Federal Reserve Governor Jefferson: No Need to Hurry to Further Cut Interest Rates, Strong Economy Makes Caution Appropriate

Although markets assign a low probability to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in July, Bank of America still expects the Fed to hold rates steady. The bank noted that a July rate hike would be unprecedented: since 1994, the Fed has never raised rates when the market’s implied probability of a hike was below 60%. Bank of America views higher oil prices as a key inflation risk and remains bullish on the U.S. dollar.

Apple (AAPL.O) announced the launch of its "Apple Upgrade" program in the U.S., a new product leasing service for iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPad. The program offers 12-month and 24-month leasing options for iPhone and Apple Watch, while Mac and iPad are available with 24-month and 36-month terms. Monthly rental rates start at $17.99 for iPhone, $11.99 for Apple Watch, $24.99 for Mac, and $11.99 for iPad.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins expressed optimism in an interview with CNBC that the U.S. Congress will support the passage of the CLARITY Act.

According to official announcements, xStocks – the tokenized stock platform under Kraken’s parent company Payward – stated that following SpaceX and Bending Spoons, the third IPO offering on xStocks will be U.S. sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s. The brand currently operates over 3,300 locations, with annual sales reaching $4.3 billion. Its U.S. sales outpace Five Guys, and it is poised to become one of the largest restaurant industry IPOs in recent years. Users can submit subscription applications via Kraken.

The weekly change in U.S. ADP employment for the week ending July 11 came in at 15,000, versus the prior figure of 16,500. (Jinshi)

According to people familiar with the matter, Amazon is overhauling its artificial intelligence strategy, phasing out many in-house models, restructuring teams, and concentrating engineering resources on a new cutting-edge competitive initiative. The moves follow last week’s layoffs at Amazon’s General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) division and the shutdown of its AGI Lab — a research institute Amazon established in 2024 after poaching most of the team from AI startup Adept. This restructuring marks a refocus of Amazon’s AI strategy: instead of spreading resources across multiple text, image, and video models, the company is directing engineering talent and scarce computing resources to its highest-priority projects. Sources say Amazon has begun phasing out most of its in-house flagship Nova models, including the high-end Premier and Omni variants, the Reel video generation model, and the Canvas image generation model. The company is gradually shifting resources away from existing Nova models to a new cutting-edge model R&D program. Led by researcher Pieter Abbeel — who joined Amazon via the acquisition of AI robotics startup Covariant — this initiative, internally called "Edge Model Research" (abbreviated EMR), has become one of Amazon’s top priorities this year.