From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.

Amazon Tumbles on Earnings: The e-commerce giant's shares took a tumble on a mixed earnings report this week. Amazon ($AMZN) reported earnings per share of $5.22, missing the expectations of $5.57. Although the $63.4 billion in revenue beat the expected $62.48 billion, growth for Amazon has decelerated in recent quarters, down to about 17 percent growth in the first quarter compared with 20 and 40 percent gains in previous years. Still, the company boasted that its Prime Day event eclipsed sales on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, and its cloud tech product, Amazon Web Services, reported sales of $8.38 billion, a 37 percent jump from the previous year. See more.

Alphabet Beats Expectations: Google parent Alphabet ($GOOGL) saw its shares surge on the report that it secured revenues of $39 billion this quarter, beating analyst expectations of about $38 billion and showing 19 percent growth over the same time last year. Ahead of the positive report, analysts had expressed concerns about potential regulations on large technology companies, including Alphabet, after the $5 billion antitrust fine Google received last year from the European Union. Analysts have noted the uptick in the cost of traffic acquisition reported this year since Google gets 80 percent of its revenue from advertising. See more.

Facebook Earnings Ease Record Fine Fears: Wednesday was a rollercoaster ride for social media giant Facebook ($FB). The company started the day with the official announcement that the Federal Trade Commission was levying a record $5 billion penalty for its repeated missteps over consumer privacy. Not only that, the company settled for another $100 million in the SEC investigation over its handling of user data. But the tides turned just hours later. After the bell, stocks jumped as the company’s Q2 earnings report showed stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue. Total revenue rose about 28 percent to $16.9 billion, topping estimates of $16.51 billion. Profit also beat Wall Street's expectations, coming in at an adjusted $1.99 a share. See more.

Earnings Miss Sinks Tesla: Tesla ($TSLA) reported weaker than expected second quarter revenues and slimmer margins than analysts had hoped for, plunging the stock price down 10 percent on Wednesday. The electric carmaker posted a loss per share of $1.12 on revenue of $6.35 billion, despite analyst expectations of a loss of 40 cents on $6.41 billion. Tesla also reported a quarterly automotive gross margin of 19 percent, lower than some analysts were hoping for. Since July 2, shares had been coasting on news that second quarter delivery numbers were among the strongest for the company to-date. See more.

Boeing Worst Earnings Loss ー Ever: Embattled aerospace company Boeing ($BA) reported a loss of $2.9 billion in the second quarter, more bad news stemming from the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX fleet. Revenues also sank precipitously to $15.75 billion, a 35 percent drop. The heavy losses come after Boeing announced last week that it took a $4.9 billion charge to compensate airlines for having to cancel thousands of flights with the 737 MAXs out of commission. The fallout from the technical issues that have plagued the 737 MAX and led to two crashes that killed more than three hundred people, will cost Boeing $5.6 billion just in the second quarter alone. The aerospace giant told investors it's considering slowing or halting 737 MAX production if it fails to receive regulatory approval by the end of the year.

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State Department Halts Plan to buy $400M of Armored Tesla Vehicles
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
Goodyear Blimp at 100: ‘Floating Piece of Americana’ Still Thriving
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
Is U.S. Restaurants’ Breakfast Boom Contributing to High Egg Prices?
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
Trump Administration Shutters Consumer Protection Agency
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
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