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Good morning.
The infinite scroll will soon meet the finite boundary that is bedtime. Meta reached a settlement on Wednesday to pay $18 billion to dozens of US states that sued the company over claims it failed to safeguard minors from social media addiction. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Facebook and Instagram owner “agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms” within months. Changes will include limiting daily usage and restricting nighttime activity for teenagers’ accounts nationwide. Meta shares closed up; some analysts noted the penalty was lighter than expected and said uncertainty has been lifted from the company’s outlook.
There were other favorable terms. As part of the settlement, Meta denies any wrongdoing. And roughly $5 billion of the penalty is contingent on rivals YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat, which are also facing legal claims, agreeing to similar settlements and changes. The end of trial proceedings also means Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will not have to testify in the case. Finally, Zuck’s company, which reported a $60 billion profit last year, gets to pay out the settlement over 10 years, considerably softening the blow. Now back to the real work: monetizing boomers’ infinite scrolling of Facebook and Instagram Reels of Led Zeppelin and The Doors.
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MARKETS
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Stock data as of market close on August 26, 2026.
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On the menu at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium’s annual Friday night barbecue? Sticky maple-glazed burnt ends and even stickier inflation.
The latest personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday showed inflation climbed 3.7% year over year in July. That’s above expectations and enough to place renewed pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh to address inflation head-on in his speech on Friday. With the dream of the (presumptively dovish) chairman delivering a rate cut this year dying, some experts are starting to wonder whether the Fed’s long-held 2% inflation target should be thrown in the casket along with it.
Moving Target
It’s been five long years of an inflation rate above 2%, and its culprits are as familiar as they are rotating. Services claim much of the blame this time around, rising 0.3% from June to July. Energy and gasoline prices fell in the same period, but with a summer ceasefire now over, gas prices look primed to rise again. And did we mention the recent return of tariffs on Canadian goods?
The good news is that the data also showed that personal income increased 0.4% on the month, outpacing overall inflation of 0.2% in the same period. Step back and macro trends become clear: The AI buildout will continue for the foreseeable future. Housing costs, though cooled slightly from a peak a couple of years ago, remain above pre-pandemic norms (and the data center builders are outbidding home builders for land, labor and capital). An aging population will continue to stress healthcare services, and deglobalization is limiting access to the cheap goods of yore. It’s why the 2% target now looks out of reach:
- “[The Fed] still has considerable ground to cover before markets see 2% inflation as a credible outcome rather than a distant aspiration,” Olu Sonola, head of US economics at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters on Tuesday.
- “We’re not going to be anywhere close to 2% inflation by the end of this year, and probably not until sometime in 2028,” Conference Board Chief Economist Dana M. Peterson recently told Fox Business.
  Methodology, Man: The Fed has one factor on its side: The Bureau of Economic Analysis is set to change its methodology for calculating PCE before the next data dump in September, which most analysts say could shrink the final number by about 0.2%. One major change will see the end to a calculation in which a booming stock market can get misrepresented as inflated financial services costs, due to fatter (but flat, percentage-wise) fees for advisors. So the revision is less about moving the goalposts and more about changing what counts as a goal.
Written by Brian Boyle
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Photo via Betterment
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Some call it a “miracle drug,” and for people with pancreatic cancer, that’s not hyperbole.
The US Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it approved a trailblazing treatment for the disease from California-based biotech Revolution Medicines. Trial data showed Rasonque, the brand name for daraxonrasib, nearly doubled the rate of survival in patients with the lethal disease and could revolutionize treatment.
A Rasonque to Believe
Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the most aggressive and deadliest forms of the disease, with the five-year survival rate at just 13.7%. It’s the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the US and the National Cancer Institute estimates it will cause over 52,000 deaths this year.
Rasonque, a pill taken once daily, targets pancreatic cancers head-on by blocking mutant RAS proteins known to stimulate tumor growth. In late-stage study results, the drug helped patients whose previous treatment proved ineffective live a median 13.2 months, compared with 6.7 months for patients on chemo. In medical circles, this proved both a “eureka” and a “hallelujah” moment: When RevMed presented the results to this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in May, they received the sort of standing ovation normally reserved for a breakout Palme d’Or contender at Cannes.
Rasonque was submitted for review in late July, and the FDA expedited approval in a little over a month by using a special “national priority voucher.” For now, it is only approved for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already received treatment or aren’t candidates for multi-agent systemic therapy rather than as an initial option. This, in part, explains why RevMed rose just 1.9% on Wednesday, which is good but hardly the stuff of game-changing scientific breakthroughs:
- RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote the FDA’s approval isn’t a “material headwind” because investors are keen for the drug to receive approval as an initial, first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer. “We expect success and an ultimate approval there,” they wrote, forecasting Rasonque could generate $1.1 billion in sales by the end of next year and an annual peak of $11.5 billion.
- Another reason is much of Rasonque’s promise has already been priced in: RevMed has soared since the trial data was released earlier this year and the stock is up more than 170% in 2026. The company’s $46 billion market capitalization now puts it ahead of biotech majors like Biogen and BioNTech.
Room to Grow Revenue: RevMed is still testing Rasonque as a first-line therapy in previously untreated patients. Data so far has shown it outperforming other therapies. Among those taking part is former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who called Rasonque a “miracle drug” for shrinking his tumors by 80% and a “nasty drug” for its side effects that include blistering rashes and diarrhea. The company is also studying the drug as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer.
Written by Sean Craig
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Nvidia snapped a seven-day losing streak fueled by concerns about its outpouring of capital into the AI industry one day before CEO Jensen Huang and CFO Colette Kress shared the chipmaker’s blowout second-quarter results.
Now, it can point cash to back up its budget. The world’s largest company reported record revenue yesterday of $96 billion, fueled by still-rising demand for AI chips and data centers from hyperscalers including Meta and Amazon. Nvidia has its sights set on 12-figure revenue in the third quarter, but competition for its chips is heating up.
Don’t Forget the Tilde
OpenAI showed off its aptly named new semiconductor at the Hot Chips conference Tuesday, the day before Nvidia’s earnings. The Jalapeño chip was developed by OpenAI and Broadcom, using OpenAI’s models to customize the chip while Broadcom took care of the manual tinkering. OpenAI, which expects the chip to debut on a small scale by the end of this year, isn’t the only Nvidia customer trying to make its own chips:
- Google plans to launch a tensor processing unit specifically tailored to training AI models, and another TPU that’s customized for inference work. Meta, similar to OpenAI, has been developing chips in collaboration with Broadcom. The social-media-slash-AI company expanded its deal in April, agreeing to deploy 1 gigawatt of the Broadcom chips.
- Anthropic, meanwhile, plans to spend $100 billion scooping up chips from Amazon’s already robust lineup of AI chips (they’re called Trainium). A slew of startups, including Cerebras and Fractile, are also creating AI chips.
Masters of One: Nvidia’s competitors are mostly trying to do one thing, and do it well. That’s unlike Nvidia, whose chips are popular in part because of their broad applications (and top-of-class ability to handle the most compute-intensive tasks). OpenAI said its Jalapeño chip, which was made specifically for the inference work that is OpenAI’s bread and butter, beat Nvidia’s Blackwell in quick and efficient response to prompts. But that doesn’t mean it can perform the same work Nvidia’s chips can. While the new wave of custom chips could put a dent in Nvidia’s domination of the market, they seem unlikely to cause Nvidia to fall far enough in the near term to get hurt … especially when it’s always wearing a leather jacket.
Written by Jamie Wilde
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- Know When to Fold ‘Em: Apple will launch its next-generation iPhone, and potentially a foldable phone, less than two weeks from today on September 9.
- Nothing to See Here: Mark Walter’s TWG Global said there’s “no fraud” and no “fire sale” at his companies after he sold the LA Lakers amid reports the US is investigating how he funded sports deals.
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