🔔 The Opening Bell
Good morning. With the July 9 tariff deadline fast approaching, the US just signed its first (and possibly only) trade deal—this time, with Vietnam. The fine print is raising eyebrows: it likely means steeper prices for consumers… but (maybe) a win for US firms looking to expand abroad?
Meanwhile, markets hit new highs on cautious optimism—but not without friction. Job openings are up, pushing 10-year Treasury yields higher. (If you’re in the market for new employment, here’s the question you need to be asking interviewers.) And Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is facing backlash from House Republicans, while insurance stocks are reeling from the fallout.
And even if you had no idea what’s been going on in the world over the past 6 months, you could probably guess some macro events based on the top 10 performing stocks from this year (so far).
📱 AltIndex now fits in your pocket
AltIndex is where we go to check on stocks—before earnings, before headlines, before buying or selling anything.
The dashboard gives us the real-time signals that often move stocks before the price does:
📈 Job listings
📱 App store rankings
📰 News coverage
💬 Social media buzz
👥 Website traffic
💼 Insider sentiment
…and more.
But we’ll be real—it wasn’t exactly built for phones. And we felt that every time we tried to pull it up while we were away from our computers.
That changes now.
The new AltIndex mobile app brings all the key alt data to your phone. It’s fast, dead simple, and clean.
You can:
Search any ticker
Instantly get a pulse on investor sentiment
See which signals are moving fast (and which are fading)
Stay plugged in, even when you’re away from your desk
It’s the same data-driven dashboard we use daily. Now it actually works on mobile.
📰 Market Headlines
S&P, Nasdaq notch tiny gains as Wall Street cautiously cheers the new Vietnam trade deal.
S&P +0.47%
Nasdaq +0.04%
Dow flat
The Fear & Greed index jumped over 10 points today to 77—extreme greed.
Trump’s Vietnam Deal: The U.S. will hit Vietnamese imports with a 20% tariff—and a 40% penalty on goods rerouted through Vietnam from other nations. In exchange, Vietnam will eliminate tariffs on American companies. Critics say US consumers will eat the higher import costs (unless Vietnamese exporters pay them), while US exporters may benefit from newly open markets.
Treasury yields climb again after job openings rise unexpectedly, keeping rate-cut hopes in check. Investors should watch bond yields closely—they’re still dictating a lot of the market’s mood.
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” hits resistance in the House. Freedom Caucus members are pushing back against changes made in the Senate, with some warning a vote may be delayed another week.
Insurance stocks collapse as Senate changes ripple through the sector. Centene $CNC ( ▲ 6.09% ) fell 40%+ after pulling its guidance and disclosing a projected $1.8 billion shortfall tied to the bill’s new healthcare provisions.
😱 Fear and Greed Index
🧠 Make yourself heard
🗳️ What do you think of the new Vietnam trade deal?
🤖 AI/Future/Tech News
The US Senate approved a $10 billion NASA funding bill for the Artemis program.
Perplexity unveiled a new $200 monthly subscription targeting power users.
Strava and Runna introduced a joint annual subscription bundle priced cheaper than purchasing both services separately.
🪙 Crypto
Bloomberg reported that President Trump’s crypto ventures added $620 million to his net worth this year.
Binance BTC futures premiums plunged to 3.9%, the lowest in 21 months.
A judge let Celsius’s $4 billion lawsuit against Tether proceed.
The SEC paused Grayscale’s ETF conversion of its $755 million Digital Large Cap Fund, pending internal review.
Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale backed a new crypto bank, Erebor, which applied for a national charter and plans to hold stablecoins on its balance sheet.
Tether moved $3.9 billion worth of bitcoin to addresses tied to Twenty One Capital, making it the third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder.
💡 Ideas, trends, and analysis
Researchers estimated that 800 million hectares of tree regrowth could remove 20.3 billion metric tons of carbon by 2050 if action starts now.
⚔️ Trade wars
JPMorganChase’s analysis estimated $82.3 billion in direct costs to US employers from President Trump’s tariff plans.
A Reuters poll forecast a 5.5% drop in the Mexican peso over the next year after the US tariff freeze expired on July 9.
Apparel stocks rallied, including Nike, Under Armour, and VF Corp, on news of the Vietnam trade deal.
📗 Recommended Reading
Do you like newsletters? We do.
We put together a list of newsletters that our readers tend to enjoy, covering topics like:
💸 Finance
🤖 AI
💰 Wealth building
❤ Health
✅ And more.
Check them out to add more high-value reading to your daily routine.
🌍 International Markets
🇷🇺 The Russian central bank warned of turbulent times ahead, despite inflation slowing, as the economy grew 4.3% last year.
🇨🇭 The Swiss franc strengthened by over 11.3% against the US dollar since April 2, pushing it to its most expensive levels in a decade.
🇿🇦 South African inflation expectations plummeted to 3.9% for 2025 from 4.4% in the previous quarter.
🇸🇬 Singapore's benchmark index climbed 0.45% to a record high.
🎤 What you said last time
“The transfer of low income benefits (Medicaid, SNAP) to pay for ICE and high income benefits is gross”
🚚 Market movers
Tesla delivered 384,122 vehicles in Q2, slumping 13.5% from 2022.
Rivian received $1 billion in funding from Volkswagen as part of its $5.8 billion joint venture.
Santander bought TSB for over 3.1 billion in cash.
Microsoft is cutting up to 9,100 jobs, or 4% of its workforce.
Foxconn recalled over 300 Chinese employees from its iPhone factories in India.
📢 We want to hear from you
We love hearing from you, and we deeply appreciate your feedback.
⭐️ What did you think of today's edition?
📺 What to watch today
That’s all for today. Did I miss anything? Smash the reply button to let me know.
Cheers,
Brandon with Stefan & Wyatt
