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Chapter 1: What is driving the global tech selloff?
I think the potential of agentic is to rethink how work gets done overall. It challenges all sorts of traditional orthodoxies around how organizations execute the work at hand.
That's Jason Gerzades, CEO of Deloitte US, talking about the transformational potential of agentic AI. Join him later to learn why agents are a game changer for businesses across industries.
The Pentagon tries to drum up support on Capitol Hill for $80 billion more to fund the Iran war. Plus, say hello to nine-figure pay packages as CEO compensation soars.
There were more CEOs making over $100 million than any time since 2021.
Chapter 2: How is AI spending impacting Big Tech stocks?
Almost a dozen CEOs were over $200 million.
And to build more homes in the U.S., do we need to rethink how they're built? It's Tuesday, June 23rd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We begin with a tech-fueled market sell-off that's extending into a second day and spreading overseas.
Investors concerned about the cost of AI are taking stock, while also weighing the continued downturn in SpaceX shares since its Blockbuster IPO 10 days ago. This morning, Asian markets closed lower after South Korea's Kospi tumbled 10% on losses in major chipmakers including Samsung.
European tech stocks are also dragging down markets there, with Europe's most valuable company, ASML, retreating 5%. And futures indicate that U.S. stock markets are in for another down day as well, with Alphabet, Nvidia, and Oracle all falling sharply in pre-market trading.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urging lawmakers to commit more funding for the Iran war, even as talks continue to reach a concrete deal to end the conflict. We reported last week that the Pentagon is seeking $80 billion in supplemental funding, though a formal funding request hasn't yet been sent to Congress.
The fresh funding push comes as lawmakers have been voicing skepticism about the terms of the deal to end the war and are pushing the Trump administration for a comprehensive price tag for the conflict. Last month, Hegseth told Congress that the war had cost $29 billion. ABC is taking its fight with the Federal Communications Commission to its own airwaves.
Starting yesterday, the broadcast network began urging viewers to weigh in against the FCC's early review of its broadcast licenses and a separate probe of its daily talk show, The View, using ads like this one on Chicago's ABC7 to steer its audience toward an FCC public comment page.
ABC7 has proudly served you for more than 70 years. Every day we commit to inform, entertain, and serve you. Now the FCC is questioning our commitment to the community.
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Chapter 3: What are the Pentagon's funding requests for the Iran war?
ABC says that both FCC probes threaten free speech. Meanwhile, an FCC representative called the TV spots part of a campaign of misinformation. And late yesterday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr posted a link on X encouraging people to submit comments about the view. It's Tuesday, so it must be primary day somewhere.
And in fact, it is in Maryland, Utah, New York and South Carolina, with the latter two states attracting the most attention. Around New York City, Mayor Zoran Mamdani is weighing in on several competitive House primaries, endorsing a pair of Democrats taking on incumbents.
It's part of his campaign to remake the Democratic Party by backing candidates he said will deliver material change for working people.
Chapter 4: Why are CEO compensation packages rising again?
And in South Carolina, two Trump-backed Republicans are going head-to-head in a gubernatorial runoff. Trump initially endorsed Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evatt in the race, but on Friday said he'd endorse both her and Attorney General Alan Wilson, who's held a steady lead in opinion polls. We'll have key results for you on tomorrow's show.
And just a year after nine-figure pay packages seem to be fading for chief executives, the $100 million-plus CEO salary is back with a bang. In the journal's annual CEO pay ranking, we found that more U.S. CEOs crossed the once-rare pay threshold in 2025 than in any year since 2021.
And journal special writer Teo Francis, who covers executive pay, said that nearly a dozen executives even topped $200 million.
It isn't just Elon Musk, but he and Tesla may be setting the tone. The last time we saw a surge in nine-figure pay packages, it seemed like it was a reaction to his first multi-billion dollar pay deal. But we're also seeing the number of CEOs at the low end, under $10 million, continue to decline. And pay packages under $100 million but over $50 million, those are getting more common, too.
The best-performing companies aren't always the ones paying their CEOs the most, and the highest-paid CEOs aren't necessarily the ones running the best-performing companies. That said, I've been covering CEO pay for a long time, and so far, pay just keeps rising. There's still an open question whether rising pay helps shareholders.
Research is beginning to suggest that these moonshot paydays, the $100 million ones and bigger, don't generally help shareholders or pay off for executives.
And for a rundown on some of the top paid CEOs, check out the link we've left in our show notes.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges in addressing the U.S. housing shortage?
Coming up, to tackle America's housing shortage, do we need to rethink the house? From new designs to new materials, or even shifting construction off-site, we'll look at the outside-of-the-box approaches that some developers are turning to to get more built. Stick around after the break. Searching for a home? The Real Commute Tool from Realtor.com lets you find homes right where you need to be.
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Number one trusted based on August 2025 proprietary survey among real estate professionals. To tackle the U.S. housing shortage, a Goldman Sachs report last year concluded, start with fixing zoning. We talked about that in the first installment of our housing series.
But with the construction industry facing a major shortage of skilled workers, Goldman made it clear that zoning challenges are just the first hurdle facing builders, a trend on full display on both sides of the Atlantic.
Labour's a big challenge.
Labour shortages in the UK are a concern. Getting skilled labour, like brickies for instance, is really difficult.
Touring the UK Construction Week and Future Build conferences last month, it's clear that the industry is trying to adapt to worker shortages by rethinking how things are built, especially by embracing modular construction. Imagine assembling everything from concrete floors to wall segments far away from where projects eventually go up in a bid to make the job more attractive.
So we have teams of skilled brickies in our factory environment. It controlled temperature, no rain, etc., as opposed to doing it 15 stories up in the driving rain on a building site somewhere in the winter, you know.
We can give somebody close to where they live good, steady income in a really nice environment, consistency of work, not transient, not living away from home, which is a big problem in the construction industry in the UK.
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