Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.
In today's newsletter:
🍎 Apple's M6 Mac mini jumps to $899
🇨🇦 Canada hits back with tariffs on US goods
🌶️ OpenAI says its chip beats Nvidia's GB300
🕵️ SEC subpoenas banks over AI hedge fund
Plus: 🌍 7 macro news, 🏢 11 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.
| 🍎 Apple's M6 Mac mini jumps to $899 LINK |
- Apple raised the entry price of its Mac mini to $899 with the launch of the M6 chip, capping a climb from $599 driven by supply shortages, as shares slipped 0.34% to about $309.30.
- The base price rose from $599 to $799 in May and now to $899, with outgoing CEO Tim Cook citing constrained capacity for cutting-edge chips as demand for the Mac mini and Mac Studio outstrips supply.
- Apple set the Mac Studio at $2,499 to start and up to $18,299 fully specced, put both desktops on preorder ahead of a September 22 release, and confirmed plans to begin US Mac mini production later this year.
| 🇨🇦 Canada hits back with tariffs on US goods LINK |
- Canada will retaliate against US tariffs with its own levies on more than 700 American products spanning cosmetics, dairy, wood and outdoor gear, matching Washington's measures on a roughly "dollar-for-dollar" basis.
- The Canadian tariffs, effective September 8, cover C$27.6bn in US-origin imports across industries including steel, dairy, appliances and agricultural equipment, with most rates set at 25% or 50% and some items facing a lower 15%.
- Ottawa paired the retaliation with more than C$7bn in support for affected businesses, adding to over C$20bn pledged in the past 18 months, after Washington singled out roughly 5% of Canadian exports to the US.
| 🌶️ OpenAI says its chip beats Nvidia's GB300 LINK |
- OpenAI published its first benchmarks for Jalapeño, an in-house AI chip built with Broadcom, claiming it does 1.5 to 1.9 times more work per unit of electricity and answers 1.7 to 3.6 times faster than Nvidia's GB200 and GB300 systems.
- The chip targets OpenAI's real constraint, data center power, not budget, since running ChatGPT and its API continuously means every watt saved per request compounds, though OpenAI has no plans to sell Jalapeño and says it is "struggling to have enough" compute for itself.
- Jalapeño fits OpenAI's October 2025 deal with Broadcom to deploy 10 gigawatts of custom chips through 2029, but OpenAI will not replace its Nvidia GPUs, deploying Jalapeño in small volumes by end-2026 while still leaning on Nvidia and Cerebras.
| 🕵️ SEC subpoenas banks over AI hedge fund LINK |
- The SEC has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America for details on their dealings with Situational Awareness, the AI-focused hedge fund that nearly collapsed last month after a tech sell-off.
- Regulators want insight into the fund's trades, borrowing and communications after it plunged from roughly $45 billion to around $10 billion in late July, when margin calls forced it to unwind concentrated, leveraged bets including SK Hynix and CoreWeave.
- Citadel bought those positions at a roughly 10% discount and has since shed about 80% of the associated risk; the episode highlights how leverage, reportedly up to 400% at the fund, increasingly underpins the wider AI boom.
🌍 Macro News
- Oil prices fell Wednesday as U.S. favors sanctions over force against Iran. LINK
- China builds dollar-access safeguards as U.S. threatens sanctions over Iran ties. LINK
- UK energy price cap rises 4% in October, third increase this year. LINK
- Japan targets early-2030s launch for blockchain-based stock and bond settlement system. LINK
- US state banking groups launch BankChain Alliance targeting 2027 blockchain network debut. LINK
- US Treasury launches task force to prepare banks for quantum computing threats. LINK
- Russia launches digital ruble for everyday payments while keeping crypto ban. LINK
🏢 Corporate News
- Brazil fines TikTok owner ByteDance $29.81 million over teen data misuse. LINK
- Revolut launches euro-pegged stablecoin EURR in Denmark, Poland and Portugal. LINK
- Visa joins Singapore-led Project Bloom to test stablecoins bridging payment systems. LINK
- Standard Chartered issues first major bank digital notes on Euroclear blockchain. LINK
- LayerZero launches ATLAS trading system for crypto and tokenized assets. LINK
- SpaceX to spend $100 billion on new Starship launch site in Louisiana. LINK
- Intuit shares drop 10% after weak fiscal 2027 outlook overshadows earnings beat. LINK
- Amazon shuts down Mechanical Turk crowdsourced-labor platform after 21 years. LINK
- OpenAI's data centers chief Chris Malone exits amid string of senior departures. LINK
- Self-driving truck maker Gatik raises $200 million after PepsiCo delivery deal. LINK
- Emerald AI raises $150 million to help data centers ease grid strain. LINK
📈 Stocks
| ▲ Biggest winners |
| Moderna rose 14% after Wolfe Research upgraded the stock to Peer Perform and estimated $9.2 billion peak sales for its cancer vaccine intismeran. LINK |
| Super Micro Computer rose 9% after Cisco announced it would partner with Super Micro on liquid-cooled, rack-scale AI solutions. LINK |
| Galaxy Digital rose 9% after launching its GalaxyOne Crypto Portfolio Line of Credit letting investors borrow against BTC, ETH and SOL holdings. LINK |
| ▼ Biggest losers |
| Dick's Sporting Goods fell 31% after cutting full-year EPS guidance by over $2 to $10.94-$11.94 and reporting Foot Locker comparable sales declined 3.6%. LINK |
| Erie Indemnity Company fell 4% after traders questioned whether the recent rally driven by a strong second-quarter earnings beat and 13-point combined ratio improvement had overshot fundamentals. LINK |
| Albemarle fell 6% after JPMorgan cut its price target to $140 from $160. LINK |
📑 Research & Reports
- ECB survey shows AI workplace adoption among euro area workers surging fast. LINK
- US bank profitability nears 1984 record with $98.1 billion quarterly net income. LINK
- Apollo economist warns China's high-tech export surge threatens US competitiveness. LINK
- Private equity holds $860 billion in unsellable 'zombie' portfolio companies. LINK
- IMF's Georgieva says Iran war and AI are reshaping global economic outlook. LINK
- Anthropic and OpenAI seen dominating global computing power by 2028. LINK