Market Beats | US Long Bonds Drop as Trump Targets Fed Governor Cook; Temu Resumes Direct Shipping From China; Nissan Shares Tumble After Mercedes-Benz Sells Entire Stake; French Borrowing Costs Surge as Government Confidence Vote Looms; Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Antitrust Violations; US Business Equipment Orders Rise in July; Apple to Unveil iPhone 17 Lineup at Sept. 9 Launch Event

—— US Long Bonds Drop as Trump Targets Fed Governor Cook; Temu Resumes Direct Shipping From China; Nissan Shares Tumble After Mercedes-Benz Sells Entire Stake; French Borrowing Costs Surge as Government Confidence Vote Looms; Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Antitrust Violations; US Business Equipment Orders Rise in July; Apple to Unveil iPhone 17 Lineup at Sept. 9 Launch Event

1. US Long Bonds Drop as Trump Targets Fed Governor Cook

Long-dated US Treasuries fell Thursday as President Donald Trump escalated efforts to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, stoking fears over inflation and weakening central bank independence.

The 30-year yield climbed as much as 5 basis points to 4.94%, while the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slipped 0.2%. Though the moves were modest, traders worried that replacing Cook with a more dovish policymaker could hasten rate cuts, increasing price pressures. “The US administration remains unconventional and unpredictable,” said Andrew Ticehurst, senior rates strategist at Nomura Australia. Markets are concerned the Fed board could be “stacked with doves.”

Trump accused Cook of falsifying mortgage documents, though she denied the claims, refused to resign, and disputed his authority to fire her. “No institution in Washington can insulate itself from Trump’s bullying,” said Sarah Binder, political science professor at George Washington University. “Independence claims aren’t enough to shield the Fed from Trump’s ambitions. The Fed needs defenders, especially bond traders.”

The push against Cook comes alongside Trump’s campaign to unseat Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May 2026.

Trump has already appointed Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran, a close ally, to fill the unexpired term of Governor Adriana Kugler, who resigned earlier this month.

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2. Temu Resumes Direct Shipping From China

Temu has resumed direct shipments from Chinese factories to US consumers and ramped up its US advertising spend, following a trade truce between Washington and Beijing.

Several suppliers, partners, and investors said the company restarted its “fully managed” shipping service — under which Temu handles most logistics and customs paperwork — in July, after suspending it in May. Temu is owned by Shanghai-based PDD Holdings.

According to people familiar with the matter and data provider Smarter Ecommerce, Temu has also increased ad spending in the US after cutting budgets earlier amid President Donald Trump’s tariff moves. One source said ad spending is expected to return to first-quarter levels, before Trump announced sweeping tariffs.

The resumption highlights how the truce has given exporters of low-value goods temporary relief. In April, Trump canceled the so-called de minimis exemption for packages worth less than $800 from China, subjecting them to duties exceeding 100%. The move particularly hurt Temu, which had relied on the exemption to ship billions of dollars of small packages tax-free. Temu responded by pledging to source US orders domestically.

Talks in May led Washington to reduce extra tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days, while cutting the rate for small packages from China to 54%. Earlier this month, the two sides agreed to extend the truce for another 90 days.

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3. Nissan Shares Tumble After Mercedes-Benz Sells Entire Stake

Nissan shares slumped 6.3% on Tuesday after Mercedes-Benz, its second-largest shareholder, sold its entire 3.8% stake in the Japanese automaker.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the German carmaker’s pension fund sold shares worth about ¥47.83 billion ($323 million), adding pressure on Nissan as it struggles to execute a turnaround plan. New CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took the helm in April, is cutting costs by ¥500 billion ($3.4 billion) through 20,000 job cuts, factory closures, and property sales.

The two companies first tied up in 2010 under then-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, as automakers sought alliances after the 2008 financial crisis to lower development and production costs.

Nissan’s stock had risen briefly in July after President Donald Trump pledged to lower tariffs on auto imports from Japan from 27.5% to 15%. However, the company’s market capitalization remains below $10 billion, and its share price is down 28% since the start of the year.

Mercedes-Benz sold its stake at ¥341.3 per share, lower than Monday’s closing price of ¥363. Nissan posted negative free cash flow of ¥390.5 billion in the first quarter of its current fiscal year and suspended its full-year guidance.

With the rise of Chinese EV makers, Nissan fell out of the global top 10 automakers by sales in the first half of the year for the first time since at least 2004, according to MarkLines data.

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4. French Borrowing Costs Surge as Government Confidence Vote Looms

French borrowing costs jumped to their highest level since March and stocks fell for a second day on Tuesday, as investors reacted to the prospect of a potential government collapse as early as next month.

Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday called a September 8 confidence vote over his deficit-cutting budget proposals, warning: “If you don’t have a majority, the government falls.” Finance Minister Éric Lombard said Tuesday that the government was “certainly not resigned” to losing the vote, but cautioned that the IMF might step in if the government collapses.

France’s 10-year bond yield climbed as high as 3.53%, close to the post-Eurozone crisis peak set in March, before easing to 3.51%. The spread over German Bunds reached almost 0.8 percentage points, near last year’s political crisis highs. The CAC 40 fell 1.5% by early afternoon Tuesday, extending Monday’s 1.6% loss.

“The risk the market sees are that if the government falls again, it’s complete stalemate and there’s no chance of tackling the deficit,” said Peter Schaffrik, chief European macro strategist at RBC Capital Markets.

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5. Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Antitrust Violations

Elon Musk’s xAI has filed a lawsuit in US federal court against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by thwarting competition in artificial intelligence.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple struck a deal with OpenAI last year to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, as well as writing and camera features, making it not just the default but the only generative AI chatbot with first-party integration into Apple smartphones. This arrangement, it said, granted OpenAI “exclusive access to billions of potential prompts.”

The legal action deepens one of Silicon Valley’s most bitter rivalries — between Musk and his former ally Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI — and drags Apple into the prolonged battle between the two billionaires.

The suit claims the “unlawful agreement” denies rival chatbots equal reach and access to users, while also criticizing Apple for failing to innovate in AI, citing the faltering rollout of its Apple Intelligence system. It also accuses Apple of manipulating App Store rankings and delaying updates to disadvantage Grok, xAI’s chatbot.

Apple has previously said it planned to integrate its software with other AI chatbots, but no new partnerships have been announced since the ChatGPT integration launched in December. The company has held talks with Google about incorporating Gemini.

An OpenAI spokesperson said: “This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.” The lawsuit also accuses OpenAI of holding a monopoly in the AI chatbot market.

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6. US Business Equipment Orders Rise in July

US Commerce Department data showed that business equipment orders rose more than expected in July, signaling companies are moving forward with investment plans as trade and tax policy uncertainty eased somewhat.

Core capital goods orders — a key proxy for business investment excluding aircraft and defense — increased 1.1%, reversing a revised 0.6% drop in June. However, total durable goods bookings fell 2.8%, largely due to fewer commercial aircraft orders from Boeing.

Non-defense capital goods shipments including aircraft, which feed directly into GDP’s equipment investment component, jumped 3.3%. Despite the strong gain, economists expect business investment to remain soft through the rest of 2025 before picking up in 2026, when companies take advantage of tax provisions under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Orders for electrical equipment, computers, machinery, metals, and motor vehicles all increased in July. Core capital goods shipments, a less volatile measure that excludes aircraft and defense, rose 0.7% after an upwardly revised gain in June.

While businesses were largely cautious in the first half of the year due to erratic tariff announcements and weak demand, investment in artificial intelligence-related equipment has surged, with AI seen as a potential driver of productivity gains to offset higher import costs.

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7. Apple to Unveil iPhone 17 Lineup at Sept. 9 Launch Event

Fourteen years after Marc Andreessen declared that “software is eating the world,” artificial intelligence has flipped the script — with investors betting that large parts of the software sector may now be the ones consumed.

Salesforce, Adobe and ServiceNow are among the worst S&P 500 performers this year, each down at least 17% and erasing a combined $160 billion in market value. According to EPFR data, software and services funds saw outflows in two consecutive months through June, compared with only one monthly pullback in the prior 18. A Morgan Stanley SaaS basket has fallen over 6% this year, while the Nasdaq 100 is up 11%. Companies like Asana, Hubspot, Bill Holdings and Vertex are among the hardest hit, each down more than 29%.

Investors see AI as an imminent threat to firms providing code for digital services like CRM and back-office functions. “Tech obsolescence can come out of nowhere,” said Robert Ruggirello, CIO at Brave Eagle Wealth Management. “There’s good reason people are growing cautious.”

Still, some software players are thriving. Microsoft, Oracle and Palantir are outperforming as they aggressively leverage AI.

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