Market snapshot · Aug. 12, 2026 close
The American FilingSection
Deals, IPOs and the corner office
Global announced merger value set a first-half record, surpassing 2021, with transactions above $5 billion rising 44% in number and 148% in value as companies chased scale in AI, power and media.
The confidential submission, reported in June, starts a clock on what could become the largest listing since SpaceX — and forces the company to answer questions it has avoided as a private business.
Business customers now account for the majority of revenue at the largest model developers, and the fastest-growing products are the unglamorous ones: coding, support and document work.
The trial in the government's long-running case against Meta concluded this year, leaving a federal court to decide whether acquisitions approved more than a decade ago should be reversed.
A new chief executive, a spring flush with unusually large tax refunds and growth across all six core merchandise categories produced the retailer's best quarter in more than a year.
A $65 billion round closed in late May put the company's post-money valuation near $965 billion, ahead of OpenAI's $852 billion, on a revenue run rate that has grown several times over in a year.
The company is challenging limits on its default search agreements and data-sharing requirements, while the Justice Department and a coalition of states appeal a remedy that stopped short of a breakup.
Import duties have been rebuilt twice this year, yet shelf prices have risen far less than the rate structure implies, as chains absorb costs to protect traffic from a price-sensitive customer.