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Daily Finance & Markets Brief · July 20th
storyflo · finance and markets
Jul 20, 2026 · 3 min listen · Last updated July 20, 2026
From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief. Mason here, July 20th. The market read in five — let's start with the headline number. Let's get into it. First, from Fast Company. These 3 Perplexity power-user techniques make AI search more useful.
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Daily Finance & Markets Brief · July 20th
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These 3 Perplexity power-user techniques make AI search more useful
If you’ve been using Perplexity for a while, you’ve probably figured out the basics. You know it gives you straight answers instead of a giant wall of sponsored results and recipe blogs.
That’s fine, but if you’re only typing basic questions into the primary search bar, you’re barely scratching the surface.
There are a handful of deeper tools tucked into the prompt box, Spaces, and follow-up workflow that completely change how the engine works. If you aren’t using them, you’re missing out on some of the best parts of the platform.
Let’s look at the features you should actually be using.
Four big questions about the economy I’ve been pondering: Why don’t we have recessions anymore? The National Bureau of Economic Research has historical data on U.S. expansions and contractions going back to the 1850s: Is 19th century data as reliable as today’s? Probably not but it’s obvious that recessions are fewer and far between than they used to be.1 It feels strange that we’ve had jus...
Small-cap and mid-cap stocks are outperforming large-cap indexes this year, with the S&P MidCap 400 up 14%, the Russell 2000 up 20%, and the S&P 600 up 21%. This shift is largely driven by investors rotating away from mega-caps, particularly those heavily invested in AI spending. Companies like Dycom, which builds fiber-optic networks, are benefiting from the growth in AI infrastructure. Funds like the Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 ETF and the iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Growth ETF are seeing significant inflows, with the latter jumping 24% YTD and pulling in $575 million in new assets. However, caution is warranted due to the sensitivity of smaller segments to volatility, inflation, and interest rate hikes.
In Trade War Déjà Vu, Retailers Rush Imports to Avoid New Trump Tariffs
New tariffs, same old story.
US retailers have spent the summer importing as many goods as possible to capitalize on a small window of time before a new batch of tariffs that are expected next month, driving shipments toward a record in July.
Battered Energy Markets Brace for Second Wartime Disruption
After a welcome pause in hostility and volatility, war has put crude oil back on slick footing.
Last week, international benchmark Brent crude rose 13.5% to $88 per barrel, marking its biggest weekly jump since April.
Bearish Investors Give Elon Musk the Boot From Trillionaire Club
Starships were meant to fly, in the wise words of Nicki Minaj. But SpaceX’s Starship rocket stayed grounded last week as the company’s stock crashed down around CEO Elon Musk.
Investors were turning bearish on Musk’s space company even before last week’s scrubbed launch, wiping out about $1 trillion in market value since the stock’s June 16 peak. SpaceX’s shares closed out the week trading about $124, below the company’s $135 IPO price last month. Musk, who’s the company’s biggest shareholder with about a 46% stake, saw his net worth plummet below the trillion mark.
What’s Behind the Growing Appeal of Alternative ETFs?
Time for a closer look?
Liquid alternative ETFs have been around for the better part of two decades, with the first fund in the category coming online in 2009. In the time since, asset managers have introduced a diverse set of both active and passive alternative-focused funds, all generally seeking to produce uncorrelated alpha by investing across equities, fixed income, derivatives and currencies while mitigating overall market risk.
Alternative ETFs remain a comparatively small segment of the ETF market as of mid-2026, but there are signs of growing retail demand driven by a combination of f
VistaShares Is the Latest ETF Issuer to Bet on the Future of Bots
As it turns out, these actually might be the droids you’re looking for.
While Earth-bound robots haven’t yet reached R2-D2 or C-3PO levels of sophistication, one asset manager is banking on the automated future arriving sooner than we think. VistaShares recently launched its Robotics Supercycle ETF under the ticker RTOO, a nod to everyone’s favorite blue-and-white astromech.
Moonshot’s latest Kimi model is so popular that the company just gated new users
- Moonshot AI's new Kimi K3 model is so popular, it's straining the company's GPUs.
- The startup said it saw massive demand over the last two days and had to pause new subscriptions.
- The new model is the latest sign that China is narrowing the gap with the US in AI.
One of China's biggest AI players is struggling to cope with its newfound success.
In a Sunday X post, Chinese startup Moonshot AI wrote that its recently released Kimi K3 model has "received far more love" than expected, and its GPUs were feeling the strain.
"Over the past 48 hours, demand has pushed close to the limits of our
My father saved for years so I could work in the US. Losing my job forced me to start over in Germany.
- Ananya Joshi, a bioprocess scientist, moved from India to the US in 2022 to pursue her master's degree.
- After graduating and working in Chicago, she left the US after her employer couldn't sponsor her for an H-1B visa.
- Now, she's working in Germany and thinking about starting her own company in India.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ananya Joshi, a 26-year-old Indian national who lost her job in 2025, had to exit the US because of her visa status, and moved to Germany for a new opportunity.
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