The Rundown - Senate Passes GENIUS Stablecoin Bill, Trump Extends TikTok Ban Deadline

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Stock market update for June 18, 2025. Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRundownDaily⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram.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 Wednesday, June 18th. In today's episode, we'll tell you what to expect at today's Fed meeting and why the dot plot is going to be crucial. We'll also tell you about Mark Zuckerberg's nine-figure offers to hire AI engineers and researchers from OpenAI. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why airport lounges

might start getting less crowded soon. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. After a solid start to the week, stocks gave back gains on Tuesday with both the S&P and NASDAQ losing around 0.9% as investors start sweating over the Middle East again.

Tensions between Israel and Iran are flaring back up and things got more tense yesterday as President Trump called for Iran's unconditional surrender. There are even reports that the U.S. might consider a strike on Iran. So yeah, it looks like things are starting to unravel and the situation is getting

worse, which is sending stocks lower and oil prices higher. Now, as investors monitor the situation in the Middle East, there's also another big market moving event happening in Washington, D.C. The Federal Reserve is wrapping up the Fed meeting today and they're going to announce their interest rate decision at 2 p.m. Eastern, followed by Jerome Powell's press conference at 2.30. Now, the odds of a rate cut are pretty much zero, but we are getting a new dot. plot in this meeting. That's the little chart that shows you where each Fed official thinks interest rates will be in the future. And this will be important because it will give investors an idea of how many rate cuts fed officials are thinking about doing for the rest of the year. Right now,

the markets are pricing in two rate cuts, but they don't expect rate cuts to happen until later this year. According to the CME Fed Watch tool, there's only a 15% chance of a rate cut at the next Fed meeting in July. But those odds could shift depending on what the dot plot says and what Jerome Powell says in his press conference this afternoon. Because remember, inflation has been cooling for months now and the Trump tariffs that everyone was freaking out about haven't resulted in higher inflation so far. So we'll see what Jerome Powell has to say

and we'll recap the Fed's decision on our next episode, which will be on Friday, because remember, the markets are closed tomorrow for June 10th. So no show tomorrow, but we'll be back here on Friday to recap the Fed meeting and the rest of the week. Let's run through some headlines. Mark Zuckerberg is trying to build an AI dream team, and he's apparently offering OpenAI employees $100 million signing bonuses

to jump ship and join his company. This information is coming directly from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who talked about this on the Uncapped podcast. See, Zuck has lately been obsessed with building a super intelligence team in an effort to achieve artificial general intelligence, which is basically AI that thinks like a human. Meta already poached the CEO of Scale AI Alexander Wang, after investing around $14 billion into his company.

They also pulled a top researcher from Google's deep mine. So Zuck is spending big on talent. But despite that, Sam Altman said that OpenAI's key people aren't leaving and taking these massive offers. He also threw a little shade at Zuck saying that this strategy by META might not be great for building company culture. So I guess we'll see if this strategy by Zuck to throw all this money around works and makes META a leader in AI.

Honestly, Zuck should consider buying a sports team and doing the same exact strategy. because I think he would have a lot more success. I will say, though, if Zuck ever offers this podcast $100 million sign-on bonus, I think I'd have to at least think about it. You know? Random fun fact, Zuck actually follows me on threads.

I'm not really sure why, but he does. So, hey, man, the DMs are open if you want to talk. Now, as Zuck is dropping nine figures on AI recruiting, the META Smart Glasses team has been making moves and expanding their lineup. According to CNBC, META is moving beyond just the Raybans collab and will soon be launching Oakley and Prada smart glasses. You know, I've owned the meta raybans for over a year now. I use them almost every day. So I think this is a good move.

Especially with the Oakley's. I mean, that should make for some good POV content from athletes. Speaking of content, let's talk about one of the biggest content platforms in the world, TikTok. President Trump is officially extending the TikTok ban deadline again, his third time doing so. And most people expected this was going to happen. There was no friends. freak out on TikTok of the app going dark like there was back in January when the app actually did go dark for a day. Remember, there's currently a law in the U.S. that requires TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company bite dance for national security reasons. The law was passed by Congress last year and signed by President Biden. Now, TikTok sued to block the ban, but this law was

upheld by the Supreme Court back in January. So the law is in effect, but President Trump has delayed the enforcement of this law, and he keeps kicking the can down the road and giving TikTok time to comply with the law. He first granted TikTok a 90-day extension on his first day in office back in January, and during those first 90 days, there was rumors of a potential sale with Amazon and Oracle, but nothing official was signed, so then he extended the deadline again in April. And since then, talks have pretty much fallen apart, because trade tensions between the U.S. and China have ramped up. Because of Chinese law, the Chinese government would have to approve the sale of TikTok, which kind of complicates things because the U.S. and China still have some tensions

regarding trade and tariffs. So now we're in this weird limbo where there's a law that exists that bans the app, but it's not being enforced. My hot take is that this is going to be the last time that TikTok gets an extension. I think either a deal gets done by September or TikTok will actually get banned in the U.S. And I think if a sale does happen, it's going to be either Oracle or Amazon. Maybe even both. Maybe it'll be a joint venture. So we'll see. Maybe we'll see. Maybe we'll We'll be talking about this again after Labor Day, but for now, TikTok lives on. Happy scrolling, everybody. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today.

Circle stock keeps pumping as the company behind the Stablecoin USDC got a boost after the Senate passed the genius bill. This new legislation sets a regulatory framework for stable coins, allowing companies, banks, and institutions to issue their own stable coin. So this is pretty bullish news for Circle. and the stock is up 7% this morning on this news, and shares are up more than 400% from when they IPOed less than two weeks ago. So this has been a rocket ship,

and I think we're going to hear more about stable coins over the next few weeks, months, and years. Now, on the flip side, Zootis stock is down this morning after the pet medicine maker received a downgrade from the investment bank stifle. The bank warns that Zoytus could fall short of revenue expectations because of increased competition in key segments. As a result, shares of the company are down more than 3% this morning after this downgrade. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Chase is increasing the annual fee on their popular Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card

from $550 to $795 a year. That's a 45% increase. You know, back when the card first launched back in 2016, the annual fee was $450, and the sign-up bonuses and perks were so good that it was almost a no-brainer to get the card. But now that a lot of people have this credit card, Chase is ready to squeeze more revenue out of it. Now, the company says they're offering more perks, like a $500 hotel credit, a $300 dining credit, even a free Apple TV plus subscription. So we'll see if people end up holding on to this card.

By the way, there's also rumors that American Express is also planning to raise the annual fee on their platinum cards later this year. So the high-end credit card game is starting to get more expensive, but I guess at least airport lounges might start getting less crowded now. If you are a Chase Sapphire Reserve holder, let me know in the comments on Spotify or YouTube if you plan to keep the card. Because with that annual fee, I mean, it's hard for me to justify keeping the card. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Remember, the stock market is closed tomorrow, so no show for us,

but we're going to be back here on Friday talking about Jerome Powell, the Fed, and recapping the week. Make sure you guys tune in for that. By the way, if you guys enjoy our show and have like 12 X for seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you are listening on Spotify, don't forget the vote in today's Spotify poll.

Leave us a comment on Spotify. Let us know if you plan on keeping your Chase Sapphire card. 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 on Friday.