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**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Are you sucking wind from trying to keep up with AI and its impact? Take a breather and tune in to The Intelligence Shift, Morning Brew's new podcast with PwC. It bridges the gap between big picture AI concepts and what it actually means in practice. Host Dan Priest is joined by expert guests to discuss AI's role in sports, music, HR and more. Listen to The Intelligence Shift wherever you get your podcasts.

**Neal Freiman** (0:26)
Good Morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freiman.

**Toby Howell** (0:29)
And I'm Toby Howell.

**Neal Freiman** (0:30)
Today, Supergirl flopped hard. Time for DC to panic.

**Toby Howell** (0:33)
Then the first half of the year is over.
Let's go through what happened in the stock market. It's Wednesday, July 1st. Let's ride.

**Neal Freiman** (0:51)
Good morning and welcome to July. Some bittersweet news, this is our last standard news show of the week. The brew is closing down tomorrow ahead of July 4th, but fear not, we have recorded two fantastic special episodes coming your way Thursday and Friday, so you can still get your MBD fix while traveling to a body of water or doing all the physically demanding chores your parents say for you when you come home.

**Toby Howell** (1:14)
Neal, I gotta say, the greatest summer of all time continues. We got USA World Cup game today that goes straight into a long holiday weekend, at least for the morning brew. Now, the fact that 73 million Americans could experience 100 degree heat thanks to this big old heat dome, that could put a damper on things. But whenever you feel like complaining about the heat, just remember what it was like when it was cold out and how that stunk. Give me triple digits any day of the week.

**Neal Freiman** (1:40)
Tell me you grew up in Florida without telling me you grew up in Florida. I'm pining for the fall right now. It's way too hot.

**Toby Howell** (1:46)
That's why you head to a body of water though.

**Neal Freiman** (1:49)
It's still hot. You go in the body of water, you come out, you dry off five minutes later, you're like, I need to go back in. I'm sweltering. But yes, it's going to be actually dangerously hot for a widespread part of the United States. So please stay cool. Now a word from our sponsor, Ultra Running. Toby, you run a lot, right?

**Toby Howell** (2:07)
Oh, I run all right from my emotions up top.

**Neal Freiman** (2:11)
No.
For those of you running for fun, fitness or any other reason, Ultra has shoes for you. They actually make shoes shaped like feet. What a concept.

**Toby Howell** (2:20)
Most running shoes are narrow at the toe, but Ultra has more room for your toes so they can spread out and your feet can stay in a natural position. The Ultra Fit is designed to give you room for your toes for comfort, balance and strength.

**Neal Freiman** (2:33)
So whether you run on the road, sidewalk, trail or gym, Ultra has a shoe that can fit your foot and your lifestyle.

**Toby Howell** (2:39)
Use promo code morningbrew10 for 10% off your first pair of Ultra running shoes at ultrarunning.com/morningbrew.
That's altrarunning.com/morningbrew.
The stock market is finishing up its ninth hole and making the turn to take on the back nine. So let's take a pit stop at the Snack Shack for some hot dogs and a recap of how the first half of the year has gone. It's been mostly birdie so far. The Nasdaq finished up 21% this past quarter, its best quarter since the second quarter of 2020 The S&P 500 and Dow were hot on its heels up 15 and 13% respectively, good for their strongest quarter since 2020 as well. But look a little closer and you see that AI has split the market in half. For the past few years, it was the magnificent seven tech stocks like Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon, which powered the market to record highs. But investors have narrowed their focus. Instead of rewarding the companies spending hundreds of billions on AI, Wall Street has taken a liking to the companies selling the picks and shovels to the big spenders. A key semiconductor index is up 81% this quarter, lapping the wider market, while memory-focused names like Micron and Sandisk have risen over 300 and 760% respectively. That has come at the expense of the Mag 7, which are looking like Lightning McQueen and Cars 3 Microsoft has fallen 20%, NVIDIA 13%, and Apple and Amazon down 8% all in the last month. Neal, a fantastic quarter overall, but mainly if you own semiconductor or memory stocks.