Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
7 Business News Stories We Are Following Today 8-1-25
01 Aug 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker shares seven key business stories, including a weakening US labor market, steep market drops, major investor interest in OpenAI, and more.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business Podcast, the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today's discussion is seven of the stories that we're following today. It's Friday, August 1st.
First, the markets are largely dropping today to tanking today, depending on your perspective. The catalyst is a weakening labor market and more tariff news. Ultimately, the U.S. labor market in July created just 73,000 jobs. That was well less than expected.
Also, unemployment ticked up to 4.2%. Second, as of right now, the S&P is down about 1.65%. That's a cluster. The NASDAQ is down 2.14%. Third, the labor market, as we said a moment ago, added 73,000 jobs.
Chapter 2: What are the key updates on the US labor market?
The earlier months were also revised downward, showing a slowing in hiring in the U.S. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%.
fourth open ai uh the the company that essentially is the sam altman company valued at 300 billion dollars in private market transactions investors added 8.3 billion dollars into it uh some of the biggest names in private equity and in venture capital joining that uh people like blackstone tpg andreessen horowitz and a hell of a lot of others also founders fund sequoia capital like a who's who of ultimately funds and investing in that
Fifth, Amazon, which is one of the stocks that we are directly invested in, is getting hammered today. It's down nearly 8%. One analyst says they're getting complacent. Others may think that they're becoming more and more a retailer again versus a tech company. In any event, struggles there. Sixth, UnitedHealth Group, also struggling, continuing its downward trajectory.
It's down another 3% to 4% today as it's out there replacing its CFO and announced it's replacing its CFO. Finally, seventh, a stock that had rebounded so much this year is falling today. Coinbase is down 15% plus today after missing on a wide range of earnings and revenue expectations. So thank you for listening to the Becker Business Podcast. It's the Becker Private Equity Podcast.
Those are some of the stories that we're sharing with you today. Thank you for listening.
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