President Trump confirmed Monday his administration is considering reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
The big picture: The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump was considering the action after pot companies contributed millions of dollars into the president's political groups.
A global glut of lithium prompted a Chinese battery company to suspend production at a massive mine, triggering a rise in commodity prices and a jump in stock prices of lithium companies.
Ford is investing $5 billion across two factories to build a low-cost universal electric vehicle platform, which will underpin a family of affordable EVs it hopes will match China's costs and features.
Why it matters: The effort includes a complete rethinking of how vehicles are assembled — essentially throwing out the traditional assembly line Henry Ford invented — in order to overcome China's low-cost labor.
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced on Monday an extended partnership with Netflix, but the deal is a more modest version of the splashy agreement they previously inked.
Why it matters: The new deal comes as their public profile as media moguls has fluctuated with mixed response to their shows.
Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina-based maker of rare-earth magnets, has raised $65 million in Series A funding at a $250 million valuation.
Why it matters: The U.S. is pushing to onshore production of materials critical to its national defense, plus commercial needs, rather than relying on China.
OpenAI is raising money at a $300 billion valuation, in a SoftBank-led round that the company announced months ago but which isn't slated to close until year-end.
It's also working on a secondary share sale at a $500 billion valuation, as recently reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Axios.
The big question: Why would investors buy shares at the much higher price?
Why it matters: President Trump's trade agenda is prioritizing American manufacturing, imposing tariffs to incentivize companies to make goods in the U.S.
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke announced Monday that he plans to step down, with Microsoft opting not to directly replace the position, according to memos shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: GitHub, which has operated largely independently since Microsoft acquired it in 2018, has become increasingly important to Microsoft's overall strategy to woo developers to Windows and Azure, as well as to its suite of AI tools.
Paramount Global acquired the U.S. rights to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for $7.7 billion over seven years, the company announced Monday.
Why it matters: The deal, which starts next year, was announced less than a week after Paramount completed its long-awaited merger with Skydance Media.
The trade war is approaching the end of the beginning — but market watchers say there's still a long list of unanswered questions that investors and businesses need to be resolved.
Why it matters: After months of on-and-off-and-back-on, tariffs seem firmly in place now, but that's still not helping executives gain the certainty they crave.
A U.S. government agency ruled that gold bars from Switzerland would be subject to tariffs. Gold prices shot up. Then the administration announced it would issue a new policy to exempt the gold bars.
Why it matters: The snip-snap approach to tariffs roiled bullion prices, but investors say they are bullish with or without the tariffs.
