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ONE BIG THING
Foldable iPhone ‘Ultra’ launch coming
Apple will hold a launch event on or about September 9 for a new foldable iPhone, according to “Apple Whisperer” Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. The news is significant because it will be the first time since 2023—the launch of Apple Vision Pro—that the company has released a new product in a new form factor (not including accessories).
The new iPhone will be called iPhone Ultra, according to 9to5Mac.
Gurman says: “People who have tried the Apple model like how it fits in a pocket, the feel and durability of the advanced hinge mechanism, and the new iPad-like app layouts that take advantage of the larger internal display. It’s going to be an ultra-premium device that provides a halo for the full Apple lineup and will be a marketing engine to get people into the company’s retail stores.”
The price will be above $2,000. Interestingly, the phone will lack two significant features. It won’t have a telephoto camera. And it will be secured by old-school Touch ID, not Face ID, the current security gate for unlocking an iPhone.
Foldables have a 1.6% share of the phone market, although China alone accounts for 10 million in unit sales of existing foldables from Google, Huawei, and Samsung.
MORE FROM FORTUNE
Bryan Johnson’s Quantified Life | Fortune Daily
How Washington’s interest bill on the $40 trillion national debt exploded 14% in just 9 months – Shawn Tully
The Treasury’s recent moves in the bond and currency markets add up to ‘soft-form financial repression’ to lower debt costs, economist warns – Jason Ma
Meet Flock, the $8 billion startup backed by a16z and Tiger facing growing backlash against surveillance capitalism – Catherina Gioino
Russia is suffering from a slow-motion bank run as the Kremlin scavenges for war funding—and it may start seizing recruits for the military too – Jason Ma
The Iran war could last ‘deep into 2027’ as the Strait of Hormuz isn’t that closed, allowing more oil to leak out—but major escalation is likely soon – Jason Ma
The company selling a $3,000 mattress cover that billionaires love wants to become a healthcare company that treats sleep apnea – Lily Mae Lazarus
American Staffing Association chief economist: The future of work is temporary, and that changes everything about the labor market – Noah Yosif
FAST FASHION, SLOWING VALUATION
Shein eyes $27 billion IPO in Hong Kong
Shein finally filed its IPO prospectus for a share launch in Hong Kong. You can read the prospectus here. The company is valued at $27 billion, and the stock float seeks to raise $1.8 billion.
That valuation is a significant reduction from three years ago when it was valued at $64 billion, or from 2022 when the valuation was $98 billion, CNBC notes. Sales growth has slowed, and the U.S. tariff regime has crimped its export business. The company reported $41.8 billion in revenue for 2025, and $9 billion in sales for Q1 2026.
The company was deterred from listing in London or New York due to political objections to potential forced labor practices in its supply chain.
THE MARKETS
Stocks mixed as traders await Nvidia earnings and Warsh at Jackson Hole
Global markets were mixed this morning. U.S. futures were marginally down before the opening bell in New York. Indexes in Europe were up slightly before lunch. It was not a great day in Asia: all the major markets declined.
We’ve got a busy calendar of market-moving events this week, starting today with a speech at about 2 p.m. from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will put some details (hopefully) on the White House’s plan for “Economic D-Day” against Iran. He wrote a preview in the FT here.
Nvidia discloses its Q2 FY2027 earnings on Wednesday. Analysts are forecasting earnings per share of $2.07 to $2.09. “It’s kind of becoming more and more like the World Cup final than the Super Bowl at this point,” Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, told the WSJ. “It’s just gotten to be that big.”
On Friday, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh speaks at Jackson Hole. The big question is whether he will give economists any meaningful details about how he sees the economy—Warsh has said he dislikes giving “forward guidance.”
- S&P 500 futures were down 0.11% this morning. The index closed up 0.43% on Friday.
- In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was up 0.07% in early trading and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.14% before lunch.
- Asia: South Korea’s KOSPI was down 3.12%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.74%. India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.35%. China’s CSI 300 was down 1.21%.
- Brent crude declined a little to $93 per barrel this morning.
- Bitcoin was at $77K.
POLITICS
How bad will the damage be for Republicans in November?
The Republicans must lose four Senate seats in the upcoming midterms for the Democrats to win control of the chamber, and thus likely control the entire Congress. But according to predictions from Andy Laperriere and his colleagues at Piper Sandler, the Dems are likely only to get two (North Carolina and Ohio) while losing Michigan to the GOP.
“We expect to head into election day with a lot of races looking too close to call—and most of them will be seats held by Republicans. We give the edge to the GOP to keep the Senate, mainly because Michigan leans Republican, which means Democrats have to flip five GOP-held seats to net a four-seat gain. But that outcome would not be surprising, nor would something like a 50-50 Senate,” Laperriere said in a note. The House is already a lost cause for Republicans, he believes:
WORKING HARD AT HARDLY WORKING
The 20 million workers who just don’t want to work
Since the beginning of this year, more than 1 million people of prime working age—25 to 54—have dropped out of the workforce because they simply do not want a job, as this chart from Pantheon Macroeconomics shows. There are currently 19.7 million people who have chosen to be economically inactive. They aren’t adding to the unemployment rolls, by the way. Unemployment claims are down this year, as this chart from Oxford Economics shows:
CHART OF THE DAY: China’s factories
China is approaching the ‘natural ceiling’ of manufacturing dominance
China’s share of global manufacturing surpassed the U.S. in 2000 and is now approaching a level where it represents nearly one-third of all manufacturing on the planet. As this chart from Wells Fargo shows, the one-third level appears to be a historical ceiling on the total share any single country can take. With the U.S. now attempting to reindustrialize and Europe doubling down on defense industries, might another rebalancing be about to take place?
NUMBER OF THE DAY: AI overtaking Google’s revenue growth
$75 billion
The amount of revenues added by OpenAI and Anthropic combined since the end of 2025, according to an estimate by Willy Lee, principal at Neostellar Capital ($400 million AUM). Their total revenues today are $40 billion and $65 billion, respectively, for a total of $105 billion.
“Putting that growth in perspective: Alphabet added around $75 billion of trailing-twelve-month revenue between June 2025 and June 2026,” Lee said in an email.
THE FRONT PAGES TODAY
Canada’s Carney puts his ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’ doctrine to the test – WSJ
Kevin Warsh seeks to soothe investors’ nerves as signs of economic strain mount – FT
U.S. to unveil ‘greatest financial offensive’ against Iran as Tehran threatens ship seizures – CNBC
Trump and former fixer Michael Cohen make amends – Axios
Nvidia customers notified about AI-related price hikes above 15% – Bloomberg
What Canadian goods will take Trump’s 50% tariffs? Some pretty strange items. – NYT
Iran faces massive new triple-threat as Hormuz begins to open, cash gets tight and pols call to end the war – NY Post
ONE MORE THING
The trick to getting kids to stop trusting AI: Ask it to draw a map of the world
A typical map of the world from AI.
Artificial intelligence chatbots have become the bane of teachers everywhere, but to prepare for the new school year, a group of educators in Charleston, South Carolina, packed into a high school auditorium and talked about inviting AI into the classroom.
The teachers and principals watched as an instructor prompted an AI tool to “create a map of the world,” the AP reports.
The result drew gasps of disbelief and laughter. Projected on a large screen was a map riddled with bizarre errors. Dozens of countries’ names were misspelled or written in pure gibberish.
“If you ever want kids not to over-trust these tools, try the map demo,” said the instructor, Amanda Bickerstaff, founder and CEO of AI For Education, an organization that helps schools draft AI policies.
