Trump is set to rip up the ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Iran—and Wall Street doesn’t care
Trump is set to rip up the ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Iran—and Wall Street doesn’t care
Good morning. On Fortune’s radar today:
Federal judge pours scorn on Elon Musk settlement.
Iran and the U.S. enter second day of renewed missile strikes.
Markets: Climbing the wall of worry.
Investors balk at Amazon’s “surprise” new debt.
Confusing evidence on whether the World Cup creates jobs.
CEO of $4.8 billion software company secretly tracks down your ex-bosses.
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Federal judge throws serious shade on Musk’s tiny settlement in Twitter lawsuit
A federal judge reluctantly signed off on the settlement of an SEC lawsuit against Elon Musk, using language suggesting that the deal was a lousy one for shareholders. The SEC alleged he broke the law in 2022 by failing to disclose that his stake in Twitter had crossed a 5% threshold. Musk didn’t make the disclosure because he knew it would drive up the stock price and thus cost him more to continue increasing his stake in Twitter, the suit claimed. Authorities claimed he bought $500 million worth of Twitter shares after he was supposed to publicly disclose his portion of the company, and saved himself $150 million by not doing so—value that could have gone to shareholders had it been disclosed.
The settlement was for just $1.5 million, Fortune’s Amanda Gerut reports.
The judge said she had “serious misgivings” and saw “red flags” in the settlement, given its small size. “That bears repeating: Elon Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth close to $1 trillion, allegedly ignored his obligation to file SEC disclosures at the expense of other investors to the tune of $150 million,” she wrote. “Whether the Executive Branch (through the SEC) has done enough to hold Mr. Musk to account for his alleged violations is, like many other issues, for our citizenry to decide at the ballot box.”
Asia leads global stock rally as price of oil declines despite renewed attacks in the Middle East
After yesterday’s losses, stocks clawed back some ground today, ignoring a new round of U.S. missile strikes on Iran. The price of oil declined despite the reclosure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Why are investors so bullish when there is so much bad news? Because retail investors have returned to the market, according to Arun Jain at J.P. Morgan. In the week through July 8, mom-and-pop traders net bought $8.9 billion in stocks, way above the average of $6.8 billion, Jain said in an email.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.24% this morning. The index lost 0.28% yesterday.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was up 0.32% in........
