US stocks took a breather Monday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.3% and the Nasdaq dropping 0.8% as investors digested another round of trade tensions and geopolitical risk.

But the bigger story is still the pace of technological investment. AI infrastructure is expanding, robotics is attracting billions in new capital, and major technology deals continue to reshape the market.

And for investors, there’s another question worth asking: what happens when the stock you own stops working? Today, we look at the costly mistake of holding onto losers for too long and what that capital could be doing instead.

Today:

📰 Trade tensions shake up markets
📉 The portfolio mistake that can cost you big
🤖 AI and robotics keep attracting capital

Let's get started.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.

You tell yourself you'll sell when it gets back to breakeven. You won't. That stock sits in your portfolio for years while capital dies. Compounding happens without you.

You bought at $100. It dropped to $50. You're down $25,000. Your instinct: hold and wait. But that $50,000 is dead capital. If it was a bad idea at $100, it's worse at $50. Sunk costs don't matter. Future returns do.

That $50,000 deployed into real opportunities becomes $500,000 over 30 years at 8%. Held in your dead position, it never moves. The opportunity cost is $450,000 in missed compounding.

One dead position held for 20 years costs you roughly $180,000 in future wealth. Most portfolios hold multiple losers. That's why average returns lag indexes.

Sell the loser. Take the loss. Redeploy the capital. The loss is real. Holding costs everything.

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US stocks closed mixed Monday as chip stocks dragged the Nasdaq lower and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled sweeping new sanctions against Iran.

Bessent announced "Operation Economic Outcast," a plan to "sever every economic lifeline" to Iran and isolate the nation from the global financial system. In a press conference Monday afternoon, the Treasury Secretary detailed expanded sanctions on Iran and on any country that deals economically with it, stating that countries with ties to the regime will be "removed from the US dollar system." That raised questions about the US's already tenuous relationship with China, which is the primary buyer of Iranian oil. Bessent declined to discuss specifics but emphasized that "no one is above the reach of US sanctions."

President Trump escalated the trade fight with Canada, threatening to raise tariffs on Canadian autos, auto parts, and steel to 50% starting Jan. 1, 2027. The announcement came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade negotiations over the weekend and vowed to retaliate with like-for-like tariffs. President Trump wrote on Truth Social that "Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years." Ontario Premier Doug Ford told the Associated Press that President Trump had "declared war, economic war against his closest friend and ally," and noted that cutting off electricity flows to the US and restricting exports of critical minerals were potential retaliatory options. Shares of General Motors and Ford fell on the news as investors digested the potential impact on the deeply integrated North American auto supply chain.

President Trump bought as much as $50,000 worth of SpaceX shares on June 23, according to a financial disclosure first reported by Reuters. The purchase came two weeks after the record-setting IPO of Elon Musk's company, at a point when shares had fallen from their highs of over $200 to the mid-$150 range. SpaceX stock closed Monday at the IPO price of $135, possibly putting the president's stake underwater. White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Reuters that the president's stock portfolio is managed by third-party financial institutions and replicates "recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000."

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Cheers,
Brandon & Blake of Invested Inc