Good morning! Former Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein is apparently day trading his $1.8B fortune from his phone and iPad, with 98% in risky assets. Intel surged after announcing a chip design partnership with Apple in the US. And individual investors asked to redeem about $12 billion from four large private credit funds in Q2, up from $7.7 billion the prior quarter and still climbing.

A Florida pizza mogul has advised the Trump sons on two high-profile stock deals this year. And Allbirds rebranded as Smartbird in an AI pivot, hiring a former AWS executive as CEO. It's a last-ditch move for a sneaker brand that's been hunting for a second act for years.

Plus: Sandisk stock keeps ripping (up ~7x YTD), Apollo's Shutterfly debt concessions expose AI competition risk, and the unwritten rules of Wall Street style.

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SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Gen-Z’s Career Flex

The newest status symbol for ambitious Gen Zers isn't a Goldman offer, a McKinsey badge, or a founder title. It's a board seat.

A small group of twentysomethings is landing directorships at public companies and nonprofits, turning the boardroom into the latest prestige arena for young professionals trying to separate themselves early.

Take Deven Jain, who joined the board of BranchOut Food, an Oregon snack maker, at 21 while still studying finance at UVA. He'd built a Substack following picking microcap stocks, convinced his family-office boss to take a stake, and got a seat in return.

The club is exclusive. Among the 3,000 largest public companies, just 11 of more than 26,000 board seats belong to people in their 20s. The average public-company director is now 63.4 years old, up from about 62 a decade ago. So an under-30 in the boardroom is still a genuine rarity.

Not everyone earned it the way Jain did. Plenty of young directors are heirs to fortunes or children of well-known executives (the Lutnick sons landed on Cantor Fitzgerald's board after their father joined the Trump administration). Others are AI and fintech founders. But a handful have gotten there simply by offering something the room lacks.

Companies want a read on younger consumers and the new wave of retail investors trading on their phones. Nonprofits want the same, plus younger donors, digital fundraising, and messaging that doesn't sound like it was approved by a committee of retired CEOs.

When every company is trying to decode the next generation of customers, a 25-year-old director can be more useful than another gray-haired operator gesturing at "TikTok strategy" in a quarterly meeting.

For Gen Z, the appeal is obvious: credibility, access, mentorship, and proximity to power. A board seat drops you into rooms most people spend decades trying to enter. Even nonprofit boards come with gala invites, donor circles, and former-CEO mentors.

Public-company seats can pay too, though not much yet: one 23-year-old earned about $13K in options last year, while a director at a crypto-pivoting drink company pulls $30K. The real currency is prestige. "Board member at 25" says you didn't just climb the ladder, you found the elevator.

Takeaway: Entry-level jobs are getting squeezed by AI and traditional paths feel shakier, so everyone wants a sharper signal than another internship. A board seat offers the rarest thing in early-career life: instant credibility. For Gen Z, the goal may no longer be making partner by 35. It's landing a board seat before 30, and deliberating executive comp while still on a family phone plan.

PRESENTED BY ENDEX

Suspended Mythos Preview Sparks "Always On Analyst" Conversation

This month, Anthropic released Mythos, its most powerful frontier model, then suspended it days later under a U.S. government export control directive barring access by foreign nationals.

The model is capable of working over 17 hours, reflecting the race among model providers to compete for long horizon tasks. JPMorgan's Chief Analytics Officer expects long-horizon agents at the firm in 2026, with AI staying coherent for "multiple hours, then days, then weeks."

To turn long-horizon capability into automations finance teams can trust, Wall Street firms work with Endex to embed their own standards, data, and workflows. Endex's team of former finance professionals deliver custom AI-analyst capabilities to Wall Street.

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Former Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein says 98% of his portfolio is in risky assets (MarketWatch)

• Sandisk stock jumps 11% after Apple flags unavoidable memory hikes (YF)

• Intel surges after company will partner with Apple on US chip design (CNBC)

• Even more investors want out of private credit (WSJ)

• Florida pizza mogul played quiet role in Trump sons' stock deals (BB)

• Allbirds rebranded as an AI company called 'Smartbird.' (Entrepreneur)

• Apollo's Shutterfly debt concessions expose AI competition risk (BB)

• Citibank to lay off nearly 70 North Jersey employees (NorthJersey.com)

• Bain's Japan rainmaker seeks to stay on top as rivals expand (BB)

• Form Energy taps JPMorgan, Jefferies, Goldman, Morgan Stanley for IPO (Axios)

• Orlando Bravo built a software investing empire. Now AI is changing the rules. (BB)

• The squeeze on liquidity is just getting started (BB)

• Hoping to lure buyers flush with IPO cash, Rockstar Energy creator lists five homes (WSJ)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks rallied after President Trump signed an interim peace agreement with Iran, paving the way for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

• The S&P 500 gained 1.2%, while the Nasdaq outperformed following news of a chipmaking agreement between Apple and Intel.

• WTI crude oil traded around $77 per barrel, near recent lows.

• The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.45%, while the 2-year yield remained elevated at 4.18%.

• The U.S. dollar reached a new 2026 high against a trade-weighted basket of currencies.

Labor Market Remains Steady

• Initial unemployment claims remained stable at historically low levels.

• Labor-market data continues to indicate limited layoffs and steady employment conditions.

• The Fed's latest projections showed a more balanced view of labor-market risks.

• Policymakers remain more concerned about inflation risks than unemployment risks.

Inflation Watch

• Falling oil prices and gasoline costs could help ease inflation pressures over the coming months.

• National average gasoline prices have fallen below $4 per gallon.

• Next week's May PCE inflation report is still expected to reflect elevated inflation pressures.

• Investors will also be watching durable goods orders, personal income and spending data, PMI surveys, and additional Fed commentary for clues on the policy outlook.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Intel ($INTC) +11% after Apple agreed to work with Intel to design and build chips domestically.

• (+) Allbirds ($BIRD) +9% because the former shoe maker rebranded as “Smartbird” and hired a former AWS executive as CEO to lead the transformation.

• (–) Accenture ($ACN) -18% after cutting its full-year revenue growth citing weak consulting demand.

Prediction Markets

• The price of H100s is up nearly 60% since April.

• Trade on real-world events with Kalshi. Use code OWS to get a $10 bonus when you trade $10.

Private Dealmaking

• Arcline Investment Management agreed to acquire AstroNova, a provider of identification and marking solutions, for around $272 million

• Dream, an Israeli sovereign AI and cyber defense company, raised $260 million

• Rylo, a communication platform for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, raised $85 million

• XDOF, a robot training data company, raised $70 million

• Gradial, a Seattle-based agentic marketing startup, raised $65 million

• Hypha, an operating platform for private-market investors, raised $50 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Great Global Transformation

Description:
A sweeping analysis from Branko Milanovic of the shifting balance of economic power between the United States and China and what it means for the future of globalization. The book examines how trade, technology, demographics, geopolitics, and inequality are reshaping the global economy, arguing that the world is entering a new era unlike any seen since the rise of the modern international order. Drawing on decades of economic research, it explores the opportunities and tensions created by China's ascent and the evolving role of the United States.

Book Length: 336 pages
Release Date: May 26, 2026

Ideal For:
Investors, business leaders, policymakers, and anyone interested in geopolitics, globalization, and the long-term forces shaping the global economy.

The defining economic story of the twenty-first century is not the rise of one nation but the transformation of the system that governs them all.

DAILY VISUAL

Software PE’s Aging Inventory Problem

PRESENTED BY REX SHARES

One Ticker, 2x SpaceX

SpaceX is finally public, and there's already a leveraged way to trade it. SPAX, the T-REX 2X Long SpaceX Daily Target ETF from REX Shares, is now trading on NYSE Arca.

How it works: SPAX seeks 200% of SpaceX's daily performance, before fees and expenses. Double the daily move, up or down, resetting each day. Built for active traders, not long-term holds.

SPAX is part of the T-REX lineup of daily 2X long and inverse ETFs across 40+ tickers from REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management.

Visit rexshares.com/spax for the prospectus and risk disclosures*. Investing in SPAX is not equivalent to investing in SpaceX.

DAILY ACUMEN

Selling Winners

Investors have a strange and costly habit. They sell the positions that are up and cling to the ones that are down, which is almost perfectly backwards. The winner gets dumped to lock in a small gain and feel smart. The loser gets held, because selling it means admitting the call was wrong, so they wait for it to "come back."

This is the disposition effect, and it is pure psychology overriding sense. The decision to hold or sell should depend on what each position will do from here, not on whether it is currently above or below what you paid. The purchase price is a fact about your past, not the asset's future.

The pattern runs well beyond markets. People abandon what is working to protect a fragile ego and pour endless effort into what is failing to avoid the sting of being wrong. The price you paid is gone. Only the road ahead should decide.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• The Coverd Card launches soon**

• How to reduce your screen time

• What to read to understand your next employer

• 3 lazy habits that signal intelligence

• The unwritten rules of Wall Street style

• Most people think this is a relationship ‘red flag’ but it isn’t

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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