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This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.
Happy Monday. I spent the weekend mostly outdoors at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, but many others headed inside to catch the latest summer blockbuster.
Stock futures are climbing this morning. The three major indexes are coming off a winning week.
Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Salt air
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 30, 2026. Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Markets last week capped a mixed July defined by mega-cap earnings reports, a Federal Reserve decision and reescalation in the Iran war. Now, investors are now looking ahead to Friday’s jobs data and the next batch of corporate earnings.
Here’s what to know:
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite recorded their second straight losing month in July, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was able to eke out a gain.
- The Big Tech trade diverged last week on the back of earnings: Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft collectively gained about $1.5 trillion in market value, while Apple and Meta pulled back.
- Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate futures and Brent crude both soared more than 20% last month as conflict in the Middle East revved back up.
- Oil prices are falling and stock futures are rising this morning after President Donald Trump on Saturday called off planned strikes on Iran. The president said talks with Tehran would resume this afternoon, though a spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry cast doubt on the prospect.
- Follow live market updates here.
2. No hugging matter
The Hugging Face website on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. Nvidia announced a partnership with Hugging Face, a popular developer of AI models and data sets, that will add a training service to its website that uses Nvidia DGX Cloud, allowing users to tap the chipmaker’s servers to handle their workloads. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The risk of artificial intelligence expediting cyber attacks felt like a far-off threat. That changed last week.
As CNBC’s Samantha Subin reports, the OpenAI agent hack on Hugging Face demonstrated that the era of AI-agent-led hacks is already here. Cybersecurity experts are also particularly concerned by the evidence that AI agents will use extreme and unexpected measures to complete their tasks. As Zscaler information security chief Sam Curry put it: “Pandora’s box is open.”
Don’t miss Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” at 11 a.m. ET. Watch live on CNBC or CNBC+.
3. Sticky situation
Leopold AschenbrennerPhoto: Josh Edelson
Two years ago, Leopold Aschenbrenner’s 165-page essay made him the talk of Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The near-collapse of his fund Situational Awareness last week put a less-desirable spotlight on the young manager.
The fund peaked in value at around $45 billion in assets last month. But after the volatile semiconductor sector saw outsized hits in recent weeks, Aschenbrenner had to sell his leveraged stock bets to Ken Griffin’s Citadel at a discount, sources told CNBC. The fund’s holdings then stood at around $10 billion.
Here’s why Situational Awareness imploded, even in a relatively calm stock market.
4. Small-ticket purchase
A Best Buy store in Pinole, California, US, on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. Best Buy Co. is expected to release earnings figures on November 25. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Best Buy is known for its sprawling stores with aisles upon aisles of electronics. Incoming CEO Jason Bonfig wants the retailer to go smaller.
Bonfig, who will succeed current CEO Corie Barry later this year, outlined his plans for new small-format storefronts in an interview with CNBC’s Laya Neelakandan. While some of Best Buy’s locations exceed 40,000 square feet, the smaller versions will range from 12,000 to 15,000 square feet.
“What we’re finding is that there are markets that we just can’t be in with a traditional size Best Buy store, but they’re markets that absolutely make sense for Best Buy from a reach perspective,” Bonfig said. He stressed that the smaller stores would not replace its typical large-format locations.
5. Unfare?
Airplanes are parked at their gates at President Donald J. Trump International Airport on July 09, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images
As oil prices whipsawed, airfare in June soared more than 26% higher from the same time last year. Consumers shouldn’t expect fares to come down anytime soon — even if fuel prices stabilize.
Industry executives are betting that travelers will keep flying despite rising costs, CNBC’s Leslie Josephs reports. Just look at Southwest: The average one-way ticket came in at $225.61 in the second quarter, up from $186.65 during the same period last year. Still, CEO Bob Jordan said the airline is “seeing really strong demand” in a recent CNBC interview.
The Daily Dividend
Here’s what to watch this week:
- Monday: Palantir Technologies and Snap earnings (after the bell)
- Tuesday: Pfizer, McDonald’s and Wayfair earnings (before the bell); Paramount Skydance, Lucid, Mattel, Pinterest, Advanced Micro Devices and SpaceX earnings (after the bell); Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for June
- Wednesday: Disney, CVS, Eli Lilly, Etsy and Uber Technologies earnings (before the bell); e.l.f. Beauty, DoorDash and Figma earnings (after the bell); ADP jobs report for July
- Thursday: Restaurant Brands International, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corp., Versant Media and Peloton earnings (before the bell); Sweetgreen and Airbnb earnings (after the bell)
- Friday: Under Armour earnings (before the bell); non-farm payrolls report for July
— CNBC’s Sarah Min, Lee Ying Shan, Tanaya Macheel, Annie Palmer, Arjun Kharpal, Samantha Subin, Hugh Son, Yun Li, Laya Neelakandan and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
Luke Fountain assisted in the production of this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.
Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC.
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