What’s News in Markets: AI’s Price Tag, Elon Musk’s Reality Check, a Fast Track to Trump Posts

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Imani Moise (0:33)

Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, July 25th. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal. And this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's dive in. It was a wild week for markets, so wild that investors largely shrugged off the Trump administration's new tariffs. They had bigger concerns. The war in the Middle East pushed oil prices back above $100 a barrel, stoking inflation fears and sending treasury yields higher as investors dialed back expectations for an interest rate cut. Energy was the best performing sector of the week, rising 3.8 percent as brunch crude futures jumped nearly 10 percent to settle at $96.78 a barrel. At the same time, a barrage of big tech earnings forced investors to confront the mounting cost of the AI boom. By Friday's close, all major indexes were in the red for the week. The Nasdaq dropped 2.1 percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.6 percent, and the Dow declined about 0.4 percent.

The Magnificent 7 shed $991 billion in market value this week after earnings from tech giants including Google Pair and Alphabet that highlighted the enormous cost of the AI buildout. Google stock ended the week 7.8 percent lower. The problem isn't performance. Google reported double-digit revenue growth in the most recent quarter. Instead, investors erode in on a closely watched measure known as free cash flow, which is essentially the money companies have left over after expenses and major investments, and an indication of how much cash can be returned to investors. Alphabet revealed that the metric had entered negative territory for the first time since going public more than two decades ago. The tech giant warned its free cash flow would remain under pressure as it ramps up investments in AI and lifted its capital spending forecast to as much as $205 billion this year.

Analysts say Wall Street had largely viewed $200 billion as a do-not cross line, and investors are also reportedly growing frustrated by a lack of explanation on how these massive infrastructure investments will ultimately translate into revenue.

Reality appears to be catching up to Elon Musk's publicly traded companies, Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX stock continued its descent back to earth this week, plunging more than 7 percent as the market began demanding results, not just promises from one of Silicon Valley's most influential executives. Some of the decline can be explained by positioning. Investors who bought shares after SpaceX's blockbuster IPO are bracing for a wave of insider selling when early lockup restrictions expire next month, nearly doubling the number of shares available to trade. But Wall Street is also growing increasingly impatient with delays to the company's next Starship launch. The company needs to move Starship from a test phase and start using it on revenue generating missions. Those concerns were underscored by disappointing results from Elon Musk's other company. Tesla shares tumbled nearly 18% after the electric vehicle maker missed earnings expectations and posted negative free cash flow for the first time in two years. Investors were also frustrated after Musk pushed back timelines for several of the company's marquee projects, including RoboTaxi, Optimus Humanoid Robots, and its long-awaited electric semi-truck.

And in today's stock market, a few seconds can be worth millions of dollars. That's why Wall Street trading firms are paying as much as $100,000 a month for faster access to President Trump's Truth social posts, according to people familiar with the matter. The new Truth API product from Trump Media and Technology delivers his message the instant they're published, allowing trading algorithms to react to market-moving headlines fractions of a second before many competitors. At least five high-frequency trading firms have already signed up. The service builds on a strategy that's already become commonplace on Wall Street. Many firms use automated systems to scan the president's posts for keywords like Iran, ceasefire, or the names of publicly traded companies.

Some even use AI agents to instantly evaluate the potential market impact and place trades. Some traders say paying for the faster feed is simply the latest cost of doing business in an increasingly automated market. Shares in Trump Media and Technology Group ended the week down more than 11 percent.