• Markets: Stocks rose yesterday as investors rode the good vibes of Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings from the day before. Salesforce joined the party, soaring to its best day since 2020 after beating earnings expectations and announcing it will be expanding its partnership with Anthropic.

GIDDY UP

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock, Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

Today, JPow successor Kevin Warsh will deliver his biggest speech yet at the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, and the question on everyone’s mind is: Will he stay mysterious, or will he share his thoughts on the economy with the class?

The Fed Chair’s Wyoming address is always closely watched, but eyes may be a bit more peeled this year. It’s Warsh’s first one since being confirmed in May, and so far, he’s been exceptionally cryptic: He abandoned forward guidance on interest rates, he floated the idea of fewer policy meetings, and Wall Street has criticized his inflation commentary as overly vague.

Though Warsh intentionally keeps his trap mostly shut (he’s argued that too much transparency can limit the Fed’s flexibility and make markets overly dependent on its words), economists are losing patience. They want Warsh to speak on…

• Whether he thinks inflation has remained stubborn because the economy is too hot (a case for raising rates) or because of price shocks from tariffs and the Iran war (a case against raising rates).
• How he feels about the Treasury Department’s plan to support the bond market with a buyback, following a bond selloff that sent borrowing costs soaring.

Warsh’s colleagues have been more outspoken

“I believe now is the time to act” on raising interest rates, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack told CNBC yesterday.

She was one of three voting members who wanted the Fed to raise rates by a quarter-point at its July meeting instead of holding steady at 3.5%–3.75%—marking the highest number of unified dissents on a Fed decision since 2016.

Temp check: Based on softer economic data over the past two months, markets are betting that the Fed won’t raise rates at its September meeting. That sentiment could be strengthened or swayed today, depending on how coy Warsh plays his speech.—ML

      

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World

Tour de headlines

Jim Watson/Getty Images

🇨🇦🇺🇸 Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” President Trump signed an executive order that will “immediately” change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” he told reporters yesterday. Like when Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” experts say that the president has the authority to rename the lake—which spans the US–Canada border—for official US government use only, and cannot force other countries to adopt the name. Trump also suggested he could rename the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. The move comes as trade talks between the US and Canada break down, with Canada placing retaliatory tariffs on the US in response to Trump’s 50% tariffs on many goods from the US’ northern neighbor.

🤖 Nvidia reportedly in talks to acquire Hugging Face for $13 billion. On the heels of its blowout earnings, the world’s biggest company by market cap is in talks to buy the AI platform best known for getting hacked, Hugging Face, Business Insider reported. The deal is not official and could still fall apart, but it reportedly values Hugging Face at more than $13 billion. Called the “GitHub of machine learning,” Hugging Face hosts millions of AI models and datasets, which would give Nvidia an in with developers and a funnel to its chips. Neither company responded to Business Insider’s request for comment.

⚽ Reports: UEFA preparing criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino. According to multiple reports, UEFA is readying to file criminal claims in Switzerland (where FIFA is based) over Infantino’s failed $20 billion bid to sell a stake in the World Cup. UEFA, the soccer governing body in Europe, is reportedly seeking documents from Thrive Capital, the investment fund founded by Joshua Kushner that was set to be the anchor investor in Infantino’s proposal. UEFA’s filings suggest that Thrive’s investment may have been a “fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit.” Thrive declined ESPN’s request for comment.—AE

IT’S ABOUT THE DESTINATION

Nick Iluzada

US airlines are catering to Americans increasingly eager to show off their worldliness by venturing to places that stump most map game players. American and United both announced several new overseas flights this week, and expanded service to some of their current international destinations—joining rival Delta in growing their global coverage.

Many destinations will be novel for US airlines:

• American announced seven new routes for summer 2027 yesterday, saying that it’ll become the first US carrier to fly to Austria with a new route from Philadelphia to Vienna. It’ll also debut flights from Philly to Porto, Portugal and Reykjavík, Iceland.
• Earlier this week, United—the airline with the most international routes—said it’ll be the first US carrier to jet to Toulouse and Marseille in France; Okinawa, Japan; Luxembourg; Ibiza and Valencia in Spain; Terceira in the Azores, Portugal; and Ljubljana, Slovenia. It’s also launching flights to Olbia in Sardinia and Catania in Sicily.
• Delta launched its first-ever flights to Malta and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this year.

Carriers are responding to wanderlust. A record number of Americans are vacationing overseas. Airlines say multi-leg trips to less trodden destinations are becoming more popular, and vacation season is stretching past the summer.

Plus, on some of the new routes they’ll be flying on Airbus’s new single-aisle A321XLR plane, which has a longer range than older aircraft.

International flights are also more lucrative: Travelers going abroad are less price sensitive than domestic flyers and more willing to pay for premium upgrades.—SK

      

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RED FLAG

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A legendary roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California known for its extreme speeds and twists has been closed since July after two women fell into comas with similar brain hemorrhages a few days apart, shortly after going on the ride, according to a report from CNN.

Pamela Guillen regained consciousness after two weeks; Naomi Greer-Wilkinson has still not awakened. Six Flags, which has a market cap of ~$1.6 billion, declined to comment to CNN on Guillen and Greer-Wilkinson’s injuries. Those two cases are part of a possible pattern with the X2 coaster, per the report. According to medical and court records found by CNN:

• Christopher Hawley in 2022 and Hilda Farias in 2010 died of brain injuries after going on the ride.
• The coaster has been connected to more than a dozen serious injuries and hospitalizations in its more than 20 years of existence.

Attorneys for the amusement park have argued that a sign warns passengers about “inherent risks” on any amusement ride, and that X2 does not create enough physical force to cause a traumatic brain injury for a “normal” rider, per CNN.

No court hearing: A lawsuit filed by Hawley’s family was scheduled to go to trial next month, but a settlement was reached on Wednesday. Financial terms and details have not been disclosed.—DL

      

Dave’s sports desk

The robots can run really fast now

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

On Fridays, the Brew’s Dave Lozo looks at a sports business story that says a lot more than just the final score of a game.

There were plenty of videos of robots crashing and possessing the upper-body strength of a small child during the second annual World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. But the showcase of mostly Chinese-built android athletes went beyond hilarious viral social clips:

• The flashy events—during which two robots ran a 100-meter dash faster than Usain Bolt, while another set a jumping record—are meant to draw investors to companies like AGIBOT, which won the most medals in its competition debut.
• It can also show design flaws and lead to improved technology, as China and the US compete in the AI development race.

The Games also have more practical events, like making beds and folding laundry—tasks likely to interest potential customers who hate doing chores. Karen Liu, a computer scientist at Stanford University, told Nature that robots still struggle with high-dexterity tasks like hammering a nail, so it may be a while before you can buy one to build your treehouse.—DL

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Quiz

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It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

News

What else is brewing

• The death toll from the catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet this week rose to 390 and is expected to continue to rise, with more than 1,400 people still missing.
• A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s blacklisting of Anthropic was illegal under the First Amendment.
• FAA officials are moving to fire two air traffic controllers after finding that they left work early before a fatal crash on the runway earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• The Weather Company is partnering with prediction market Kalshi to add real-time weather probabilities to its website and app.
• Pernod Ricard, the maker of Jameson whiskey, warned of weakening sales as Americans’ enthusiasm for booze fades.
• The cast of The Sandlot has reunited for a comedy series called Dugout Dads.

recs

• This is what a Jurassic forest may have sounded like, per Science magazine.
• A minimalist web tool to help you wind down at night.
• The best college town for students in every state.
• Elegant glasses that look like they’re from a mid-century bistro.**

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Play

Decipher: Jack reached into the annals of great literature to make this edition of our code-cracking puzzle. See if you can untangle the book quote. Play Decipher here.

Friday puzzle

Change one letter in each of the following words to find three words with a common theme.

STEER

CRASS

PESTER

Answer

Steel, brass, and pewter. Metal alloys!

Source

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: annals, meaning “historical records or chronicles of events.” Thanks to Patrick L. from Seattle for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.