in a motorcycle crash on Wednesday. He was 56.

recs

• What psychologists recommend for getting out of a negative spiral.
• This game lets you flex your lawn-mowing skills digitally.
• Forget what’s trending for babies; see which names show up in the most song titles.
• This weird ball wears out your dog faster than other toys.**

^{**This is a product recommendation from our writers. When you buy through this link, Morning Brew may earn a commission.}

Play

Brew Mini: Today’s puzzle is both a little larger and a little tougher than your average Mini. Play it here.

Three Headlines and a Lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than a light lunch. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Screamers welcome: Chicago scream club lets people ‘give in and let go’
2. Runners are splurging on $350 shorts and $140 moth-hole tees to look good
3. Couple includes $5k restaurant-style soda machine during ‘dream’ home build, but didn’t expect it to stir up ‘controversy’
4. Backpack or purse? Neither—you should be carrying your things loose

Answer

We made up the one about carrying your stuff loose.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: adage, meaning “a saying often in metaphorical form that typically embodies a common observation.” Thanks to Laura from Atlanta for teaching us that a suggestion saved is a suggestion earned. Submit another Word of the Day here.