The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) continued its strong bullish trend last week, reaching its all-time high. VOO stock ended the week at $585, up 33% from its lowest point in April, indicating that it has entered a bull market. Here are some of the top catalysts for the VOO fund this week.
The VOO ETF stock continued rising last week as the earnings season gained steam. About 34% of the S&P 500 Index companies have published their earnings.
80% of these companies have published a positive EPS surprise. The blended earnings growth so far stands at 6.4%. If the final figure will be 6.4%, it will be the lowest earnings growth since the first quarter of last year.
The earnings season will accelerate this week, with most of the VOO constituent companies publishing their earnings. The most notable of them are Magnificent 7 companies like Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Apple, and Amazon.
Other notable companies to watch include firms such as Boeing, Booking Holdings, Procter & Gamble, Visa, Starbucks, Mastercard, and ExxonMobil.
A few of these companies will stand out. Starbucks stock will be in focus as on the turnaround efforts by the former Chipotle CEO. The company has faced major challenges as competition from firms like Luckin Coffeehas surged. Its stock has dropped by almost 20% from the highest point this year.
Boeing will also be in the spotlight as investors watch its turnaround efforts after a series of challenges. Data shows that the Boeing stock pricehas jumped by 81% from its lowest level this year, and is hovering at its highest point since January this year.
PayPal stock price will also be in the spotlight as its earnings show how its business is being impacted by the ongoing stablecoin growth. Although the company has launched its stablecoin, there are indications that its market share is not increasing.
The other notable companies to watch are Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, which will publish their results and possibly announce a $200 billion merger.
Federal Reserve interest rate decision
The other major catalyst for the VOO ETF this week will the next Federal Reserve interest rate decision on Wednesday.
Economists expect the bank to leave interest rates unchanged between 4.25% and 4.50% in this meeting. Officials will then maintain their wait-and-see approach and hint of just two cuts this year.
The Fed has come under pressure from Donald Trump, who believes that it should cut rates to 1%. He met with Jerome Powell last week at the Fed building, where he inspected the ongoing renovations.
In line with this, the US will publish key economic numbers, including the PCE inflation report on Thursday and nonfarm payrolls data on Friday. These numbers will influence the Fed meeting in September this year.
Trade war deadline
The other key catalyst for the VOO ETF is the upcoming August 1 deadline set by the Trump administration. Trump has threatened tariffs against most countries, which will take effect on August 1 if no deal is reached with the US.
The US has reached a deal with Japanthat will see the country invest $500 billion in the US. All Japanese goods shipped to the US will be charged a 15% tariff.
EU’s Ursula von der Leyen will meet Donald Trump to engineer an elusive deal with the US. Such a deal will boost the VOO ETF stock later this week.
Trump administration regulators have approved Skydance Media’s $8 billion bid to acquire CBS News parent company Paramount, paving the way for a tectonic shift in ownership of one of America’s three major networks.
The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it had approved the acquisition, with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr adding in a news release that the move would bring change to the company’s news coverage. Paramount owns CBS, which includes CBS News.
‘Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,’ Carr said. ‘That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network. In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.’
‘Today’s decision also marks another step forward in the FCC’s efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination,’ Carr added.
David Ellison; Shari Redstone.AP; Getty Images
In recent days, Paramount’s new owner made a number of concessions to the FCC, including agreeing to not implement any diversity, equity or inclusion programs. Skydance also said it would ‘undertake a comprehensive review’ of CBS and ‘will commit, for a period of at least two years, to have in place an ombudsman.’ That role would report to the president of the new company.
A number of companies that have billion-dollar transactions pending before Carr’s FCC have also backed off of DEI programs, including Verizon and T-Mobile.
The concessions also came after Paramount Global settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump for $16 million. Trump brought that suit, saying the way CBS edited a ’60 Minutes’ interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was ‘election and voter interference.’
The lone Democrat in FCC leadership, Commissioner Anna Gomez, did not mince words about the push to secure promises from the companies.
“After months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted,’ she said in an emailed statement.
‘In an unprecedented move, this once-independent FCC used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom,’ she added. ‘Once again, this agency is undermining legitimate efforts to combat discrimination and expand opportunity by overstepping its authority and intervening in employment matters reserved for other government entities with proper jurisdiction on these issues.’
‘Even more alarming, it is now imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.’
Skydance is run by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison. While the younger Ellison made a donation to President Joe Biden’s re-election fund in February 2024 shortly before the former president bowed out of the race, Trump recently signaled his comfort with his takeover of Paramount and its assets, which in addition to CBS News include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, The CW, MTV, BET and film franchises like “Smurfs” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
“Ellison is great. He’ll do a great job with it,” Trump said in June.
There is likely to be a sea change in the editorial direction of CBS News under its new ownership. In a recent filing, Ellison and Skydance said they’d told Carr that they were committed to pursuing a focus on “American storytelling” while touting a new, “unbiased” editorial direction for CBS News. Their meeting came shortly after Paramount agreed to settle Trump’s lawsuit.
It also came just days after CBS announced it was canceling “The Late Show,” currently hosted by Stephen Colbert — an announcement Trump praised on social media. Colbert had recently criticized the parent company’s multimillion-dollar settlement with Trump, while CBS said the cancellation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
There had been signs of an editorial shift ahead of the merger. Most notably, longtime “60 Minutes” editor Bill Owens announced he was stepping down this spring, citing CBS News’ fading editorial independence. Shortly after, CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon was pushed out. Last week, The New York Times reported Skydance was in early talks to acquire the conservative-leaning The Free Press media outlet. Meanwhile, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart has said he did not know whether his program would survive the merger.
Skydance has spent years pursuing Paramount and eventually realized it could successfully execute the transaction by purchasing Paramount’s parent, National Amusements, the company once helmed by Sumner Redstone, the father of the company’s current chairwoman, president and CEO, Shari Redstone. Yet the proposed deal continued to face hurdles, first under the Biden administration then at the outset of Trump’s term. Its approval came in what was its third deadline extension period.
The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to fire numerous Democrat-appointed members of independent agencies, but one case still moving through the legal system carries the greatest implications yet for a president’s authority to do that.
In Slaughter v. Trump, a Biden-appointed member of the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to fight what she calls her ‘illegal firing,’ setting up a possible scenario in which the case lands before the Supreme Court.
The case would pose the most direct question yet to the justices about where they stand on Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the nearly century-old decision regarding a president’s power over independent regulatory agencies.
John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told Fox News Digital he thinks the high court is likely to side with the president if and when the case arrives there.
‘I think it’s unlikely that Humphrey’s Executor survives the Supreme Court, at least in its current form,’ Shu said, adding he anticipates the landmark decision will be overturned or ‘severely narrowed.’
What is Humphrey’s Executor?
Humphrey’s Executor centered on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to fire an FTC commissioner with whom he disagreed politically. The case marked the first instance of the Supreme Court limiting a president’s removal power by ruling that Roosevelt overstepped his authority. The court found that presidents could not dismiss FTC commissioners without a reason, such as malfeasance, before their seven-year terms ended, as outlined by Congress in the FTC Act.
However, the FTC’s functions, which largely center on combating anticompetitive business practices, have expanded in the 90 years since Humphrey’s Executor.
‘The Federal Trade Commission of 1935 is a lot different than the Federal Trade Commission today,’ Shu said.
He noted that today’s FTC can open investigations, issue subpoenas, bring lawsuits, impose financial penalties and more. The FTC now has executive, quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, Shu said.
SCOTUS greenlights other firings
If the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow two labor board members’ firings is any indication, the high court stands ready to make the FTC less independent and more accountable to Trump.
In a 6-3 order, the Supreme Court cited the ‘considerable executive power’ that the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board have, saying a president ‘may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf.’
The order did not mention Humphrey’s Executor, but that and other moves indicate the Supreme Court has been chipping away at the 90-year-old ruling and is open to reversing it.
The case of Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya gets closest to the heart of Humphrey’s Executor.
Where does Slaughter’s case stand?
Slaughter enjoyed a short-lived victory when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found that Trump violated the Constitution and ruled in her favor on July 17.
She was able to return to the FTC for a few days, but the Trump administration appealed the decision and, on July 21, the appellate court paused the lower court judge’s ruling.
Judge Loren AliKhan had said in her summary judgment that Slaughter’s case was almost identical to William Humphrey’s.
‘It is not the role of this court to decide the correctness, prudence, or wisdom of the Supreme Court’s decisions—even one from ninety years ago,’ AliKhan, a Biden appointee, wrote. ‘Whatever the Humphrey’s Executor Court may have thought at the time of that decision, this court will not second-guess it now.’
The lawsuit arose from Trump firing Slaughter and Bedoya, the two Democratic-appointed members of the five-member commission. They alleged that Trump defied Humphrey’s Executor by firing them in March without cause in a letter that ‘nearly word-for-word’ mirrored the one Roosevelt sent a century ago.
Bedoya has since resigned, but Slaughter is not backing down from a legal fight in which Trump appears to have the upper hand.
‘Like dozens of other federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission has been protected from presidential politics for nearly a century,’ Slaughter said in a statement after she was re-fired. ‘I’ll continue to fight my illegal firing and see this case through, because part of why Congress created independent agencies is to ensure transparency and accountability.’
Now a three-judge panel comprising two Obama appointees and one Trump appointee is considering a longer-term pause and asked for court filings to be submitted by July 29, meaning the judges could issue their decision soon thereafter.
Palantir stock hit its all-time high in trading on Friday.
Piper Sandler has initiated coverage on Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR) with an Overweight rating and a bullish price target of $170, positioning the data analytics firm as a potential long-term winner in the artificial intelligence revolution.
In a research note published Friday, analysts praised Palantir’s unique growth and margin profile, calling it a “one-of-a-kind growth+margin model” that could scale to a $24 billion run-rate by calendar year 2032 if the company maintains its trajectory.
According to the analysts, Palantir stands out as an “AI secular winner,” capitalizing on structural demand for AI across two total addressable markets (TAMs) exceeding $1 trillion each.
While the firm acknowledged that Palantir’s valuation remains elevated, it maintained that the stock could deliver transformative returns, provided the company continues its expansion and margin sustainability.
From market lows to AI all-star
Palantir’s journey has been anything but smooth. Piper Sandler noted that it has followed the company for over five years, tracking its evolution from a “coveted late-stage private” firm to its direct public listing in 2020, through a “trough of disillusionment” in 2022 when shares plummeted to $6.
That downturn has since been replaced by a dramatic resurgence.
Analysts described the comeback as a “rise of the phoenix” moment, positioning Palantir as an AI All-Star on the back of accelerating growth.
Despite the optimism, Piper Sandler emphasized the high-risk nature of investing in Palantir.
The firm warned that shares are “hyper-volatile,” with multiple historical drawdowns in the 20-29% range.
As such, it recommended a “buy on a drawdown” strategy for investors seeking exposure.
Still, the firm’s bullish outlook is underpinned by Palantir’s robust profitability, growing demand across government and commercial sectors, and strong execution in the AI space.
Contracts, partnerships, and record highs
Palantir’s stock recently reached an all-time high of $160.39.
The company boasts impressive gross profit margins of 80% and a staggering 496% 1-year return, reinforcing investor enthusiasm.
The firm has also achieved major contract wins and strategic partnerships.
Notably, the US Army awarded Palantir a $100 million contract for its Next-Generation Command and Control prototype, part of a broader $3 billion Department of Defense request for fiscal 2026.
The company also signed a two-year agreement with Knightscope Inc. through its FedStart program and partnered with Accenture Federal Services to deliver AI-driven solutions to US federal agencies.
Additionally, a collaboration with Tomorrow.io will allow Palantir to integrate weather data into its platforms, enhancing automated decision-making capabilities across multiple sectors.
Other analysts are also taking notice. Wedbush recently raised its price target to $160, citing confidence in Palantir’s expanding AI capabilities and its growing relevance in federal and commercial markets.
As Palantir continues to scale both technically and financially, the debate among investors will likely center on whether its valuation is justified by long-term growth—or vulnerable to the volatility that has defined its past.
Here’s a quick recap of some of the most impactful resource sector news items for the week.
The period saw three miners rescued after 60 hours underground at the Red Chris mine in BC, the US announce a mine waste recovery strategy and the Ontario government add C$7 million to boost critical minerals innovation.
Red Chris rescue: Three miners freed after 60 hours underground
Three miners trapped underground at Newmont’s (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM) Red Chris copper-gold mine in British Columbia have been safely rescued after more than 60 hours.
The workers were sheltered in a MineARC chamber with access to food, water, and communication, following a series of rockfalls.
The rescue effort, which included drilling a 100-meter access tunnel, concluded successfully, with all miners reported in good health.
We are relieved to share that all three individuals are safe, and in good health and spirits. They had consistent access to food, water, and ventilation whilst they remained in place in a refuge chamber underground over the last two days,” a Newmont statement read. They are now being supported by medical and wellness teams. Their families have been notified.”
Investigations into the cause of the rockfalls are ongoing.
US prioritizes critical mineral recovery from mine waste
The US government is ramping up efforts to recover critical minerals from mine waste, with the Department of the Interior announcing plans to map legacy tailings across federal lands.
The initiative is part of a broader push to secure domestic supplies of essential minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths.
By tapping into existing waste sites, the US hopes to reduce reliance on foreign imports while minimizing new environmental disruptions.
“By streamlining regulations for extracting critical minerals from mine waste, we are unleashing the full potential of America’s mineral resources to bolster national security and economic growth,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of Lands and Minerals Adam Suess. “This proactive approach will attract private investment, support environmental reclamation, and pave the way for mineral independence.”
The move aligns with ongoing federal investment into clean energy and supply chain resilience.
Zijin leads bid for Barrick’s Tongon mine in West Africa
Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining Group (OTC Pink:ZIJMF,HKEX:2899,SHA:601899) is reportedly leading the race to acquire Barrick Mining’s (TSX:ABX,NYSE:B) Tongon gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire.
Barrick has tapped TD Securities and Australia-based Treadstone Resource Partners to advise on the sale of Tongon. The operation produced 148,000 ounces of gold in 2024.
With resources depleting, the mine is expected to enter care and maintenance by 2027.
Sources say the bid could be valued near US$500 million as Barrick shifts its focus toward copper and lithium assets.
The potential deal signals ongoing Chinese interest in African gold assets and underscores Barrick’s strategic pivot toward energy transition materials.
No final agreement has been announced.
Panther Minerals exits Boulder Creek uranium project in Alaska
Panther Minerals (CSE:PURR,OTC:GLIOF,FWB:2BC) has officially ended its option to acquire the Boulder Creek uranium project in Alaska’s Cape Nome District.
The company chose not to proceed with its next annual payment, leading to the automatic termination of the agreement signed in April 2024.
All 140 associated mining claims have been returned to Tubutulik Mining Company LLC via a quitclaim deed.
While Panther completed preliminary assessments and a site review, it opted not to advance the project further, citing seasonal, logistical, and capital constraints.
The project had drawn criticism from local Indigenous groups concerned about environmental impacts.
Ontario adds C$7 million to Critical Minerals Innovation Fund
The Ontario government is committing over C$7 million to expand its Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF), aiming to boost research, development and commercialization across the province’s mining sector.
The new funding round—open for applications from July 23 to October 1—targets innovation in deep exploration, mineral recovery, battery supply chains and mining technologies.
This latest investment brings total CMIF funding to C$27 million since its 2022 launch, supporting more than two dozen projects to date.
The CIMF also aligns with Ontario’s broader Critical Minerals Strategy, which seeks to strengthen domestic supply chains and reduce reliance on foreign sources, especially amid growing global demand and looming US tariffs.
“With global demand for critical minerals soaring – and new US tariffs targeting Canada’s mining and manufacturing sectors – Ontario is taking action to accelerate growth and innovation in Ontario’s mining sector,’ said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Mines.
He added: “Through the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund, we are putting Ontario first, building a made-in-Canada supply chain that attracts investment and creates good-paying jobs here at home.”
Looking down the supply chain, the Ontario government is also investing C$500 million in the creation of a new Critical Minerals Processing Fund to “provide financial support for projects that accelerate the province’s critical mineral processing capacity and made-in-Ontario critical minerals supply chain.”
Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Microsoft has laid off over 15,000 people so far in 2025. The stress of the belt-tightening has gotten to CEO Satya Nadella.
“Before anything else, I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations,” Nadella wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.
After Microsoft’s latest labor reductions, investors pushed the stock’s closing price above $500 for the first time on July 9. The company announced the layoffs of about 9,000 people a week earlier. Microsoft employed 228,000 people as of June 2024. It hasn’t provided a new figure that takes into account its layoffs this year, but Nadella wrote that headcount is basically flat.
“This is the enigma of success in an industry that has no franchise value,” he wrote. “Progress isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding. But it’s also a new opportunity for us to shape, lead through, and have greater impact than ever before.”
The cuts at Microsoft are reflective of an overall trend across the tech industry, with over 80,000 positions eliminated to date in 2025, according to one count. Recruit Holdings announced earlier this month that it would lay off 1,300 people from its human resources technology segment that includes the Indeed and Glassdoor websites. The company’s CEO pointed to artificial intelligence in a memo, Bloomberg reported.
On social media in recent months, some Microsoft employees have become disheartened about the company’s cutbacks, given its stature.
“I have loved working for this company, still do, but this has done so much damage to that loyalty because it has shown that Microsoft’s espoused values do not apply to business decisions at the macro level,” a person who lists themselves as a Microsoft directed on LinkedIn posted last week.
Microsoft is the world’s most valuable public company after Nvidia, whose chips have become a critical piece of the AI arms race. Microsoft’s Windows and Office franchises remain dominant, and its Azure cloud services have seen faster growth in recent years as OpenAI and other companies rent out Nvidia graphics cards to run AI models.
In the memo, Nadella touched on Microsoft’s mission for the past 10 years, which has been to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, and how the rise of AI is changing it.
“We must reimagine our mission for a new era,” he wrote. “What does empowerment look like in the era of AI? It’s not just about building tools for specific roles or tasks. It’s about building tools that empower everyone to create their own tools. That’s the shift we are driving — from a software factory to an intelligence engine empowering every person and organization to build whatever they need to achieve.”
A federal appeals judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship for the children of people in the country illegally or temporarily.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled that a nationwide injunction on the Trump administration’s effort to end birthright citizenship that he issued earlier this year and that was granted to more than a dozen states can stand.
Sorokin said the ruling was an exception to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. The issue is expected to return to the Supreme Court.
Trump and the administration ‘are entitled to pursue their interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and no doubt the Supreme Court will ultimately settle the question,’ Sorokin wrote in his ruling. ‘But in the meantime, for purposes of this lawsuit at this juncture, the Executive Order is unconstitutional.’
The Trump administration has argued that children born in the U.S. to parents in the country illegally and temporarily are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship.
Trump signed the birthright citizenship executive order, along with a slew of other orders, on his first day in office in January.
On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also affirmed the lower court’s nationwide injunction, and, earlier this month, a New Hampshire federal judge issued a ruling prohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action lawsuit.
Sorokin disagreed with the Trump administration’s argument that the Supreme Court’s ruling warranted a narrower ruling.
The plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit argued that Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional because the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, and it also threatens millions of dollars in state funding for ‘essential’ health insurance services contingent on citizenship status.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
It’s happening again. Meme stock mania is back in full steam.
Once again, companies that most institutional analysts have stopped following for a while are exploding in value.
Stocks like Opendoor, GoPro, Krispy Kreme are attracting the attention of retail investors, in the same way GameStop and AMC did back in 2020-2021.
The games are back in play. Retail investors are coordinating online to push up the stock prices of heavily shorted stocks.
But it’s not just Reddit and Discord that are fueling the buying frenzy today. There’s also AI tools. It’s a complete new experience.
It appears that the stock market is fun again. Or is it?
What sparked the latest rally?
The initial catalyst was a hedge fund manager named Eric Jackson. Erick takes credit for being the reason behind Carvana’s surge over the past couple years.
On July 14, he posted a thread on X (formerly Twitter) claiming his AI model had flagged Opendoor as the next Carvana.
Opendoor is under $1.
Most investors have written it off.
Wall Street isn’t even paying attention anymore.
But our AI model at @EMJCapital just flagged it a few weeks ago.
It’s giving us early $CVNA vibes — and that’s not a phrase I use lightly.
That post, along with the buzz it generated on Reddit, helped drive a 312% rally in the stock over six days.
At its peak, Opendoor traded 1.9 billion shares in a single day.
According to reports by Bloomberg, that was nearly 10% of all US equity trading volume. Option volume surged too, with more than 3.4 million contracts traded on Opendoor alone, more than any single day during the GameStop rally in 2021.
And just like with GameStop and AMC, Nokia, Blackberry back in 2021, other names followed shortly after Opendoor.
GoPro jumped 75% in a week. Krispy Kreme opened 39% higher on July 23 before closing the day up just 4.6%. Beyond Meat and Rocket Mortgage also joined the rally.
Collectively, these names formed a new meme stock acronym on Reddit: D.O.R.K. (DNUT, OPEN, RKT, KSS).
But these were not fundamentals-driven moves. The sentiment behind all of those companies was grim just before those spikes.
For example, Opendoor was recently at risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq. Khol’s recently ousted their CEO amid a conflict of interest scandal.
GoPro is facing legal battles with Insta360, while Krispy Kreme recently ended its partnership with McDonalds and halted its dividend.
In short, those were once again coordinated short-squeeze plays by retail investors and online communities. There’s nothing illegal about this, but these sort of rallies usually result in more losers than winners.
Is this 2021 all over again?
The 2021 meme stock rallies were enabled by zero interest rates, stimulus checks, and bored retail investors stuck at home due to the pandemic.
Traders coordinated on Reddit’s WallStreetBets and used low-cost trading apps to drive up the share prices of their favorite stocks.
Today’s conditions are very different. Rates are high. There’s no stimulus money. The economic backdrop is uncertain, with rising tariffs and weak earnings in several sectors. And yet, retail speculation is back in full force.
According to Citadel Securities, retail investors have been net buyers of equities for 19 straight sessions, the longest streak since early 2021. Retail activity in unprofitable tech stocks has surged to 25% of total volume, a record high based on Goldman Sachs data.
Still, this wave lacks the same explosive force. In 2021, GameStop’s lending rate spiked to 80% annualized, making it nearly impossible to borrow and hold short positions.
This created true short squeezes. Today, the cost to short Kohl’s or Rocket Mortgage is around 10%. That keeps pressure lower and limits upward momentum.
Hedge funds are better prepared this time. Liquidity is deeper. Market makers are more responsive. The result is sharper but shorter rallies that deflate just as fast.
Why is AI now part of the picture?
What makes 2025 different is the role of large language models like ChatGPT. Multiple retail traders have said they asked ChatGPT for stock picks. Some even report buying Opendoor after ChatGPT compared it to Carvana, similar to Eric Jackson’s recommendation.
And that turns out to be true. When users ask ChatGPT to name cheap stocks with big upside potential, it will list traits that mirror meme stocks: high short interest, misunderstood businesses, and founder-led narratives.
This isn’t random. In 2024, OpenAI signed a licensing deal with Reddit to train its models on forum data. ChatGPT has effectively absorbed years of Reddit logic, and that includes the meme-stock playbook.
Retail investors are now making decisions partly based on outputs generated by AI models trained on the very subcultures that created meme trading in the first place.
This creates a feedback loop: Reddit shapes AI, AI influences users, users post back to Reddit. The entire system reinforces itself.
What keeps driving retail into these trades?
At this point, the meme stock playbook is familiar: find a company that’s heavily shorted, cheap per share, and discarded by analysts. Post about it. Stir up a community narrative.
Add memes. Trigger options volume. Watch the chart go vertical.
But it’s no longer just about money. These trades are cultural. They carry identity value. Traders post slogans like “HODLTHE($OPEN)DOOR” or “Max pain on the shorts” to signal group loyalty.
For some, it’s about rebellion, a way to flip the script on Wall Street. For others, it’s entertainment. In a market where serious investing is increasingly algorithmic and institutionally controlled, meme stocks offer chaos, humor, and a sense of agency.
Online communities love memes and they are willing to bet their money on them as well.
There’s also a financial incentive for influencers and small hedge funds to play the game. A single tweet from a credible account can move millions in capital.
Unlike activist investors, meme-stock promoters often don’t disclose their positions. That regulatory blind spot remains unresolved.
Why the rallies always collapse
The data is clear: most meme stock rallies end quickly and painfully.
GameStop is still down over 70% from its 2021 high. AMC has lost 99% of its value since 2021. Faraday Future jumped from 4 cents to nearly $4 in 2024, then crashed back to penny-stock territory two weeks later.
In this latest round, Krispy Kreme lost nearly all of its gains in hours. Opendoor fell 20% on July 24, wiping out most of the week’s move.
The market is faster now. Institutions front-run Reddit trends. Quants have built scanners that monitor StockTwits and WallStreetBets in real time. Short squeezes are contained before they take hold.
What’s left is retail chasing momentum without the liquidity to sustain it. It’s casino-like futures with casino-like returns.
And yet, the cycle keeps repeating. AI didn’t invent meme stocks. But it may have made them permanent.
This new feedback loop where AI is trained on meme-trading behaviours could potentially fuel a new wave of “autonomous meme trading”.
Since meme stock trading logic is now embedded in AI models, future AI agents could identify unloved, massively shorted stocks, buy them algorithmically, then post on Reddit/X/Discord to drive more social momentum until they offload their shares for a quick profit.
That may sound dystopian. But if markets are narratives, then meme stocks are the loudest storytellers of the digital age, an indicaation of how modern finance is becoming just as much about culture and coordination as it is about cash flow and valuation.
Rapidly emerging as Southeast Asia’s premier base and battery metals developer, Blackstone Minerals now holds two globally significant projects: the Ta Khoa nickel-cobalt project in Vietnam and the Mankayan copper-gold porphyry project in the Philippines. Both projects are critical to the company’s strategy to become a vertically integrated, low-cost, low-carbon producer of critical battery and base metals.
Overview
As the global economy accelerates toward net-zero emissions, the demand for critical minerals continues to rise, with nickel and copper positioned at the forefront of the energy transition. Historically used in stainless steel, nickel is now a core component in lithium-ion batteries; while copper, vital for electrification infrastructure, is similarly facing a looming supply crunch.
Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX,OTC:BLSTF,FRA:B9S) recognizes this strategic imperative and has positioned itself as a diversified, vertically integrated producer of low-cost, low-carbon battery and base metals.
Following its transformational merger with IDM International, Blackstone now controls two globally significant assets: the Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam and the Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines. Together, they represent a rare combination of scale, grade and strategic location in Southeast Asia, an increasingly vital region in the global clean energy supply chain.
The Mankayan copper-gold project is located in Northern Luzon, Philippines
The recently acquired Mankayan project adds substantial scale and diversification to Blackstone’s portfolio. One of the largest undeveloped copper-gold porphyry systems in Asia, Mankayan features over 56,000 meters of historical drilling and a resource of 793 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.756 percent copper equivalent (CuEq), including a high-grade core of 170 Mt at 1.049 percent CuEq. The project benefits from proximity to existing infrastructure and its location just 2.5 km from the operating Lepanto gold mine, owned and operated by Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company, and Far Southeast Gold Resources’ Far Southeast project.
The Ta Khoa project, meanwhile, includes both a past-producing underground nickel sulphide mine (Ban Phuc) and an advanced-stage refinery designed to produce battery-grade precursor cathode active material (pCAM). Vietnam’s low labor and energy costs, coupled with regulated power pricing and surging foreign direct investment, make it an ideal base for Blackstone’s vertically integrated strategy.
Blackstone is uniquely positioned to benefit from geopolitical tailwinds. Vietnam’s Free Trade Agreement with the European Union and the US Inflation Reduction Act are drawing significant interest from global partners and battery manufacturers. Meanwhile, the Philippines is undergoing a mining renaissance, with the government promoting foreign investment in responsible resource development. Mankayan has already been identified as a priority project by the Philippines’ Mines and Geosciences Bureau.
The company’s development strategy is underpinned by a commitment to ESG leadership. Blackstone is advancing renewable energy solutions for Ta Khoa via a direct power purchase agreement with Limes Renewables and is collaborating with Arca Climate Technologies to explore carbon capture through mineralization. At Mankayan, the company is focused on sustainable development in partnership with local communities.
Financially, Blackstone is well-capitalized to deliver on its dual-track growth plan. Following the merger with IDM, the company raised AU$22.6 million and holds AU$24.36 million in cash as of June 2025. The company’s experienced leadership team and strong partnerships provide a clear path to near-term value creation, as both projects progress toward definitive feasibility studies and long-term production.
Blackstone Minerals is now one of Southeast Asia’s leading battery and base metals developers, with a clear vision to supply responsibly sourced nickel and copper for the global energy transition.
Company Highlights
Diversified Portfolio: With Ta Khoa in Vietnam and Mankayan in the Philippines, Blackstone offers exposure to two critical and high-demand metal classes: nickel and copper-gold.
Strategic Southeast Asia Presence: Vietnam and the Philippines are emerging hubs for EV and mineral resource development, with robust government support and increasing foreign direct investment.
Infrastructure Advantage: Both projects benefit from existing infrastructure, including hydroelectric power, trained workforces, and government collaboration.
Sustainability Leadership: Blackstone is pursuing low-emission mining solutions through partnerships in renewable energy and carbon capture technologies.
Financially Strong: Blackstone raised AU$22.6 million post-merger, supporting an aggressive exploration and development strategy across both assets.
Key Project
Mankayan Copper-Gold Project – Philippines
Following its merger with IDM International, Blackstone now owns a 64 percent effective interest in the world-class Mankayan copper-gold project through Crescent Mining Development. Located in the prolific mineral belt of Northern Luzon, Philippines, Mankayan is one of Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold porphyry systems. It lies approximately 340 km from Manila by road, and just 2.5 kilometers from the operating Lepanto gold mine, which includes a 900 ktpa underutilized milling facility.
The Mankayan deposit spans roughly 1,100 meters of strike and 600 meters in width, with mineralization open to the north, south and at depth. Over 56,000 meters of diamond drilling has been completed to date, and the deposit hosts a JORC 2012-compliant mineral resource estimate of 793 Mt at 0.37 percent copper and 0.40 grams per ton (g/t) gold, equating to 0.756 percent CuEq. This includes a high-grade core of 170 Mt at 0.48 percent copper and 0.59 g/t gold (1.049 percent CuEq), offering valuable optionality.
Drilling results support Mankayan’s classification as a globally significant resource. Notable historic intercepts include:
911 meters at 1 percent CuEq, including 253 meters at 1.43 percent CuEq
543 meters at 1.08 percent CuEq, including 277 meters at 1.43 percent CuEq
1,119 meters at 0.86 percent CuEq, including 352 meters at 1.15 percent CuEq
754 meters at 1.03 percent CuEq, including 430 meters at 1.21 percent CuEq
In July 2025, Blackstone confirmed significant new surface mineralization through historical rock chip samples returning grades up to 6 g/t gold and 1.9 percent copper, and a standout recent drill hole – 432 meters at 1.25 percent CuEq (including 210 meters at 1.60 percent) – further underscoring the project’s scale and growth potential.
A key strategic advantage of Mankayan is its dual development pathway. The high-grade core supports a low-capex startup via selective mining methods, while the bulk of the deposit can be exploited through larger-scale mining scenarios that benefit from lower operating costs and economies of scale. This tiered approach allows Blackstone to balance capital efficiency with long-term growth.
Regulatory and community engagement milestones have also been achieved. The project’s 25-year mineral production sharing agreement was renewed in 2022, and a memorandum of agreement with local Indigenous Peoples was signed in 2024, making Blackstone the first mining company to obtain IP consent in the area. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Philippines has since designated Mankayan as a priority development project.
Mankayan stands out globally when benchmarked against peer porphyry systems. A comparative analysis of undeveloped copper-gold projects ranks it near the top in terms of grade and copper equivalent tonnage, reaffirming its strategic and economic potential on the world stage.
In 2025 and beyond, Blackstone will continue metallurgical testwork, geophysics (including magnetics, IP and electromagnetics), environmental baseline studies, and further drilling to refine and expand the resource. These efforts will support upcoming mining studies and a targeted prefeasibility study.
Ta Khoa
Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam
Blackstone Minerals holds a 90 percent interest in the Ta Khoa nickel project, located in the Son La Province of northern Vietnam, about 160 km west of Hanoi. The project comprises the Ban Phuc underground nickel sulphide mine – a modern operation built to Australian standards that operated between 2013 and 2016 – and the adjacent Ta Khoa refinery, currently being developed to produce battery-grade precursor cathode active material (pCAM).
The Ban Phuc mine is currently under care and maintenance but is poised for recommissioning alongside the construction of a concentrator and refinery. The broader Ta Khoa asset base contains probable reserves of 48.7 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.43 percent nickel, equivalent to 210 kilotonnes (kt) of contained nickel. The mining inventory totals 64.5 Mt at 0.41 percent nickel, containing 265 kt of nickel. This figure excludes additional developing prospects such as Ban Khoa.
Over the planned 10-year mine life, Ta Khoa is expected to produce an average of 18 kt of nickel concentrate annually, with the potential to extend well beyond this horizon through integrated refining. The existing infrastructure onsite, including a 450 ktpa mill and a mining camp, provides significant capital efficiency and accelerates time to production.
A recent 12-month pilot program, conducted in partnership with ALS and Wood, successfully demonstrated that Ta Khoa’s hydrometallurgical flowsheet can convert concentrate into nickel sulphate at 99.95 percent purity and 97 percent recovery. This success positions the refinery as a credible supplier to the Asia-Pacific battery supply chain.
The project is further distinguished by its low emissions profile. Independent assessments by Digbee, Minviro, Circulor and an audit by the Nickel Institute have confirmed Ta Khoa as the lowest-emitting pCAM flowsheet in the industry, with carbon intensity of just 9.8 kg CO₂ per kg of pCAM, with opportunities for further reduction.
Blackstone’s development strategy includes flexible feedstock acceptance – from nickel concentrate to black mass – and is strengthened by partnerships with Cavico Laos for third-party supply, Arca Climate Technologies for carbon capture via mineralization, and Limes Renewables to supply clean wind energy. Additionally, the company has secured byproduct offtake arrangements for manganese sulphate and sodium sulphate with VinaChem, PVChem and Nam Phong Green, reinforcing its commitment to full-cycle resource utilization and ESG leadership.
Management Team
Hamish Halliday – Non-executive Chairman
Hamish Halliday is a geologist with over 20 years of corporate and technical experience. He is also the founder of Adamus Resources Limited, an AU$3 million float that became a multimillion-ounce emerging gold producer.
Scott Williamson – Managing Director
Scott Williamson is a mining engineer with a commerce degree from the West Australian School of Mines and Curtin University. He has over 10 years of experience in technical and corporate roles in the mining and finance sectors.
Geoff Gilmour – Non-executive Director
Appointed following Blackstone’s merger with IDM, Geoff Gilmour brings deep experience in Southeast Asian mining ventures. He has held senior roles in exploration and development across copper and gold projects in the Philippines and broader Asia-Pacific.
Tessa Kutscher – Executive
Tessa Kutscher is an executive with more than 20 years of experience in working with C-Level executive teams in the fields of business strategy, business planning/optimisation and change management. After starting her career in Germany, she has worked internationally across different industries, such as mining, finance, tourism and tertiary education.
Lon Taranaki – Executive
Lon Taranaki is an international mining professional with over 25 years of extensive experience in all aspects of resources and mining, feasibility, development and operations. Taranaki is a qualified process engineer from the University of Queensland Australia. He holds a Master of Business Administration, and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Taranaki has established his career in Asia where he has successfully worked (and lived) across multiple jurisdictions and commodities ranging from technical, mine management and executive management roles.
Uber announced a new feature Wednesday that pairs women drivers and riders, in its latest move to address safety on the ride-hailing platform.
The new tool, which the platform will begin piloting next month in the U.S., allows women passengers to match with women drivers when booking or pre-booking rides, and create a preference in their app settings. Women drivers can also choose to drive women.
“It’s about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive,” Camiel Irving, Uber’s vice president of U.S. and Canada operations, said in a release.
The company said the rider’s preference isn’t guaranteed but the feature increases the chances women will be paired in the app.
Uber will pilot the program in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit. The company also said it tested the feature in countries such as France, Germany and Argentina.
This isn’t Uber’s first foray into gender preferences on its platform.
In 2019, Uber rolled out a women rider preference feature for female drivers in Saudi Arabia after women won the right to drive in 2018. That offering later expanded to about 40 countries. A survey from the company in 2015 found that about a fifth of its U.S. drivers were women.
Over the years, ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft have faced safety concerns and questions over the roles these platforms have played in various sexual assault and harassment incidents.
Uber has rolled out several features in recent years to improve safety on the platform, including teen accounts and rider and pin verification.
Competitor Lyft launched an option in late 2023 that pairs women and nonbinary drivers and riders.
