US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the inflation surge from the war with Iran a "short-term blip" in a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Consumer prices rose 3.8% in April, but Bessent pointed to underlying economic strength and said prices should moderate as supply pressures subside. His comments revive debate over "transitory" inflation as policymakers monitor consumer strain and political fallout.

Cut through the noise with a concise monthly update on the AI trends shaping advisor marketing, client acquisition, and digital visibility.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said AI is rapidly being deployed across the bank, but is unlikely to cause widespread job displacement. Instead, he expects the technology to reshape workflows and improve productivity across roles. Solomon also discussed capital markets activity, including major IPOs, and said AI is already influencing areas beyond finance, such as music production.

Morgan Stanley plans to allow external artificial intelligence agents access to its stock administration platforms, ShareWorks and Equity Edge, in a move that could set a precedent for Wall Street. "In a future state, our corporate clients will not be logging into ShareWorks or Equity Edge," says Mark Mitchell, chief product officer of Morgan Stanley at Work. "They'll be using agentic AI-powered tools on their desktops within the four walls of their companies, interacting with our platforms in a purely agentic way."

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has become the first exchange-traded fund to exceed $1 trillion in assets, reflecting the surge in passive investing and the popularity of AI stocks. The ETF has quadrupled in size since 2022, outpacing State Street's SPY. The growth of VOO highlights a broader trend of investors favoring low-cost, passive investment vehicles, with global ETF assets reaching $21.9 trillion.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged lawmakers to pass the Clarity Act, a major cryptocurrency market structure bill, this summer. The bill is stalled in the US Senate over issues such as stablecoin rewards and software developer protections. During a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Bessent also noted that the Treasury is progressing at a "deliberate speed" to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, as directed by US President Donald Trump's executive order.

A revised Federal Reserve supervisory framework has boosted the share of large banks deemed "well-managed" to about 80%, up sharply from recent years, improving their ability to pursue expansion. The Fed's latest supervision report also highlights growing risks tied to lending to nonbank financial institutions and calls for stronger oversight of collateral, liquidity and credit exposures.

The SEC's proposal to allow US public companies to report earnings semiannually instead of quarterly could significantly benefit alternative data providers by increasing the value of their datasets. However, the proposal faces challenges, including voluntary participation by companies and existing transparency obligations.