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Good morning.
Young workers the world over can’t catch a break. Chinese auto parts giant Changzhou Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems apologized Monday for laying off 107 new employees weeks after hiring them straight out of university. The company, which makes headlamps for BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen and more, recruited 440 graduates from the class of 2026, a move it now calls “poor judgment” after a July revision in order forecasts led to restructuring.
Under pressure from local authorities and furious social media users, Xingyu Automotive announced its general manager will forfeit a year’s worth of salary, its deputy general manager will lose six months’ pay, its HR director has been fired, and another HR official has been demoted. The laid-off young workers are receiving three months of job-seeker subsidies and any who don’t find a job will get six months of salary. As of Monday, 71 of the workers had already started in new positions, and 22 had job offers.
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MARKETS
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Stock data as of market close on September 4, 2026.
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If you’re an American corporate titan right now, life is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet where everyone else is paying for the napkins.
In the second quarter, earnings per share for S&P 500 companies skyrocketed 53% from a year earlier and sales jumped almost 16%, according to LSEG data. Plenty of companies across industries, from Best Buy to Caterpillar to General Motors, have beaten earnings expectations and raised their guidance. Still, it’s probably no surprise that big tech is having a disproportionate say: Alphabet, Amazon, Micron Technology and NVIDIA were four of the top five contributors to earnings growth, according to FactSet.
There are many factors at play, including tariff refunds, resilient consumer spending and elevated energy prices. But the biggest driver is artificial intelligence spending, which has moved far beyond just being a chip story. Hyperscalers are pouring money into data centers, power infrastructure, hardware and more, and capital expenditures for the largest tech companies are expected to top $1 trillion next year.
Second Act
Can the strong performances last? The estimated third-quarter year-over-year earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 is 28.5%, and achieving that would mark the index’s third straight quarter of earnings above 25%, per FactSet. For the fourth quarter, analysts are estimating earnings growth of 26.1%. But risks to those estimates are becoming clearer. For one, the market is moving from asking how much companies are spending on AI to when those investments are actually going to pay off.
“The winners will not necessarily be every company funding the buildout,” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at US Bank Asset Management. “They will be the businesses with pricing power, hard-to-replicate infrastructure and a clear path from spending to cash flow.”
That’s not all:
- Persistent inflation could weigh on consumer demand and profit margins, while slower economic growth would weaken revenue, Hainlin said. “With expectations already elevated, even solid results could produce volatility if companies lower their guidance or investors question the durability of growth.”
- Then there’s the continued bond market rout. Higher bond yields increase borrowing and refinancing costs, and give investors a competitive alternative to stocks. Companies with highly leveraged balance sheets, large refinancing needs or interest-sensitive business models could see earnings pressure as financing costs rise, said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird. “If the AI capex build requires an increasing level of debt financing, then higher rates could weigh on forward profitability and add volatility to the whole ecosystem,” he added (though that may be more of a 2027 or 2028 story).
  The Market’s Mismatch: A recent report from JPMorgan Wealth Management pointed out that while forward earnings expectations keep going up, stocks aren’t fully reflecting the trend. What could change that? Bond yields becoming less of a headwind and more certainty around how helpful AI will be for productivity long term.
Written by Mallika Mitra
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Photo via United States Tungsten Corp.
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Anyone who rocked a hot pink Motorola Razr in the 2000s knows folding phones are nothing new. If you didn’t live through the era of flip-phone flexing, however, it’s no wonder if you see their buzzy comeback as more debut than resurgence.
Not only are they dominating headlines and marketing campaigns, but they also look different: This time around, they’re all screen and no button.
The latest arrival on the foldable scene is Apple, which is finally putting a crease in its iconic iPhone for customers who want a bigger screen but are too ashamed to bring their iPad everywhere. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the tech giant will debut the long-rumored item at its September 9 “Surprise and Shine” event, headlined by new CEO John Ternus, and other outlets have jumped in to say the same.
Expected to cost more than $2,000 compared with the standard iPhone 17’s $800 price tag, the iPhone Ultra will land amid a flurry of foldable debuts from rivals.
Already Crowded Arena
Samsung has proven there’s a market for foldable phones that cost a significant premium to their flat peers. South Korea’s largest company launched the first folding version of its Galaxy phone in 2019 and the eighth generation this July. The Galaxy Z Fold 8, priced upward of $1,900 (Ultra models cost as much as $2,700), is so popular that Samsung has started running into a supply crunch as it rush-orders parts to meet high demand, according to ZDNet Korea.
Across the Yellow Sea, Samsung’s rivals have seen success with folding models of their own:
- Huawei also first sold foldables in 2019 with a model called the Mate X. The phone’s latest follow-up went live in China yesterday, two days before Apple’s big event.
- Beijing-based Xiaomi also launched a foldable phone yesterday. The design is similar to the Samsung Z Fold8 and early, purported leaks of Apple’s forthcoming foldable iPhone.
Better Late: Smartphone sales in general have struggled, but foldables seem to be a small, but bright, spot of growth. Samsung and Huawei dominate market share for foldable phones, but their reach in general is significantly smaller in the US. Apple, meanwhile, has proven in the past, both with iPhones and AirPods, that it doesn’t need to be first-to-market to win the long game.
Written by Jamie Wilde
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It’s the hottest social function of the summer. Or, sorry, we meant the hottest social commerce function of the summer.
YouTube has tapped Amazon as its latest and by far greatest YouTube Shopping affiliate partner, allowing creators to tag Amazon products in their videos and livestreams and earn a commission on any resulting sales. It’s an unambiguous attempt to catch up to TikTok, which continues to grow as a massive social commerce and live shopping platform in the US.
The Clock Is TikTok-ing
So how stiff is the TikTok competition? Let’s put it this way: America’s supposedly weary consumers seem to forget their woes whenever they scroll into the TikTok Shop. Sales on the platform accounted for 2% of all US e-commerce in July, according to market research firm Consumer Edge. That may not sound like a whole lot, but it’s up from 1.2% a year ago, and trounces both Costco’s and Target’s online sales. It did $4.9 billion in US sales in the first quarter, nearly double the figure from a year earlier, according to e-commerce data firm Charm.io. By all accounts, that’s far larger than YouTube Shopping, though parent company Alphabet reveals scant data about the platform.
YouTube Shopping may yet have some key advantages, however. At least, that’s what YouTube Shopping chief Travis Katz told Bloomberg last week:
- Viewers already watch 110 million hours of product-related videos on YouTube every day, Katz said, including gadget reviews, outfit showcases, and makeup tutorials. Roughly 3 million YouTube creators are eligible to join the platform, Katz says, though only about a million have so far.
- Meanwhile, YouTube Shopping’s gross merchandise volume is up 13x from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2026, Katz said. YouTube also remains the world’s second-most used search engine behind its older cousin Google.
Let’s Stay Together: Katz told Bloomberg that YouTube Shopping and e-commerce will be the next big swing for the entire Alphabet organization. Thanks to a recent legal development, the ability to take big swings is more of a luxury than a necessity. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Google would not have to dismantle its online advertising business, suggesting behavioral remedies instead for the unit that was deemed an illegal monopoly last year.
Written by Brian Boyle
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- Wir Haben Liftoff: A launch by German rocket startup Isar reached orbit and deployed payloads for the first time; it plans to build up to 40 rockets a year and challenge SpaceX for market share.
- Layoffs & Order: SUV: Jaguar Land Rover plans to cut 4,000 jobs to save $2.3 billion as it grapples with competition from China and tariffs from the US, where it has no production facilities.
- Perfecting Potato Production: Got the fever for the flavor of a Pringle? So does AI, which snackmaker Kellanova is leveraging to improve production of the beloved saddle-shaped potato chip.
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Disclaimer
*This is a paid advertisement for United States Tungsten Corp’s Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.unitedstatestungsten.com.
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