Crypto News: Buying time

Good morning. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping buy time to iron out tensions. Sellers are feeling the strain of 7% mortgage rates. And Bentley’s first fully electric car is cheap, by its standards. Listen to the day’s top stories.

— Angela Cullen and Harry Black

Market Snapshot
S&P 500 Futures	7,731.75	-0.5%
Nasdaq 100 Futures	30,488.25	-0.9%
Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index	1,214.22	+0.1%
Market data as of 07:25 AM ET. Data is subject to provider delays.	Your watchlist

Buying time. The US and China sealed a two-month extension to their trade truce ahead of today’s summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Xi said the visit would produce “fruitful results” after touching down at Joint Base Andrews, where he and his wife were personally welcomed by the US president and First Lady Melania Trump. The two still have some thorny issues to hash out, from trade to Taiwan, but there’s one thing they both agree on: neither can afford to tap the brakes on AI. Here’s what’s on the table when they meet.

The global bond selloff deepened, with yields on the US government’s longest-dated bonds hitting the highest level since 2004. Oil surged with the US and Iran still far apart on issues key to restoring energy transits through the vital Strait of Hormuz, leaving the S&P 500 poised to give back most of its early-week advance.

A federal judge temporarily restored White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, in an early victory for the news outlets accusing Trump and senior officials of violating their First Amendment rights. The Democratic Party leadership and national campaign organizations have also sued the administration, claiming it unlawfully threatened to send armed federal agents to polling places in the November midterm elections.

An OpenAI model hacked an Australian government website earlier this year, marking one of the first known cyberattacks by AI on a government database, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Sam Altman and Dario Amodei urged world leaders to work together on AI in an extraordinary appearance before the United Nations Security Council that focused on growing concerns about the existential risks it poses to humanity. So are we losing control of AI?

Meta’s new playthings. The social media company unveiled a palm-sized gadget for using its new AI agent. The Muse Charm looks like a Tamagotchi, has a roughly 2-inch display and runs a new operating system designed to bring Muse to life. It also launched $1,299 virtual-reality glasses that undercut Apple’s Vision Pro in price and size and introduced audio-only glasses after an outcry over privacy concerns of spectacles with cameras.

Deep Dive: Mortgage Rate Pain

2026 hasn’t been a great year for Americans seeking to buy a new home or for sellers. Now it’s no longer a question of when borrowing costs will come down, but what happens if they go higher?

US mortgage rates have surged above 7%, the highest in over two years. Buyers and sellers should accept that as the “new normal,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.
Rates have been trending up since February, when the start of the Iran war drove energy prices up and rekindled inflation concerns. With borrowing costs on the rise, fewer Americans are applying for home financing.
Elevated mortgage rates have slammed the brakes on the market, but it’s not necessarily all bad, for buyers at least, as active listings drop in price. “Housing affordability is improving, believe it or not,” Yun said.

The Big Take

A suspected rear missile fin seized from a container ship that left China in 2025 — A suspected rear missile fin, possibly for an Iranian Kheibar Shekan, seized from a container aboard the CMA CGM Verdi, which left China in 2025.

The Houthis are importing Chinese commercial goods that can also be used to build ballistic missiles, drones and other weapons, an examination of seized cargo found.

Big Take Podcast

Record Diesel Prices Hit Battleground States

Opinion

The AI folks don’t seem to understand intelligence, Gautam Mukunda writes. We should steer clear of utopian and apocalyptic forecasts and watch the bottlenecks instead. Transforming coding is important, but it’s not the first sign of a cybernetic God.

More Opinions

Justin Fox

Your 3% Mortgage Rate Is Crippling the Housing Market

Mary Ellen Klas

Republicans Are Ghosting Trump. It’s Too Late

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Before You Go

Bentley unveiled its first fully electric car, a luxury SUV with pure Merino-wool trim, “wellness” seats that feature leg massage and a digital-detox mode. Hitting 60 miles per hour in just 2.8 seconds, the Torcal will start at $230,000, making it — remarkably — the cheapest model in its lineup.

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