Tesla stock plunges, layoffs surge, and housing cracks: Markets news roundup
Plus, the 5 states with the best economies in America right now — and the 5 worst
The 5 states with the best economies in America right now — and the 5 worst
The economic health of U.S. states varies widely, due to factors such as job growth, income levels, business development, and overall financial stability.
America’s housing market is cracking
The American housing market, a post-pandemic juggernaut that seemed unstoppable, is finally showing signs of fatigue.
Tesla stock plunges 14% as Trump and Elon Musk break up. Here’s what the numbers show
Tesla stock is having a rough week. Shares have fallen more than 20% in the last five days, and were down 14% on Thursday alone.
Meanwhile, trading volumes — the number of shares trading hands — paint a distinct picture. Look beyond the headline stock moves, and the type of selling starts to come into focus.
5 states where people spend the most on healthcare — and 5 states where they spend the least
Healthcare costs across the U.S. are out of control, with the average American spending around $1,500 out of pocket every year. But in some states, costs are significantly higher than in others.
Layoffs are surging as 2025 becomes the year of the pink slip
U.S. employers announced almost 100,000 job cuts in May, up an eye-watering 47% from the same month last year, according to new data released Thursday morning by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. - Catherine Baab Read More
America is the biggest loser in Trump’s trade war, OECD says
The global economy is slowing. In a sharply downgraded forecast released Tuesday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned that President Donald Trump’s volatile yet sweeping tariff policies are inflicting greater damage than expected, with the effects more concentrated in the U.S. than anywhere else.
Fidelity says 401(k) balances are falling — but Americans don’t seem to be flinching
As markets whipsawed through a turbulent first quarter, American workers didn’t blink: They kept saving for retirement — even while watching their 401(k) balances get smaller.
Tesla stock short-sellers raked in $4 billion as Elon Musk and Trump broke up
Short sellers made a killing Thursday as Tesla (TSLA) shares plunged 14%, their steepest single-day drop in over a year, with traders raking in some $4 billion on the bearish bets, per Ortex data.
Dollar General earnings are good news for investors — and bad news for the economy
Dollar General just posted a great quarter. That’s good news for the retailer, and for investors enjoying a 9% pop in the stock price. It just might not be good news for the broader economy.
Dan Ives’ Wedbush ETF tracking AI stocks launches
Dan Ives, a tech analyst known for his bullish calls on Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla, and the generative AI boom, is offering investors a way to buy into his thesis — literally.
Tesla accuses a former employee of stealing its Optimus robot tech
Tesla claimed in its lawsuit that the former employee launched a rival firm using stolen robotic hand designs
The future of robotics may be humanoid — but Tesla says this move was all too human. The EV giant is suing a former engineer for allegedly stealing trade secrets from its Optimus program and founding a rival AI robotics firm days later.
As Bloomberg reported, Tesla has filed suit against Zhongjie “Jay” Li, a former engineer on its Optimus humanoid robot program, accusing him of stealing proprietary designs and launching a rival startup in the heart of Silicon Valley. According to Tesla, Li didn’t just walk away with company secrets — he allegedly copied some of the robot’s most complex components and recreated them under a new name: Proception Inc.
The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, paints a picture of quiet defection and stealth data siphoning.
Tesla claims Li downloaded sensitive files — specifically those related to robotic hand sensors — onto personal devices in the weeks leading up to his September 2024 departure. Just six days later, Proception was incorporated. Within five months, Proception was demoing a five-fingered “ProHand” that Tesla calls a dead ringer for its design — or, “hands that bear a striking resemblance to the designs Li worked on at Tesla,” according to the complaint.
Now, Tesla wants damages and an injunction blocking Li from using what it has called the most sophisticated hand ever made. Tesla’s Optimus program, still in early development, is aimed at creating general-purpose robots capable of factory labor, household tasks, and even child care. CEO Elon Musk said in May that the robot will be “the biggest product of all time.”
Robot wars
The humanoid robot industry, long stuck in the uncanny valley, is heating up as AI and sensor tech finally catch up to sci-fi ambition.
Several companies, including Figure AI (which just landed investment from Amazon and OpenAI), 1X Technologies, and Apptronik, are racing to deliver general-purpose bots. But making a truly dexterous robotic hand — one capable of gripping, pinching, and manipulating small objects — is one of the field’s holy grails.
That’s the very capability Li allegedly reproduced at Proception.
He was “entrusted with some of the most sensitive technical data in the program,” Tesla’s lawyers said in the filing, and Li's “conduct is not only unlawful trade misappropriation — it also constitutes a calculated effort to exploit Tesla’s investments, insights, and intellectual property for their own commercial gain.”
If Tesla’s allegations hold, the event would reprise a familiar plotline. The company has sued at least three former employees since 2020 for hauling data off to Zoox, XPeng, and most recently, Rivian; all those cases were settled before trial.
On the company’s earnings call in April, Musk said that he expects the scale-up of the Optimus robots to be faster than any of the company’s other products — a million units per year in less than five years. Musk claimed that there would be thousands of the robots working in Tesla factories by the end of the year and promised that the Optimus robots would help produce a time of “sustainable abundance for all.”
The timing is awkward for Musk, who has been pounding the table about Optimus for months, predicting “thousands of Optimus robots working in Tesla factories by the end of this year” and, eventually, “millions per year.” Last week, Optimus’ head of engineering, Milan Kovac, abruptly quit “to spend more time with family abroad,” forcing Autopilot chief Ashok Elluswamy to take the reins.
Losing a top lieutenant while fending off alleged intellectual-property leaks underscores how critical — and fragile — Tesla’s robotics push has become.
Meta sues AI-powered 'nudify' app
Thousands of CrushAI-related ads reportedly evaded Meta's moderation efforts in early January
Meta is suing a company that reportedly ran thousands of ads on its network to promote a so-called "nudify" app. The lawsuit was filed against Joy Timeline HK Ltd., the Hong Kong-based entity behind the app CrushAI, which enables users to generate fake and non-consensual sexually explicit images of other people.
The legal action follows multiple attempts by Joy Timeline to bypass Meta’s ad-review process, after the developer's ads were repeatedly removed for breaking the rules, Facebook's owner said in a statement Thursday.
The lawsuit also follows a letter sent by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in February to Mark Zuckerberg, urging the CEO to address his company’s role in letting Joy Timeline run ads that violate Meta’s policies.
Durbin cited a report by tech news outlet 404 Media and research by Cornell Tech’s Alexios Mantzarlis that found that at least 8,010 CrushAI-related ads ran on Meta’s apps during the first two weeks of January.
Meta updated its policies regarding non-consensual intimate imagery over a year ago, to make it “even clearer” that promoting nudify apps is prohibited.
“We remove ads, Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts promoting these services when we become aware of them, block links to websites hosting them so they can’t be accessed from Meta platforms,” the company said in Thursday’s statement. It also restricts search terms like "nudify," "undress," and "delete clothing" on Facebook and Instagram.
The problem is larger than Meta and CrushAI, however.
A Bellingcat investigation published last year uncovered how sites like CrushAI promote themselves on mainstream platforms.
The investigation described a loosely affiliated network of similar platforms, which include Clothoff, Nudify, Undress, and DrawNudes. The apps have “manipulated financial and online service providers” by disguising their activities to evade crackdowns, Bellingcat reported.
For instance, it found that accounts on G2A, one of the world’s largest online video game marketplaces, were being used to collect payments for Clothoff. The site disguised the sales as if they were for downloadable gaming content.
The network has also tried to exploit payment services and marketplaces such as Coinbase, Patreon, PayPal, Shopify, Steam, and Stripe, in order to receive payments.
Amazon is bringing Whole Foods closer
In a leaked memo, Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel outlined plans to cut down on duplicative efforts and create a leadership team.
When Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017, the upscale grocer was largely allowed to operate with a surprising level of independence. But that era seems to be over. In a sweeping reorganization, Amazon is integrating Whole Foods more deeply into its broader grocery operations — bringing corporate staff under Amazon’s systems for pay, benefits, and performance, and centralizing leadership across its food businesses under one chain of command.
The effort is being led by Jason Buechel, who has run Whole Foods since 2022 and was promoted in January to oversee all of Amazon’s grocery ventures, including Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go. In a leaked internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Buechel called out “duplicative efforts” and missed opportunities, signaling a move toward what he described as “working smarter across teams.”
A new leadership team will now coordinate seven core functions, from tech and operations to real estate and logistics, spanning all Amazon grocery brands. While Whole Foods will retain its quality and ingredient standards, the goal is clear: unify systems, share resources, and accelerate growth in a category where Amazon has yet to gain serious traction.
“To make it even easier to collaborate and innovate on behalf of our customers, we’re continuing to unify teams across our grocery brands,” Lauren Snyder, an Amazon spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “These changes reflect our long-term commitment to making grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable for customers.”
Despite years of experimentation, from cashierless stores to Prime-linked perks, Amazon remains a small player in the $1.5 trillion U.S. grocery market — commanding just a sliver of market share (1.4-1.6%) compared with giants such as Walmart (21.2%) and Kroger (8.6%), even with its network of roughly 530 Whole Foods stores and 60 Amazon Fresh locations. Analysts have long pointed to the fragmented nature of Amazon’s grocery efforts as a key barrier to growth. Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh often operated in parallel silos, with limited coordination between teams working on similar problems.
This reorganization aims to break down those silos — and follows a pattern set by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who has pushed for tighter integration across adjacent businesses such as Audible and One Medical.
“Too frequently we are duplicating efforts and missing easy opportunities for efficiency,” Buechel wrote in the memo. “We have a big opportunity to work smarter across teams and simplify how we approach shared needs.”
Amazon has slowly been blurring the lines between its grocery arms — leveraging Whole Foods as fulfillment hubs, piloting “Amazon Grocery” micro-stores, experimenting with combined delivery from Fresh centers, and launching budget-friendly private labels. Now, with deeper integration, the company is hoping for sharper rollout of local microcenters, cross-brand pricing discipline, unified inventory systems, and more.
The changes won’t affect frontline workers in stores or warehouses, but they do mark a cultural shift. Whole Foods’ corporate employees will now be measured — and rewarded — according to Amazon's corporate norms. That raises questions about whether the company can preserve the grocer’s identity while subjecting it to Big Tech’s metrics and machinelike efficiency. Meanwhile, external threats loom: Cyberattacks on key distributor UNFI could disrupt grocer pipelines.
Still, for Amazon, the logic is clear. As grocery continues to resist full e-commerce penetration, owning the supply chain and store network is a long game. This time, Whole Foods isn’t just an asset on the balance sheet — it’s a core part of the strategy.
Goldman Sachs cuts its U.S. recession odds
As the U.S. and China cool down their trade war, the investment bank sees an economic downturn as less likely
Goldman Sachs thinks a U.S. recession is looking less likely.
The investment bank on Thursday cut the probability of a downturn, from 35% to 30%."Three recent developments point to a somewhat smaller effect of tariffs on the economy," Goldman analysts wrote in a note to investors.
First, President Donald Trump's tariffs seems to be having "a slightly smaller impact on consumer prices and therefore on real income and consumer spending" s0 far, Goldman said. The current annual U.S. inflation rate is 2.4%. While that's higher than the Federal Reserve's 2% target, it remains unchanged since September 2024.
Second, "broad financial conditions have now eased back to roughly pre-tariff levels," the Goldman analysts said. This is presumably a reference to the stabilizing stock market. Following April 2, when Trump announced the sweeping reciprocal tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., otherwise known as "Liberation Day," chaos ensued on Wall Street. The S&P 500 dropped more than 12% in one week. The index has since returned to February levels. Similarly, the tariffs triggered chaos in the bond market: 10-year Treasury yields soared more than 12% in one week, ultimately causing the president to issue a 90-day pause on the levies. Yields remain high but have since stabilized.
Third, "measures of trade policy uncertainty have moderated a bit following steps toward de-escalation," Goldman said. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has announced multiple deals with trade partners, which have quelled fears of a worst-case scenario, while offering businesses some clarity on supply chains. This "de-escalation" is likely in reference to the US-China trade talks, which culminated yesterday in London.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent led the American delegation in the talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. As part of the deal, Chinese goods imported into the U.S. are still subject to a 55% tariff, however this is down from a peak of 145%. Meanwhile, China will keep a 10% levy on U.S. goods.
Both sides also agreed to concessions. Beijing has agreed to resume approving rare-earth mineral licenses for U.S. companies, which are critical for automakers and manufacturers. In return, Washington has agreed to lift export controls on jet engines and related parts, plus ethane, a chemical required for producing plastics. Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday: “Our deal with China is done" — but the president added that the agreement remains "subject to final approval."
Despite a slightly more optimistic outlook for economy, Goldman's forecast for interest rates remains unchanged. The bank doesn't foresee the next cut until December, followed by two more in 2026, reaching a terminal rate of 3.5-3.75%.
Howard Schultz likes Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's plan to be a 'third place' again
The former Starbucks CEO said in a surprise appearance that he's never been more optimistic about the future of the company than he is now
When Starbucks’ former leader Howard Schultz first heard about the “Back to Starbucks” plan, he “did a cartwheel in [his] living room.” At least, that’s what he told CEO Brian Niccol in front of about 14,000 others at this year’s Starbucks Leadership Experience in Las Vegas.
Schultz, who remains closely associated with the company despite stepping down after another stint as CEO and leaving the board in 2023, said he’s optimistic about Starbucks’ future — despite some worrying outside signs that have included disappointing quarterly earnings, falling sales, and protests.
“I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of the company than I have been today,” he said in a surprise appearance at the conference.
Niccol has focused on making Starbucks feel like a coffee company again.
His ambitious “Back to Starbucks” plan includes updates to make stores feel more like a “third place” (comfier furniture, a no-loitering policy), a sequencing algorithm to get drinks in customers’ hands more efficiently and quickly; a dress code update; requiring patrons’ names to be handwritten on cups; mobile order scheduling; restoring the condiment bar; and a simplified menu. Starbucks recently announced that it’s partnering with Microsoft Azure to get AI help for its baristas.
“[The “Back to Starbucks” plan is] short, it’s to the point, and it’s exactly the tip of the spear of who we should be, and who we are,” Schultz said. “And we are, above all else, a coffee company.”
Niccol took the reins in September after being lured away from his role as Chipotle’s CEO to take over the struggling coffee chain — after the board ousted Schultz’s hand-picked successor, Laxman Narasimhan. (Schultz, for his part, reacted to the news of Narasimhan’s firing by saying Niccol was exactly the leader Starbucks needed.) And investors seem to be reacting well to Niccol’s plans; the company’s stock is up almost 11% in the last month and almost 20% in the last year.
The current CEO has particularly prioritized making Starbucks that “third place” — somewhere outside of home and work where people can gather and spend time. Being a “third place” was the first thing Niccol and Schultz talked about; Schultz said that at a time of global anxiety and uncertainty, giving people a place to come where they can feel anchored by community is more important than ever.
“The third place is not something we need to reinvent — it’s who we are,” Schultz said. “People all over the world are longing for human connection. … We are a company that is steeped in humanity. We are steeped in human connection, because of all of you and the people you represent.”
While Schultz has stepped back from Starbucks, he remains a key company figure because of his role in its growth and success. So what he says carries plenty of weight on Wall Street.
He said Wednesday that Starbucks had struggled recently because “the culture was not understood. The culture wasn’t valued. The culture wasn’t being upheld."
But Schultz seems to be on board with Niccol’s plans for a company turnaround.
“Our success is not an entitlement – it must be earned,” Schultz told conference attendees. “Be true to the coffee. Be true to your partners. Let’s surprise the world again.”
Trump's $5 million fast pass toward U.S. citizenship has gone live
Trump wants wealthy foreigners to invest in the U.S. and help pay off the swelling national debt. Details on the program remain scarce
The Trump administration launched a new website on Thursday aimed at attracting foreign nationals to apply for a fast-track to U.S. citizenship — if they have gobs of cash.
The website for the "gold card" included a portal for interested applicants to submit their name, region of origin, email, and family status. There's an image of a gold card with President Donald Trump's stern face on it, flanked by the Statue of Liberty and a bald eagle.
Trump has expressed enthusiasm for wealthy foreigners to invest in the U.S. and help pay off the swelling national debt.
He has said it would provide permanent residency status, similar to a green card.
"Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card," Trump said in February. "They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it's going to be extremely successful."
The Trump Card
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at the time the program was intended to replace the EB-5 visa, a similar route to citizenship for foreign investors who invest at least $500,000 and generate at least 10 jobs . Eliminating that visa program might require Congress to sign off on it since it was renewed in 2022.
Details of the so-called gold card program remain scarce, and it still may face legal challenges.
Wall Street isn't buying GameStop's Bitcoin play — and the stock plunges 18%
GameStop wants to raise $1.75 billion to help fund the purchase of Bitcoin
Investors aren’t sold on GameStop’s strategy to stockpile Bitcoin.
The ailing video game retailer unveiled plans on Wednesday to raise $1.75 billion via convertible notes to help fund the purchase of the cryptocurrency. Shares in GameStop were down more than almost 18% on Thursday morning.
The proceeds from the offering will go toward general corporate purchases, including “making investments in a manner consistent with GameStop’s Investment Policy and potential acquisitions.”
While the statement made no explicit reference to cryptocurrencies, it’s assumed this is where some of the funds will be allocated. That's because GameStop bought 4,710 Bitcoin last month, worth more than half a billion dollars at current market prices. Moreover, the move aligns with a recent trend: several publicly traded firms have been tapping investors for billions via convertible notes in order to put Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
This includes Trump Media & Technology Group. Last month, it raised $2.5 billion to fund a cryptocurrency reserve. Shares in TMTG dropped almost 14% following the announcement.
There are currently 30 companies with Bitcoin reserves listed on the Nasdaq, with treasuries worth a combined total of more than $85 billion — about 2% of the coin’s total market cap.
The token has had staggering returns — up 60% in the past year, thereby boosting balance sheets for many companies. Meanwhile, the pitch for investors in the stock market is that treasuries provide exposure to crypto’s steep gains without needing to hold the assets.
Business intelligence company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy (MSTR), is considered the blueprint. Its CEO Michael Saylor has spearheaded using stock sales and debt financing to build a Bitcoin war chest worth over $40 billion, a move that has made the firm the 40th largest on the Nasdaq 100 index.
GameStop’s attempt to cash in on the frenzy is just one of many efforts to find new revenue streams. The rise of online shopping and streaming services has plunged its brick-and-mortar business into relative obsolescence over the the past decade. Its shares declined 95% between 2013 and 2020.
In light of this demise, GameStop became a “meme stock” in 2021, a term for shares in ailing businesses that gain popularity among retail investors through social media. This all makes GameStop’s recent foray into crypto unsurprising. The appeal of meme stocks — volatility, anti-establishment, viral — is analogous to meme coins. Traders thus typically also trade crypto tokens, and GameStop has a cult-like status among the community.
Boeing stock slumps after a deadly Air India crash of a 787 Dreamliner
The fatal crash, which killed at least 200 people, is the first for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner
Boeing stock was down some 6% Thursday morning after a fatal crash involving one of its 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.
The plane, operated by Air India, tragically crashed just minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing many of the people onboard and causing additional casualties on the ground, according to Indian officials. It's not yet clear if there are survivors from the flight itself.
The plane was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport when it went down in a densely populated area, hitting residential buildings, a medical college, and offices near the airport. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
The event marks the first fatal crash involving a 787 Dreamliner since the aircraft entered service in 2011. In addition to the human toll, it delivers a devastating blow to what’s been thought of as one of Boeing’s most modern jets. While the Dreamliner faced some battery-related groundings early in its history, it has, until now, avoided the kind of tragedies that plagued Boeing’s 737 MAX program, which saw two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, and additional issues in 2024.
Spokespeople for Boeing have said the company is in contact with Air India and assisting investigators.
Safety questions surge back into focus
Just days ago, a raft of articles speculated about whether or not Boeing's turnaround might finally be turning. Now the crash revives old concerns and surfaces new ones just as recently-installed CEO Kelly Orthberg was attempting to restore public confidence.
Shares of key Boeing suppliers, including Spirit AeroSystems and GE Aerospace, also dropped approximately 2% each. Some analysts described the stock moves as knee-jerk reactions as fears about Boeing’s safety issues take hold once more.
As emergency responders remain on the scene in India, aviation specialists now turn to black box data for signs of whether this is an isolated incident or the start of another painful chapter.
Boeing’s response will be closely watched, too.
Bond auctions are routine. The attention they’re getting is not
Rising U.S. debt and a shaky 20-year sale last month are turning routine Treasury auctions into high-stakes tests of investor confidence
The U.S. Treasury is wrapping up two days of debt auctions, with Wednesday seeing a $39 billion sale of 10-year bonds and Thursday capping off with a $22 billion sale of 30-year bonds. The government regularly holds such auctions to fund its operations, and typically only wonks and bond traders mind the numbers. But lately, more and more people are tuning in.
Behind the growing attention is a particular worry. What if buyers stop stepping forward? What if demand falls – and falls hard?
Treasury auctions happen online. Investors say how much they want to buy and the minimum yield they’ll accept. The government fills the lowest-rate bids first, working up until all the bonds are sold. Everyone whose bid is accepted gets the same final rate — the highest yield the government is willing to accept.
For now, bidders are still showing up in force. Wednesday’s $39 billion sale of 10-year notes was well received, with yields only slightly below expectations and signs of healthy demand. Though one auction did spark volatility across the broader market, April and May’s auctions, held in the wake of Trump’s tariff-heavy “Liberation Day” announcement, also saw investor appetite below panic-button levels.
Fears of market turmoil
Still, fear persists that one weak auction could send bond yields spiking and markets tumbling.
That’s especially true for Thursday's 30-year auction, where yields hover just below the psychologically significant 5% line. A bad sale could push them over the edge again. A strong one might calm nerves.
But it’s not just the usual market mechanics in play. The rising scrutiny of these once-sleepy, even boring events reflects widespread unease with the state of U.S. debt. With deficits ballooning, interest costs rising, and President Donald Trump proposing a second round of tax cuts, auctions like Thursday's are becoming tests for global faith in American fiscal discipline. That is, solvency.
“The durability of the ‘sell U.S. assets’ trade may be overstated,” BMO Capital Markets' Ian Lyngen said. Still, the fact that anyone outside of fixed-income desks is pondering that trade at all marks a significant shift.
For now, demand for U.S. debt is holding up. But the question of “how long can this last?” is no longer just for bond geeks. It’s becoming a national one.
Japan’s bond troubles may be a warning sign
One reason investors and commentators are watching closely because they’ve seen what can happen when demand falters — and seen it recently. In Japan, a series of poorly received auctions has shaken the country’s historically stable bond market. Yields on 30- and 40-year Japanese government bonds have soared to multi-decade highs, and insurers who hold them are facing tens of billions in paper losses.
Now the Japanese government is considering direct intervention. According to Reuters, Japan may begin buying back super-long bonds issued at lower interest rates in an attempt to absorb some of the over-abundant supply. The plan is still under consideration, with the hope being that such buybacks would calm a market growing increasingly anxious about Japan’s rising debt load.
Despite assurances from Tokyo, demand for ultra-long bonds continues to deteriorate. What’s more, because Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio is about 260% (and the Bank of Japan is already sitting on more than half the market), the country has few good options.
The fear is that the U.S. could one day face similar pressure: too much supply, not enough demand, and a loss of faith from investors who’ve long treated U.S. government debt as one of the world’s safest assets.