Plus: Why JPMorgan Is Hitting Fintechs With Stunning New Fees For Data Access |
Good morning,
Stocks are riding high on earnings and AI, a stark shift from this spring’s tariff-induced chaos.Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq reached intraday records Monday, before reducing the gains slightly, buoyed by increases among the “Magnificent Seven.” Analysts expect the marquee S&P to gain an additional 5.4% by the end of the year, according to FactSet. Wells Fargo Securities’ chief U.S. equity strategist Christopher Harvey is particularly bullish, even with President Donald Trump’s continued tariff threats, predicting an 11% increase over Friday’s closing price. “The S&P is not the same as it was 25 years ago,” Harvey told Bloomberg. “It is much stronger, the fundamentals are much better today than they were back then.”
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| The Justice Department and U.S. intelligence officials on Monday unveiled records detailing the FBI’s surveillance of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., years ahead of their originally scheduled release. King’s living children said in a statement that the release, which contains more than 240,000 pages of documents, should be “viewed within their full historical context,” adding that their father was “relentlessly targeted” by an FBI surveillance campaign. Critics of President Donald Trump have claimed that the release is an effort to divert attention from the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. Shipping billionaire John Fredriksen is the latest super-wealthy resident to announce plans to leave the United Kingdom, and is reportedly selling his 300-year-old Georgian manor in London, one of Britain’s most expensive houses. A recent Henley & Partners report found that Britain is losing millionaires and billionaires faster than any other of the world’s wealthiest countries, likely due to tax reforms. Fredriksen said he would relocate to the United Arab Emirates. |
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 | | Jamie Dimon Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images |
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| JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in America, has been angry for years about being forced to hand over customer data to fintech companies for free. Now its billionaire CEO Jamie Dimon seems to be capitalizing on a moment of deregulation to slap fintechs with new fees. It’s a big escalation in the ongoing battle between financial services incumbents and challenger fintechs. Since the start of the fintech industry, upstarts have needed access to consumers’ bank data to perform basic functions like transferring money and making budgeting recommendations. Data aggregators like Plaid and MX make software that bridges bank-to-fintech connections and charge the fintechs for the service. Big banks, including JPMorgan Chase, have long given these firms access to consumer data for free. A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule finalized last fall under President Joe Biden prohibits banks from charging for consumer data and was set to go into effect in 2026. But in May 2025, amid the Trump Administration’s crusade to reduce regulations, the CFPB said it plans to repeal the open banking rule. Now JPMorgan Chase is essentially telling aggregators: You’ve built a nice business off of our data—now give us our cut. Details on the fees remain hazy, but the prices are steepest for payments-related data transfers and would require leading aggregator Plaid to pay an estimated $300 million a year in new fees, according to a person briefed on the pricing sheet. That’s more than 75% of Plaid’s 2024 revenue. |
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| “Many experts believe it’s fair for JPMorgan Chase to charge something for data access,” says Forbes senior editor Jeff Kauflin. “The data feed has cost the bank money to set up and maintain securely, but the size of those costs remain a mystery, as does its method for coming up with the fees’ eye-watering prices. If the fees don’t come down, they could make popular features uneconomical for fintechs to offer and leave consumers worse off, fintech executives believe.” |
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| The Pentagon will withdraw hundreds of remaining Marines sent to Los Angeles in the wake of anti-ICE protests, ending their controversial deployment, a spokesperson confirmed to Forbes. The Pentagon already pulled back about 2,000 of the 4,000 National Guardsmen that had been deployed in June, a move that resulted in pushback and a lawsuit from California leaders. |
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| Stephen Colbert addressed the cancellation of The Late Show in his monologue Monday night, where he repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump and vowed that “the gloves are off.” In a public display of support for their colleague, other prominent late-night hosts appeared during the broadcast, with Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver, The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, Late Night’s Seth Meyers and The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart all shown sitting in the audience. |
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| President Donald Trump’s move to sue the Wall Street Journal and News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch over its story about a “bawdy” letter Trump allegedly sent Jeffrey Epstein could ultimately backfire. If the $10 billion suit goes to discovery, the publication will likely seek information from Trump about his relationship with the disgraced financier, which could include any communications Trump had with Epstein or records detailing their friendship, one expert told Forbes. MORE: The scrutiny over the president’s relationship with the convicted sex offender has brought renewed interest in the Epstein case, giving a boost to books, podcasts and documentaries about the scandal. Views of Netflix’s 2020 docuseries Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich spiked 268% in recent weeks, and seven of the 24 most-listened-to podcast episodes on Apple Monday touched on the latest drama. |
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| For the second weekend in a row, Superman soared at the box office, turning the film into a much-needed hit for the stagnating DC Universe brand and Warner Bros. Meanwhile, this past weekend’s new releases failed to capture large audiences: |
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Over $400 million | Superman’s box office total worldwide, per estimates | |
| $225 million | The film’s estimated budget, according to the Wall Street Journal | |
| June 2026 | The estimated release date for Supergirl, the next major installment in director James Gunn and co-DC Studios head Peter Safran’s extended universe |
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| Many workers are too anxious to take all of their allotted time off, but you shouldn’t give up the time you’ve rightfully earned. Create a plan at the beginning of the year to use all of your vacation days—even if it’s just for a “staycation” or time to focus on your personal life. While you don’t need |
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