Business today has a deep and ever-changing degree of global challenges. The ebb and flow of the U.S. war on Iran has been roiling commodity access and prices worldwide for the last six months. New tariffs are issued with lead times that make them difficult for businesses to analyze and digest. And global economies are in constant flux as inflation and access impact what consumers and businesses can buy. All of this is on top of some of the normal challenges businesses have always faced: Do consumers actually want your product, and how should it be priced?

CFOs are becoming increasingly strategic across the organization, but a tighter working relationship with the supply chain arm is key today. I spoke with Pawan Joshi, chief strategy officer at supply chain management platform e2open, about what CFOs need to know to make better decisions during a volatile time. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady last week, though the decision was not unanimous. While the official statement from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh was very similar to that from the June meeting—at which the decision to keep interest rates unchanged was unanimous—the three governors who voted last week against holding rates steady and one other have talked about the need for tighter monetary policy.

After the Fed’s decision was announced, the markets reacted poorly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 2% to its worst day of 2026.

Other reports last week didn’t paint a much better economic picture. June’s core inflation—excluding food and fuel—cooled a bit, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, dropping to 3.3% from 3.4% in May. But the economy as a whole is slowing. In the second quarter, GDP growth was 1.5%, the BEA reported separately —quite a bit below the 2.1% growth rate projected and seen in the first three months of the year. The slower GDP growth was not the result of changes in consumer spending, which surged 3.2%—government spending, exports and investment were all down.

Big Tech buoyed the stock market, helping it largely erase any losses by the end of the week. Amazon’s stock saw one of its best days in a decade on Thursday, after a blockbuster earnings report showed net sales up 20% year-over-year to $200.6 billion. The biggest growth sector was its AWS business, writes Forbes senior contributor Peter Cohan, with 37.6% revenue growth—the fastest in 18 quarters. Microsoft, which reported earnings last Wednesday, also had a better-than-expected quarter, reporting $90 billion in revenue—up 18%. Microsoft’s stock climbed close to 15% after its earnings, which Cohan attributes to revenue growth that justifies its AI infrastructure spending and is bringing it more business.

This was not the case for Meta, which also reported earnings last Wednesday, and saw its stock drop more than 7%—largely because of an imbalanced 55% year-over-year increase in expenses and only a 28%........

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