HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

No Accord in sight. President Trump cast doubt that the U.S. will strike a trade deal with a “spoiled” Japan ahead of a deadline that would see tariffs revert to previous (higher) levels.

On earnings autopilot. Tesla released its Q2 delivery numbers, and they weren’t pretty — but the stock still rose thanks to what Wall Street sees as the company’s AI future.

Rivian stalls again. The automaker saw its stock fall after it reported falling second-quarter production numbers amid investor worry about tariff hits and potential EV tax credit rollbacks.

Clouds roll in. Microsoft is sending out more pink slips, laying off 9,000 workers in the company’s latest round of layoffs to “best position the company and teams for success.”

Hiring hits reverse. ADP’s private payroll numbers just arrived, and they’re bad: The market shed 33,000 jobs, significantly below expectations — and the worst numbers in two years.

Amped-up costs ahead. Experts warn that Trump’s domestic policy bill, which includes big cuts and changes to energy policy, will raise Americans’ energy and electricity costs.

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TOKYO DRIFTED

With just a week to go before President Donald Trump’s self-imposed July 9 trade-deal deadline, talks with Japan have gone from lukewarm to ice-cold. The White House’s latest pitch? A “voluntary” cap on Japanese car exports — or a 25% auto tariff if Tokyo says no. And Tokyo said no.

The White House’s proposal reads less like negotiation and more like an ultimatum: Knee-cap your economy… or we’ll do it for you. Japan is calling it economic coercion — and calling Trump’s bluff. Neither option seems to offer Japan anything in return, and for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, accepting either would be political poison ahead of a precarious reelection bid later this month.

Adding fuel to the fire is the rise of an acronym that is making its way through diplomatic circles: TACO, short for “Trump always chickens out,” a reference to what’s seen as the president’s tendency to talk tough and fold late. Tokyo is betting this time will be no different. Meanwhile, Trump is leaning on emotional claims with minimal factual backing. On Fox News, he insisted Japan “won’t take our cars.” Not true. Japan doesn’t block U.S. auto imports — they just don’t sell particularly well there. He also accused Japan of refusing U.S. rice during a shortage. Also not true: Japan imports U.S. rice under WTO quotas, and the shortage is already easing.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the Trump administration is sprinting toward a finish line with little to show. Of the promised “90 deals in 90 days,” only two have materialized — a partial U.K. agreement and a face-saving ceasefire with China. Allies from South Korea to the EU are confused as their talks stall, deadlines are slipping, and even Senate Republican lawmakers have admitted they’re unsure about the administration’s endgame.

In the land of “the art of the deal,” deal delay has become a default. What’s clear is that Tokyo has stopped playing along in the game. And if TACO memes continue to marinate in the public consciousness, Trump’s trade theatrics may start going stale — especially if 88 missing deals don’t magically appear by next week. Quartz’s Catherine Baab has more on who’s really driving this trade deal.

SILICON CEILING

Venture capital has always been a boys’ club, but lately, it’s starting to look more like a gated community. Just 0.7% of VC funding in the U.S. this year has gone to startups founded exclusively by women, according to new PitchBook data. That’s a freefall from last year’s 2% and is the lowest percentage since records began in 2013. And the total number of deals going to women-led startups is on track to hit its lowest level in over a decade.

But the female funding freeze isn’t for lack of ambition, product, or traction. What female founders are missing, apparently, is a Y chromosome. Investors — 93% of whom are men — still disproportionately ask women about risk while asking men about growth. And if a woman happens to be in her 30s, one perceived “risk” is whether she might go on maternity leave. (Never mind that some of tech’s most famous male founders launched their companies before they could rent a car.)

Some female VCs are blunt about what they’re facing. Women report being mistaken for assistants, asked who they’re sleeping with at pitch events, and advised to bring on a male co-founder to be taken seriously. Meanwhile, male founders still brag about raising millions on nothing but a whiteboard sketch and a good hoodie.

And this year’s funding collapse isn’t happening in a vacuum. Trump’s DEI crackdown has led to grant freezes and the defunding of programs such as the Women’s Business Centers. At London Tech Week, an AI startup founder was denied entry because she brought her baby — at an event supposedly celebrating women in tech. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg is calling for “more masculine energy” in the workplace, and tech’s top donors have pivoted hard to the right.

As one founder put it: “I know in my gut that the sexism is there.” The data says she’s right. Quartz’s Niamh Rowe has more on how startup bros raise millions — while women can’t even get a meeting.

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