In partnership with
In today’s post:
🎰 Trump Just Bet $2B On This
📉 Elon's $90B Reality Check
🚨 4 Republicans Just Betrayed Trump
Short BTC. Long ETH. Hold as Long as You Want.
No expiry. No rollover. Close whenever you want.
Kalshi is the first regulated place in America to offer perpetual futures. Trade price direction on BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and more — up to 5.8x leverage, without touching the underlying asset.
Trade responsibly.
🎰 Trump Just Bet $2B On This
Trump signed two executive orders Monday to supercharge quantum research and harden U.S. cyber defenses.
His pitch? America's already winning. Now it's going to win by a lot more.
The signing wasn't a quiet affair either.
Alphabet President Ruth Porat and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna showed up. So did Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella.
The market liked the photo op.
IBM rose 2.7% premarket Tuesday. Infleqtion jumped 4.7%.
Kinsella called quantum foundational to national security, scientific discovery, and future space systems. Translation: this is now a national priority, not a science-fair project.
So what do the orders actually do?
Order #1: Build the machine.
It kicks off a national push to build a quantum computer that can run serious scientific calculations. White House officials think that's doable by 2028.
It also tells federal agencies to roll out quantum sensors and networks within five years, while teaming up with allies to protect the tech and supply chains.
Order #2: Lock the doors.
This one speeds up post-quantum cryptography. Why does that matter?
Quantum computers could one day crack today's encryption like a cheap padlock.
So agencies must move high-value assets to quantum-proof encryption by 2031.
Which companies get to play? Officials wouldn't name names.
But a White House fact sheet confirmed the government will partner with domestic industry.
And the money's already flowing.
Back in May, the Commerce Department announced over $2B in funding for quantum firms like $IBM ( ▲ 5.04% ) and $GFS ( ▼ 7.0% ), in exchange for non-controlling equity stakes.
The government isn't just cheerleading. It's buying in.
Quantum is coming. Where do you actually stand?
TL;DR
Trump signed two executive orders to accelerate quantum research and beef up cyber defenses.
Order 1 targets a working scientific quantum computer by 2028, plus sensors and networks within five years.
Order 2 forces federal agencies onto quantum-resistant encryption by 2031.
IBM (+2.7%) and Infleqtion (+4.7%) climbed premarket after the signing.
Alphabet, IBM, and Infleqtion execs all attended, signaling deep industry buy-in.
The Commerce Department already pledged $2B+ to quantum firms for equity stakes back in May.
AI Executive Assistant for Normies
Catch is a smart, proactive AI admin agent that handles your scheduling, inbox, emails, follow-ups, and day-to-day admin across Gmail, Outlook, Slack, WhatsApp, and phone.
No setup. No learning curve.
From swamped to sorted, instantly.
There's a venture-debt lender that just got cheaper by every measure that matters, yet its 12.1% dividend is more covered today than it's been in years.
The premium investors used to pay for it? It's collapsed from 72% in 2024 to 30% now. Same business. Same pristine loan book. Less than half the price tag.
And this isn't a yield trap dressed up as a bargain. Net investment income just beat consensus, covers the base dividend 120% over, and total investment income grew 18.4% year-over-year while everyone else's yields were shrinking.
Here's the part the market is sleeping on: 98% of its loans are floating-rate. The Fed just flipped to a base case of rate hikes by end-2026. That's a gut-punch for most income stocks. For this one, it's a tailwind that pays you more.
One nonaccrual loan. 0.1% of the entire portfolio. The industry average is ten times that.
The stock is down 18% year-to-date. The question isn't whether the dividend holds. It's whether this discount is a permanent re-rating or a sentiment tantrum you'll wish you'd bought.
In today's Premium+ deep dive, we break down:
Why the NAV premium collapsed and whether 30% is the floor or a head-fake
The exact dividend-coverage math, including the one component that isn't as safe as it looks
How rising rates could quietly expand income from here
The single risk that could break the entire thesis
📉 Elon's $90B Reality Check
Turns out selling stock and selling debt are two very different sports.
Stock buyers? Dreamers. They'll happily fund rockets, satellites, AI, and whatever Elon sketches on a napkin.
Bond buyers? Accountants with trust issues. They have one question: will you actually pay us back?
SpaceX is raising $25 billion in its first-ever bond sale. Orders hit roughly $90 billion.
Sounds like a love-fest, right? Not quite.
To get that demand, SpaceX had to dangle juicy yields. Way above what boring investment-grade companies pay.
Investors showed up, but they wanted danger money.
The 10-year bonds priced around 1.4 points above Treasuries.
That's wider than chipmakers like Intel. The market is basically saying, "Cool company, but we're not fully convinced."
Most buyers crowded into the short-term bonds.
Why? Because predicting SpaceX next year feels safe. Predicting it in a decade feels like reading tea leaves.
SpaceX is expected to keep torching cash for years. Starlink, AI, giant moonshots.
Revenue's climbing. But spending is climbing faster.
Think of it like a friend who got a raise and immediately bought a bigger boat.
Shareholders get the upside if the rockets pay off.
Bondholders? They get their interest and their money back. That's the whole prize. No moon, no Mars, just a coupon.
But SpaceX isn't exactly broke. It reportedly sat on over $100 billion in cash in mid-June.
It wants to keep its investment-grade rating, and it can slow spending or raise more equity if things get tight.
This comes right after Nvidia's blockbuster bond sale. Massive demand too.
And yet? Those bonds have already slipped a bit in trading.
Big order book, meet reality.
TL;DR
SpaceX is raising $25B in its debut bond deal, pulling in ~$90B in orders.
It had to offer high yields, so demand came with a "we want compensation" asterisk.
Bonds priced ~1.4 points above Treasuries, wider than peers like Intel.
Buyers piled into short-term bonds, nervous about the long-term outlook.
SpaceX keeps burning cash, but holds $100B+ and can pull levers if needed.
Nvidia's recent bond sale proves big demand doesn't guarantee big performance.
🚨4 Republicans Just Betrayed Trump
The Senate did something rare on Tuesday. It told the President "no."
In a 50-48 vote, lawmakers passed a resolution directing Trump to halt military operations against Iran.
Congress is trying to take back the car keys on war powers.
The plot twist: four Republicans switched sides.
Susan Collins, Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, and Bill Cassidy joined the bulk of Senate Democrats to push it over the line.
One Democrat, John Fetterman, voted the other way. And two Republicans, Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick, didn't vote at all.
Math is funny like that. Absences win battles.
The House already passed the same thing earlier this month. So now both chambers have signed off.
Here's the catch though.
It's a concurrent resolution, which is government-speak for "it skips the President's desk entirely."
The upside: Trump can't veto it.
The downside: it doesn't carry the force of law.
Think of it like your group chat voting that someone owes you money. Strong opinion. Zero enforcement.
Supporters disagree, of course. Kaine insists the measure is binding under the War Powers Resolution regardless of what Trump says.
So why act now, with a ceasefire holding and talks underway?
That's exactly the point, says Senator Tim Kaine.
His pitch: if we're finally in a period of stability, don't let things flare up again without Congress in the room.
Calm moments are when you fix the roof. Not during the storm.
Will any of it change what the White House does? Probably not today.
But it's a flashing warning light on the dashboard. And those have a way of getting louder.
TL;DR
Senate passed a resolution 50-48 directing Trump to halt military action against Iran.
Four Republicans (Collins, Paul, Murkowski, Cassidy) crossed the aisle to make it happen.
Two GOP no-shows (McConnell, McCormick) tipped the math; Democrat Fetterman voted against.
The House already passed the same measure, so both chambers are now on record.
It's a concurrent resolution: skips Trump's signature, but has no legal teeth.
Kaine argues it's still binding and that stable moments are exactly when Congress should reassert control.