Economics in the News – June 29 – July 5, 2026
Economics impacts our lives every day. Below are some of the top storylines from this past week related to economics.
o Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce officially tied the knot over the July 4 holiday weekend, with a wedding at Madison Square Garden. Congratulating the newly married couple became a large-scale marketing event for many companies.
Wedding planning company The Knot rolled out digital billboards with congratulatory messages on display near the arena, planning ad-space once it became known that Madison Square Garden was the venue. Other companies took more subtle routes in their marketing campaigns with makeup company Sephora asking about Swift’s lipstick choices. Some companies opted to post AI-generated content to gain thousands of likes and shares, with even the White House getting in on the act. [The New York Times]
o The second quarter marked the best for the S&P 500 since 2020, climbing 14.9 percent for the three-month period. The gains come on the heels of a disappointing first three months after the United States started its war in Iran and markets dropped by as much as seven percent.
Most of the second quarter gains were in April and May, when the Magnificent 7 – Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix and Tesla – rose almost 30 percent. Those companies were aided by robust earnings and have benefited from early investor hype surrounding artificial intelligence. Investors expect similar strong earnings for the third quarter of the year, but are also seeking greater returns from companies in other industries that benefit from the AI technology. Many stock analysts believe that the war has become an afterthought for investors, as stock prices have largely shrugged off the fighting between the US and Iran. [The New York Times]
o Starlink – the most profitable segment of SpaceX – has successfully disrupted the satellite industry. It currently has an estimated 10,000 satellites and more than 10 million Starlink home-broadband subscribers. Much of that success has taken place in rural areas that aren’t served as well by fiber-optic cables. In addition, it is widely used among ships and aircrafts.
Now, Starlink has its sights set on larger goals and it’s competing with the likes of AT&T and Verizon – services that offer powerful brand recognition and expansive infrastructure. For now, Starlink has partnerships with T-Mobile to use its satellites whenever a subscriber is in a remote area. But Starlink engineers are thinking bigger and have been upgrading the company’s satellite’s to provide widespread mobile connection. The company recently acquired two cellular licenses and a spectrum from another satellite company. But the infrastructure remains complex with satellite connection speeds and performance being slower. [The Wall Street Journal]
o Policy shifts have dramatically hurt sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in recent years. President Donald Trump rolled back the $7,500 tax credit for buying or leasing a new EV, a program that was soon set to expire. In addition to a rising interest rate environment, auto loans also became more expensive. Because of that, EV sales are down 27 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared with last year.
Automakers are ditching their planned EV models, with even all-electric Tesla discontinuing production of two of its vehicles. Buyers are now pivoting toward hybrid vehicles. Sales of hybrids have increased by more than 80 percent between 2023 to 2026 and made up 14.1 percent of new car sales in the first quarter of this year. Hybrids show that Americans are open to electrification of vehicles and want better fuel efficiency, but for a much more affordable price tag than an all-electric model. Nobody has benefitted more from the popularity of hybrids more than Toyota. They were seen as slow adopters of EV technology and has been shifting their entire fleet of cars to hybrid-only. It’s RAV-4 is currently America’s best-selling compact SUV. [The Washington Post]
o Since the start of the US war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz closed, one-third of the world’s fertilizer transported by sea was held up due to a shortage of ships passing through. That has resulted in a worldwide shortage in fertilizer and higher prices, with many countries importing their fertilizer.
For US-based farmers, experts suggest that the higher costs of fertilizer that farmers have to pay aren’t passed to consumers at supermarkets. Despite that one-third of fertilizer used by US-based farmers is imported. Price hikes in US supermarkets are more attributed to fewer workers and higher fuel costs. Farmers also often secure their fertilizer well before the growing season, meaning that some weren’t heavily affected by the Iran War and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Farmers have also adapted and opted to grow crops that are less reliant on fertilizers. For instance, soybeans are expected to benefit with more acreage being used, while corn crops will see a decrease. [NPR]
