Wednesday, July 29, 2026

The Monza in Wheat is Back

Rich, textured tan suedes inspired by the golden hour. ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

These 3 drinks are like a death sentence for diabetics

 


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Lith or Lithout ASML

Plus: Visa announces layoffs as it readies for an AI-fueled payments future. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
 
The Daily Upside home
July 29, 2026

 

Good morning.

FIFA is learning what every soccer fanatic already knows: The most dangerous time on the pitch is the moment right after you score a goal. Fresh off its most lucrative World Cup in history, global football’s governing body has proposed a structural overhaul that’s threatening to tear it apart. On Tuesday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed a new private entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) that would control the World Cup’s commercial and broadcast rights, with plans to raise up to $4.2 billion from private investors at an initial valuation of $20 billion. Infantino promised FIFA would retain majority control of FFE, and said minority investors would not receive dividends or cash distributions (but would be allowed to sell their stakes in the future) while most of the money generated by FFE would be redistributed to FIFA’s membership organizations.

One of those membership organizations, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) quickly called foul: Bloomberg reported that UEFA would consider a boycott of FIFA events if the FFE comes to fruition. “This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said. We’re sure Infantino is checking that claim against the VAR replay system as we speak.

MARKETS

Stock data as of market close on July 28, 2026.

Photo of Ford CEO Jim Farley.

As we know now, Ford’s ambitious foray into electric vehicles went down about as well as an F-150 at the Miami Grand Prix.

On Tuesday, the Big Three automaker signaled it’s Ford Tough enough to handle the fallout. The company said it expects to make $11 billion before interest and taxes in 2026, up from its prior forecast for $8.5 billion to $10.5 billion, and better than Wall Street expected. Along with a second-quarter earnings beat, that lifted shares 6.8% in after-hours trading.

Ford, Revenue Explorer

In December, Ford took a $19.5 billion writedown on underperforming EV investments, canceling its F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup after EV tax credits evaporated and EV demand waned. Its EV business has lost more than $16 billion since 2022, including $1.3 billion in the second quarter, and is not expected to turn a profit until 2029. Going forward, the EV business will focus on scaled-down models like a forthcoming $30,000 pickup.

Electric dreams dashed, Ford is after new strategic payoffs. One is defense, with large-scale rearmament by NATO countries expected to mobilize hundreds of billions in future investments. Ford and crosstown Detroit rival GM have already held talks with governments about supplying military-purpose vehicles. On Monday, Ford was awarded a contract to develop prototypes for the US Army’s next-generation tactical trucks. Based on the F-Series Super Duty pickups, they’ll be pitted against competing prototypes from GM and Utah-based BC Customs.

Ford has also jumped aboard the AI bandwagon. In May, it debuted a battery energy storage subsidiary to repurpose excess manufacturing capacity in service of data centers and other facilities. Executives said Tuesday that they don’t expect profits from the new unit until 2028. In the meantime, the core business is strong enough to power Ford’s overhaul:

  • Ford posted a $2.5 billion operating profit and $48.3 billion revenue in the second quarter, ahead of Wall Street expectations. The driving factor was resilient demand for its high-margin SUV and pickup models, despite a 10% decline in overall US vehicle sales.
  • Bronco and Explorer SUVs were the stars among the company’s most profitable models in the second quarter. However, Ford said it expects an uptick in sales of its best-selling F-Series pickups after fires at an aluminum supplier last year stalled production.

Just Do It: On Monday, Ford debuted a limited edition of 1,000 Bronco SUVs with a magenta color scheme inspired by the state of Utah. The company’s Matt Simpson told CNBC it plans to increase limited offerings in a manner similar to “Nike dropping a sneaker.” Sneakerheads, though, tend to buy dozens if not hundreds of limited releases, while more than a couple of cars in their driveway is going to have most consumers looking for a Ford Escape.

Written by Sean Craig

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China may be on the verge of cracking deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines. Does it mean DUV king ASML is a goner?

Investors seem to think so. Shares of the Dutch tech giant have tumbled roughly 9% this week after The Information reported on Monday that a state-backed Chinese firm has cracked the chip-printing DUV machines in which ASML has long held a monopoly. While it’s yet another sign that China is nearing a state of AI industrial independence, experts cautioned Tuesday that the panic behind the selloff is almost certainly overblown.

Deep Purple

So what did The Information actually report? A state-backed company (identified by Reuters Tuesday as the Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group), whose staff includes former top employees at other Chinese lithography startups, is starting to mass-produce DUV machines this year; it plans to deliver five to top Chinese semiconductor firms by the end of the year and 20 by next year. That was enough to rattle investors’ confidence that ASML would remain the undisputed lithography king for years to come.

Analysts, however, say that while there may be smoke on the deep ultraviolet water, there isn’t exactly fire:

  • For starters, the Chinese firm’s production projections pale in comparison with the volume of ASML, which shipped just over 131 ultraviolet machines last year and recently said it would increase capacity by 30% in each of the next two years.
  • More importantly, while cracking DUV tech is a breakthrough, there’s no indication the Chinese competitor has engineered the more advanced extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems, which are necessary for the precision production of leading-edge AI chips.

“Producing a handful of immersion DUV tools is not the same as producing tools that can be used for high-volume manufacturing, where yield, overlay, throughput and reliability over thousands of wafer runs are what matter,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. Bank of America analysts called the selloff an “over-reaction.” To put it in fitting terms for the lithography monopoly: China may have scooped up the first-around-the-board Mediterranean and Baltic avenues, but ASML still holds Boardwalk, Park Place and all the greens, yellows, reds, oranges and purples (or rather, violets).

Don’t Pass Go: Still, the JPMorgan analysts conceded that the development represented a “long-term risk” to ASML’s China revenue. During its latest earnings call earlier this month, ASML said it expects 20% of revenue this year to come from China, meaning some $10 billion in sales is at risk of disappearing lithout a trace.

Written by Brian Boyle

Photo via Cytonics

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Visa is looking to invest more in its technology and products. How? By eliminating about 2,600 employees, many of whom work in technology and product operations.

That may seem counterproductive, but it’s par for the course in the finance and technology worlds. More companies, including Meta and Amazon, have been saying goodbye to colleagues as they welcome bots to automate jobs such as software engineering while cutting costs. But for Visa, which runs the world’s largest payment network, the move comes at a crucial time. After years of competing with its main rival Mastercard, it’s now having to fend off competition from digital rivals like PayPal, Block and Stripe as consumers change the way they shop.

It also comes at a time when consumers are showing resilience amid still-high inflation and surging gas prices: Payments volume, which measures consumer spending, rose 10% in the company’s fiscal third quarter, Visa reported Tuesday.

No Longer Just a Network

AI wasn’t the sole reason for the layoffs, CNBC reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The company also wants to put more resources toward its growth areas, including its emphasis on affluent customers, cross-border activity, business payments and stablecoins. It’s trying to capture the infrastructure behind other forms of payment, including agentic commerce powered by AI agents:

  • “Experts highlight that the shift toward autonomous, AI-driven agentic commerce will present both new opportunities and multi-rail challenges for traditional card networks,” Third Bridge analyst Jonathan King said. Visa, however, is in a position to capture “a massive overall surge in transaction velocity across digital ecosystems,” thanks to its extensive fraud governance, tokenization infrastructure and asset-light stablecoin partnerships, he added.
  • Plus, as stablecoins have passed over into the mainstream, Visa has a leg up against rivals due to its integrations with fast-moving fintechs and protocol layers, King said.

Earnings Beat: The company posted adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share and revenue of $11.6 billion, beating the $3.23 per share and $11.4 billion analysts had been expecting. That’s a 14% increase in revenue over the past year. It’s also taking a $563 million charge related to the job cuts.

Written by Mallika Mitra

Extra Upside
  • Robo No-No: The Trump administration banned the import of new Chinese robots, including humanoid and quadruped models, citing national security concerns and the need to protect US industry.
  • New Lease on Digital Life: Apple will lease iPhones for $17.99 monthly, and other items for more, as part of a partnership with buy now, pay later fintech Klarna.
  • Every Company You’re Watching is Being Changed by AI. Here’s How to Keep Up. Mindstream breaks down AI the way The Daily Upside breaks down markets: context, clarity and a “so what?” framing you can actually use. In your inbox every day. Subscribe today.***

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