Enterprise AI is proving significantly more expensive than many companies expected, pushing CFOs to weigh increased token spend against future hiring plans. CEOs at Glean and Factory AI say Fortune 500 buyers are shifting from indiscriminate usage to tighter model selection, as annual AI budgets are being used up in just one or two months.

Kalshi said Friday it will seek to launch perpetual futures contracts, starting with crypto perps, positioning them as a regulated option for U.S. traders. The company said offshore perpetuals expanded from $28 trillion in annual volume in 2023 to more than $90 trillion in 2025, and that its products would be offered under Commodity Futures Trading Commission supervision.

Starbucks said visits to its U.S. stores after 2 p.m. rose over the 90 days from Feb. 15 to May 16, with the strongest gains between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The company credited the momentum to beverage innovation, highlighting Refreshers as its No. 2 drink category behind espresso as CEO Brian Niccol pushes an all-day strategy.

Snowflake shares surged 35% on Thursday after the company beat fiscal Q1 estimates and said it will spend $6 billion on compute from Amazon, expanding its use of Amazon's in-house AI chips. Snowflake also lifted its outlook, including a projected 12.5% fiscal Q2 adjusted operating margin and $1.415 billion to $1.420 billion in product revenue, helping lift other software names such as ServiceNow, Oracle and Palantir.

Ahead of Thursday's U.S. economic releases, options activity in the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) skewed heavily defensive, with put premium topping 70% of Wednesday's total. A representative trade spent $11.4 million on 277 puts expiring July 17 and sold $3.6 million of 271 puts expiring June 18, positioning for about a 7% drop in IWM by mid-July.

Eli Lilly said Tuesday it plans to acquire three privately held vaccine companies in transactions valued at nearly $4 billion in total. The deals include up to $1.5 billion for Curevo, up to $780 million for LimmaTech Biologics, and up to $1.55 billion for Vaccine Company, with programs targeting shingles, staph infections and Epstein-Barr virus.

Abercrombie & Fitch reported mixed fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday and said the Middle East conflict directly pressured demand, contributing to a 10% sales decline in its Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Even so, the stock gained about 13% in morning trading after earnings per share came in at $1.47 versus $1.28 expected. The company guided current-quarter EPS to $1.80-$2.00 and reaffirmed full-year net sales growth of 3% to 5% with EPS of $10.20 to $11.

U.S. crude prices slid on Wednesday after WTI fell 5.7% to $88.53 a barrel by 8:33 a.m. ET, while Brent dropped about 4.7% to $94.91. The move followed a report that Iran has committed to return commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within one month of a framework agreement with the U.S.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday in Taipei that the company plans to lift its annual spending in Taiwan to $150 billion and start building a new campus by year-end. Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.7% to a record close, with TSMC up 1.3%, MediaTek up 8.8% and Delta Electronics up 7.2%. Mainland China chip stocks slid the same day, including Cambricon down 5% and Hygon down 7%.