The Rundown - Meta Poaches OpenAI Employees, U.S. Dollar Reaches Three-Year Low

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Stock market update for June 26, 2025. Stocks mentioned: Nvidia (NVDA), Meta (META), Micron (MU), Unity (U), Amazon (AMZN). This video is for informational purposes only and reflects the views of the host and guest, not Public Holdings or its subsidiaries. Mentions of assets are not recommendations. Investing involves risk, including loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. For full disclosures, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Public.com/disclosures⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Thursday, June 26th. In today's episode, we'll discuss NVIDIA's journey to get back to all-time highs. We'll also tell you why the U.S. dollar is weakening. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how much money Jeff Bezos is planning to spend on his wedding. We get a great show for you today. Let's go.

Stocks had an up and down day of trading on Wednesday with the S&P 500 ultimately finishing the day flat. The NASDAQ did squeeze out a gain of 0.3% thanks in part to the rally in Nvidia stock. The AI chipmaker jumped 4% on Wednesday and closed at all-time highs, regaining the title as the most valuable company in the world with a market cap of $3.7 trillion. You know, Nvidia stock has had such a chaotic year because remember, back in January, the stock tanked 17% in a single day after DeepSeek was released out of China. Then things got worse in April after Trump hiked tariffs and started a trade war with the rest of the world. In fact, Nvidia's stock was down more than 30% at its lows in April. But since bottoming out in April, the stock has rallied more than 60% to get back to all-time highs. And I feel like this rally from Nvidia has almost been under hype, you know,

but the company has overcome a lot of challenges from trade restrictions to China to tariffs, and they're sitting at record highs right now. So shout out to everyone that was buying up Nvidia's stock over the last few months. And as for the rest of the market, while both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are less than 1% away from record highs. I mean, imagine going back in time like two and a half months and telling someone in April that the markets might be setting record highs, before the 4th of July. I mean, that is pretty wild. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with the U.S. dollar. The value of the U.S. dollar is at its lowest level in three years.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the dollar's strength against six major foreign currencies, is down 10% this year, which is the worst start to the year since 2003. And just comparing it to the euro, the dollar is down 11%. And it's at its weakest level since September. of 2021. So that European summer vacation you got coming up, well, it just got a bit more expensive. Now, many analysts thought the U.S. dollar would strengthen under President Trump, but the uncertainty around tariffs and trade policy has investors losing confidence and dumping their dollars for other currencies. And there's also concerns around the uncertainty at the Federal Reserve. You know, President Trump has been cyberbullying Jerome Powell to cut interest rates for months now.

He even threatened to fire him a few months ago. Now, while President Trump has backed off on firing Jerome Powell, there are new reports that Trump might announce the next Fed chair this summer, even though Powell's term doesn't end until May of 26. See, by naming his pick early, President Trump could start shaping market expectations without technically firing Jerome Powell. Right now, the leading candidate for the next Fed chair is Treasury Secretary Scott Besson. But the markets really don't like this uncertainty and drama, especially when it threatens the credibility and the independence of the Fed.

And I think that's another reason why the dollar is weakening this year. Now, to be fair, a weak dollar isn't all that bad. It actually helps some U.S. businesses because it makes U.S. exports cheaper for international buyers, which is great for companies that do a lot of business overseas. It also makes it more affordable for tourists to visit the U.S. But it's just kind of a bummer that this is happening during the summer because if you have a trip coming up to Nice or Santorini, you might want to add like 10% to your budget. Let's shift gears and talk about.

Meadow because they just pulled off a mini heist poaching three top AI researchers from OpenAI. The trio are based in Zurich, Switzerland. They had previously worked at Google's deep mind before joining OpenAI. And now they're headed to Mehta to join Zuck's super intelligence team. And what's funny is that this comes just days after Open AI CEO Sam Altman called out Mark Zuckerberg for trying to hire away OpenAI's top talent with $100 million offers. But Sam Altman went on to say that the top guys at Open AI weren't taking Zuck's calls. Well, it turns out that not everyone is turning down Zuck's blank checks.

And I also wonder what Mark Zuckerberg is going to do next. There are reports that he's been talking to more AI startups for a potential acquisition, like the Video AI Startup Runway, which was recently valued at $3 billion. He's also been talking to the AI search engine perplexity, which was valued at $14 billion. But apparently nothing came from those deals. But it just shows that everything is on the table. for Zuck. He doesn't want to lose the AI wars. And while the stickers shot from the numbers that Zuck is throwing around to hire AI talent does sound crazy, you got to remember that META has

committed to spending $65 billion on AI this year alone. I think most people thought that that money would go towards AI infrastructure and data centers and AI chips. Well, it turns out some of that money is going towards AI talent as well. A few hundred million dollars here and there is a drop in the bucket when you're committed to spending $65 billion. So, yeah, Yeah, if Sam Altman sees a 2 p.m. dentist appointment on his employees' calendars this summer, he might want to start prepping a counteroffer pretty soon. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Micron stock is jumping this morning after delivering earnings and revenues that topped Wall Street estimates

and reminded everyone why it's been one of the hottest chip stocks of 2025. The chipmaker's sales jumped 37% in the recent quarter. their data center revenues meanwhile more than doubled, and Micron gave an upbeat forecast for total sales in the current quarter. See, Micron's key product is their high bandwidth memory. It's a component that's used in machines that develop and run AI tools. And the market opportunity for high bandwidth memory goes beyond just AI. Micron is expected to ramp up efforts to generate revenues from other categories like

EVs and gaming chips. So investors like the sound of that. Micron stock initially popped as much as 7% in early trading this morning, but it has given back most of those gains. Overall, though, the stock has gotten up more than 40% this year. Now, on the flip side, Unity stock is falling this morning after Bank of America downgraded the stock with a price target of $15 per share.

The downgrade is attributed to concerns that Unity's game development engine won't be able to boost revenue with the subscription model. Now, despite 70% of mobile games being built with the Unity engine, only 10% of these games are built using the paid version of Unity, according to Bank of America. Bank has also raised doubts about Unity's ability to monetize through ads, which is adding more pressure on the company's revenue model.

As a result, Unity's shares are down 5% this morning and trading around $23 a share. So Bank of America thinks that this stock has more room to fall. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Jeff Bezos is getting married this weekend in Venice, Italy, to his fiancé, Lauren Sanchez, and it will be quite the expensive event. The wedding is expected to cost up to $76 million, according to the Venetian government authorities. And the guest list is stacked with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Ivanka Trump to Leonardo DiCaprio to Kim Kardashian. I wonder if Bezos invited other tech CEOs.

Like, is Zuck going to be there? Is Sundar Pichai or Tim Cook going to be there? Now, while this sounds like a pretty big time wedding, the local residents in Venice aren't happy about it. Some Venice locals are expressing frustration over the city's decisions to welcome wealthy tourists while failing to meet the needs of local residents. So there's going to be a bit of drama around this wedding, maybe some protests, while Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez exchange vows.

I also wondered, though, what Jeff Bezos is putting in the wedding favor bags. Like, if I'm a guest going to this wedding, I'd want at least, like, a $500 Amazon gift card? Like, that's got to be the minimum, right? Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. We got one more episode tomorrow to wrap up the week. Also, we're going to be answering some listener questions in tomorrow's episodes.

If you guys have any questions for us, leave a comment on Spotify or YouTube or Instagram to ask those questions, and we'll try to answer them in tomorrow's episode. And while you're at it, don't forget to give us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast. All that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Thank you.