What Moved The Markets This Week

Jul 20, 2025

Sunday Morning Markets

Trading Week 29, covering Monday, Jul 14 through Friday, Jul 18. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.

Consumer inflation rose 2.7% in June as tariffs bite, with core CPI up 2.9%, just shy of forecasts. Both headline and core wholesale inflation remained unchanged, signaling milder-than-feared pricing pressures.
Retail sales beat forecasts with 0.6% jump in June, signaling strong consumer demand and steady job growth. The rebound gives the Fed room to delay rate cuts despite tariff-driven inflation.
Economists cut recession odds to 33% for 2025, down from 45% in April and easing fears of a contraction. Global trade tensions and tight immigration policies still weigh on the longer-term outlook.
Home prices are falling in one-third of top housing markets, driven by rising inventory and softening demand. Prices are up just 1.3% nationwide, the slowest annual pace in two years.
Apple partners with MP to build rare earth recycling facility, a $500M deal that sent MP shares soaring 20% on Tuesday. The move aims to boost U.S. supply of critical tech components.
Westinghouse to build 10 nuclear reactors starting in 2030, aligning with Trump’s atomic energy push. They also announced a new AI deal with Google to streamline the reactor buildout process.

Nvidia to start selling H20 AI chip sales to China again after Jensen met with Trump, a deal that could boost sales and ease tensions. AMD will also resume exports of its MI308 chips.
Trump touts trade deal with Indonesia with 19% tariff rate after threatening 32% last week. U.S. gains tariff-free access as Indonesia agrees to buy energy, agriculture, and 50 Boeing jets.
China’s Q2 GDP beats forecasts with 5.2% growth, but slowing retail sales and deflation risks prompt fresh calls for stimulus. China’s exports jumped 6% in June, with rare earth exports surging 60% to a record high.
Japan’s exports contract again with no trade deal as auto shipments to U.S. drop 27% in June. Cooling energy eased headline CPI to 3.3%, but food prices surged 8.2%, keeping pressure on the BOJ.
UK inflation jumps to 3.6% in June, with core inflation rising to 3.7%, both above forecasts and straining households amid weak economic growth. The Bank of England is still expected to cut rates in August.
EU proposes raising defense funding in €2T budget, with a fivefold jump in military and space investment. Climate, migration, and Ukraine also get boosts, but member state approval is still needed.

Uber inks six-year robotaxi deal with Lucid to use Nuro’s autonomous tech in major cities starting next year. They also partnered with Baidu for driverless cars globally in Asia and the Middle East.
China’s Kimi K2 outperforms GPT-4 on key tasks, beating top models in coding and math while staying open-source and free. Moonshot AI’s bold play shakes up Silicon Valley’s AI race.
OpenAI launches a general purpose agent in ChatGPT, enabling users to run code, draft slides, and navigate apps. The tool rolls out with safeguards and connects to Gmail, GitHub, and more.
AI drives 75% surge in U.S. startup funding, hitting $163B so far in 2025 even as VC firms face a 34% drop in fundraising. AI deals made up 64% of total investment value in H1.
Amazon unveils Kiro AI to revolutionize 'vibe coding' with tools that write code, generate diagrams, and plan tasks. The preview puts AWS in direct competition with Google and Microsoft.
Cognition acquires Windsurf days after Google’s raid, scooping up its AI IDE, top talent, and 350+ enterprise clients. The move strengthens Devin’s edge in the fierce AI coding tools battle.