Financial Mindset

Nike isn’t turning the corner just yet. The sports gear giant’s quarterly results this week showed a company still tripping over its own unforced errors, undercutting whatever progress it’s made toward a comeback. Nike shared some positive news in its earnings report on Tuesday, notably modest growth in North America, where revenue rose 3%. The bump reflects gains in Nike’s key footwear business and its mended relationships with the wholesalers it dumped a few years ago. But big sales declines in China, the loss of market share in areas like running shoes to brands such as On and Hoka, and the revenue free fall at Nike’s Converse brand cast a shadow over the bright spots. Nike CEO Elliott Hill and his team gave a cautious financial forecast for the current quarter in a tough macro environment. Nike finance chief Matthew Friend told analysts, “Our consumer is under pressure around the world.” Consumer sentiment is an easy scapegoat, but Nike’s own missteps...

Japan—famously slow to adopt digital technologies common across the developed world—has become a surprisingly fast adopter of AI, as it confronts both a shrinking population and aging digital infrastructure built on legacy code.  “Japan was our first or second most popular country in terms of user engagement overall,” said Russell Kaplan, president of Cognition AI, the San Francisco startup behind AI coding tool Devin, in early June.  The East Asian country has the world’s oldest population, with almost 30% of its residents over the age of 65. Japan’s working-age population is projected to decline by over 30% between now and 2060. The decline leads to a shortage of programming talent: In 2023, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) estimated that the country would face a shortage of 789,000 software engineers by 2030.  Cognition AI is making Japan the first step in its Asian expansion, opening a Tokyo office in April; it will f...

Vietnam and the Philippines are now “upper-middle-income” countries, at least according to the World Bank, putting them on the same level as Southeast Asian peers like Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The upgrade is “a highly encouraging milestone,” says Khuong Minh Vu, a professor at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “It represents strong international recognition of the development progress achieved by the two economies.” Yet it will also force both countries to confront the so-called middle income trap that has stalled many other developing countries, including several in Southeast Asia, on their path to upper-income status. The World Bank determines a country’s economic status by its Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in the year before. The development bank classifies a country as upper-middle-income if its 2025 GNI per capita fell between $4,636 and $14,375. The World Bank cited Vietnam’s export boom and the Philippines’ broad-based economic...

At 8:40 a.m. Eastern Time on July 1, the price of oil sits at $72.68 per barrel, using Brent as the benchmark (we’ll explain what that means shortly). That’s a decrease of $2.34 since yesterday morning and roughly $4.34 more than at this time last year. oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday $75.02 -3.11% Price of oil 1 month ago $95.04 -23.52% Price of oil 1 year ago $68.34 +6.35% Will oil prices go up? Nobody can predict the future path of oil prices with certainty. A range of factors influence how oil trades, yet supply and demand remain the main drivers. When fears of economic slowdown, conflict, or similar shocks rise, oil prices can move sharply. How oil prices translate to gas pump prices The price you see at the gas pump reflects more than just crude oil. Also built in are the costs of refining, distribution through wholesalers, various taxes, and the margin your neighborhood station charges. Crude oil is still the largest single driv...

Welcome to Eye on AI. AI reporter Beatrice Nolan here.  In today’s issue: AI is reshaping who builds, and how fast. The U.S. government allows the limited release of Anthropic’s Mythos model. AI isn’t killing jobs—yet.   And California cuts a deal with Anthropic—despite tensions in D.C. The big news from the weekend is that Anthropic’s Mythos AI model is back —but only for a few. On Friday, the Trump administration lifted its two-week block on Anthropic’s Mythos 5 model, clearing it for release to more than 100 U.S. institutions, including major companies and government agencies. Fable 5, the public-facing version of the same model family, remains blocked, with talks over its reinstatement ongoing. Also on Friday, OpenAI got the Anthropic treatment (well, sort of, anyway) over its newest model. The Trump administration asked OpenAI to limit the release of its GPT-5.6 lineup—comprising three models, Sol, Ter...

Emily Blunt just took home a cool $15 million for her role on Disclosure Day— hot off the back of a $12.5 million payday for reprising her role as Emily Charlton on The Devil Wears Prada 2. But she could have been earning a much more modest income had she pursued her original dream career.  That’s because growing up, Blunt didn’t want to be an actress at all. She had her sights set on a far less glamorous job: Translating. “Before I was going to be an actress, I wanted to work for the UN and be a Spanish translator,” she recently told BBC Radio 2. “I’ve always loved languages,” Blunt added. “My mother is an incredible linguist, so I think I grew up being quite inspired by her.”  As well as inventing an entire alien language made up of creepy clicking noises and hums for her most recent role in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day, she also had to learn Russian and Korean. And before that, Blunt learned how to talk about river ...

As of 9 a.m. Eastern Time on June 30, oil is trading at $75.02 per barrel, based on the Brent benchmark we’ll explain in a bit. That’s $1.02 above the previous morning’s level and about $7.24 higher than where it stood a year ago. Oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday $74 +1.37% Price of oil 1 month ago $95.04 -21.06% Price of oil 1 year ago $67.78 +10.68% Will oil prices go up? No one can say for sure where oil prices will go next. Many forces shape the market—but at the core, it’s still about supply and demand. When risks like a potential recession or war ramp up, oil prices can change direction quickly. How oil prices translate to gas pump prices When you buy gas at the pump, you’re covering more than the cost of crude oil. You’re also paying for every step in the process, including refineries, wholesalers, taxes, and the markup your local gas station adds. Even so, crude oil has the biggest influence on what...