Electric Air Taxis Prepare for Takeoff

A cab ride from Midtown Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport today costs roughly $100, can take up to two hours, and offers an unenviable view of the Van Wyck Expressway. Paul Sciarra, executive chairman of Joby Aviation, believes there is a better way. A passenger will soon cover the same route in under ten minutes, he says, from an altitude of more than a thousand feet — at a comparable price, according to Fortune's Alexei Oreskovic.

Joby's aircraft are known as eVTOLs — electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. Six electric rotors lift the aircraft straight up, then tilt forward to propel it through the air, producing only a fraction of a helicopter's noise. Each aircraft carries four passengers and a pilot, with a range of up to 100 miles at altitudes as low as 1,000 feet, approximately the height of the Chrysler Building. Beginning this summer, a series of pilot programs across the United States will allow Joby and several competitors — including Archer Aviation, Beta Technologies, and Vertical Aerospace — with all-electric aircraft to begin carrying cargo, and eventually passengers, in real-world trials. The programs represent a critical step toward FAA type certification, the regulatory milestone required before commercial passenger service can begin.

U.S. Traders Brush Off Global Decline Ahead of Palantir Earnings

S&P 500 futures rose 0.49% in morning trading, after the index gained 0.7% in the previous session. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 advanced 0.43% in early dealings, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 remained flat before midday.

Asian markets told a different story. South Korea's KOSPI plunged 5.12%. Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 0.94%. India's Nifty 50 rose 0.74%. China's CSI 300 fell 0.98%.

Brent crude stood at $83 per barrel. Bitcoin traded at $62,585.

Equities declined across much of the world today, but U.S. futures were higher before the opening bell in New York as investors looked ahead to Q2 earnings reports from Palantir (today), as well as SpaceX and AMD (both tomorrow). Palantir, whose data analytics platforms serve both U.S. defense agencies and commercial clients, has become one of the most closely watched AI-proxy stocks; its government contract revenue and commercial customer growth are typically scrutinized for signals about enterprise AI adoption. Palantir shares climbed 2.83% in premarket trading. SpaceX and AMD were also marginally higher before the bell.

On the macroeconomic front, traders appear to have fully priced in a Federal Reserve rate increase for September. CME Fedwatch placed the probability of a hike at 65% this morning. "It seems the only way the Fed can avoid hiking in September is if the U.S. data is poor enough. A major input to that decision comes this week in the form of U.S. jobs data, including JOLTS job openings, ADP [private payrolls], and Friday's non-farm payrolls report [NFP]," ING's Chris Turner wrote in an email. The consensus expectation for Friday's NFP figure is approximately 75,000 to 80,000 new jobs. "Probably not quite weak enough to rule out a Fed hike," Turner added.

Iran and Oman Near Deal on Strait of Hormuz as Trump Stands Down

Brent crude fell to $83 per barrel, down from a Friday high of $91, after President Trump announced he had called off a planned military strike on Iran, contingent on being able to "rapidly make a DEAL." The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supply transits daily, has been a focal point of market anxiety throughout the conflict.

According to the BBC: "We were all set to go," Trump said. "The reason they asked is [that] they think there's a deal. There's a deal on Hormuz, and there will be a deal on the nuclear."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stated that Iran and Oman were close to reaching an agreement on the administration of the Strait of Hormuz. "We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern route nor the southern route — but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security," he said on state television. He also declared that the Strait of Hormuz "will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th," referring to the day the war began.

As has become customary, few specifics about the prospective deal emerged. Much of the reporting on today's developments has emphasized a sense of déjà vu: this is not the first time Trump has threatened severe military action against Iran, not the first time he has subsequently pulled back, and not the first time he has declared that a deal is imminent.

AI Boosts GDP Growth While Suppressing Wages, Studies Find

Construction of AI data centers now constitutes a meaningful share of U.S. GDP growth, yet AI's impact on wages is suppressive — particularly for lower-paid workers — according to two separate analyses released last week. The dual findings underscore a tension at the heart of the current AI investment cycle: the same technology driving macroeconomic growth may be simultaneously reshaping the distribution of earnings across the workforce.

Dissecting Q2 GDP growth of 1.5%, Pantheon Macroeconomics' Oliver Allen noted that for the seventh consecutive quarter, "fixed investment" (corporate capital expenditure) rose solely because of spending in AI-linked categories such as software and intellectual property, which climbed 10.8%. Without the AI spending surge, capex would have turned negative, as non-AI expenditure continues to contract.

In a separate study, Sania Edlich and Torsten Slok of Apollo Global Management conducted a statistical analysis of wage changes from 2015 to 2025 across occupations with high AI exposure. They identified a 6.7% decline in wage growth over that period in those fields, with no significant job losses. The finding implies that "firms are capturing AI productivity gains through wage compression rather than workforce reduction," they wrote.

Lower earners bore the brunt. "Service workers face a 24.3% decline and the bottom wage quartile a 10.7% decline, while top earners show no significant effect," the authors noted. They concluded that AI is a likely driver of widening inequality: "As AI adoption deepens across corporate America, this figure is likely to grow substantially, with significant implications for income inequality and labor market policy in the years ahead."

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh: The Worst 'Fed Day' Performer for Stocks

It is not the responsibility of Fed Chair Kevin Warsh to push stock prices higher — which is fortunate, because he ranks as the worst Fed chair for equities on days he has announced interest rate decisions, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

On his inaugural "Fed day," June 17, the S&P 500 dropped more than 1% — "the worst 'first Fed day' for a new Chair going back to 1994," Bespoke wrote in a research note. Last week marked Warsh's second-ever "Fed day," and the market fell another 1%. "That was enough to rank as the worst 'second Fed day' as well," surpassing — for better or worse — the records of Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and Jay Powell, according to Bespoke. With only two Fed days on his record, the sample remains small, and it is unclear whether the pattern reflects market reaction to Warsh's specific policy signals or broader macroeconomic conditions coinciding with those announcements.

Magnum Ice Cream Co. Posts $230 Million Q2 Sales Gain

The Magnum Ice Cream Co. reported a $230 million increase in Q2 sales, driven in part by the prolonged and intense heatwave that has gripped much of Europe this summer. Magnum, which was spun off from Unilever last year and now houses brands including Ben & Jerry's, Klondike, Cornetto, and Magnum, recorded $3.34 billion in total sales for the quarter. The result offers an early read on the standalone performance of a business that Unilever divested as part of its broader restructuring under CEO Hein Schumacher, who has been streamlining the conglomerate's portfolio.

'Conspicuous Waiting': The Line as Status Symbol

Standing in line — whether for an event, a product launch, or anything else — has become a social media status symbol, a phenomenon Tatiana Sataua dubbed "conspicuous waiting" in one of Fortune's most-read stories last week.

Richard Larson, an MIT operations researcher widely known as "Dr. Queue," has devoted his career to studying the dynamics of waiting. The current state of affairs, he admits, is dispiriting. "As Dr. Queue, I get quite depressed sometimes," he told Fortune. "If I'm at my Stop & Shop supermarket and I see a line of, let's say, nine people, and they all have their heads bowed, looking at their hands, checking their cell phones — I find that quite depressing." In earlier eras, he noted, strangers in a queue would converse with one another.

Today, those in line are more likely to engage with their social media feeds. Outside a Broadway theater, a concert venue, or a bakery that has gone viral, "the wait becomes part of the event," Larson observed. The queue transforms into a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end — content in its own right.