Meta shares rose 15% this week, marking their strongest weekly performance in two years and turning the stock up more than 2% for the year. The company released the Muse Image image-generation model and introduced Muse Spark 1.1 for agentic and coding workloads. Meta also confirmed its first in-house AI chip, codenamed Iris, is expected to begin manufacturing in September. Investors read the updates as signs of faster AI execution, tighter cost control and more paths to revenue beyond ads.

U.S. payroll growth slowed sharply in June and prior months were revised lower, prompting markets to trim the implied chance of a September Federal Reserve rate increase to about 55% from more than 60%. Spot gold held around $4,174.66 an ounce, close to a two-week high, while August U.S. gold futures rose 1.5% to $4,186.70. Bullion posted a weekly gain of more than 2%, snapping a four-week losing streak. A firmer dollar added pressure, but shifting rate expectations continued to dominate short-term pricing.

The dollar index DXY slid to a two-week low of 100.9, while USD/JPY stood at 161.57, close to the 40-year low set in 1986. Markets pared expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike this year after June payrolls growth slowed sharply. At the same time, rising concern over possible action by Japanese authorities has heightened traders’ alertness to near-term dollar softness and sharp swings in the yen.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp criticized the token-based pricing used by U.S. AI labs OpenAI and Anthropic, calling it “completely wrong” as costs rise, in an interview with CNBC. He said enterprises are moving toward more controllable, lower-cost open-weight models. Palantir also said it is expanding its partnership with Nvidia to build custom AI models for U.S. government agencies.

The U.S. is set to lift export restrictions on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models by July 1. The move is seen as a key regulatory easing aimed at supporting overseas deployment of advanced AI models. The article says the change could benefit Cramer Club holdings CrowdStrike and Palo Alto, as demand for their cybersecurity solutions rises alongside escalating AI-related risks. It notes this is an implemented regulatory adjustment, not a preview or proposal.

Women are more likely than men to rely on Social Security for retirement income, but they receive about $4,800 less per year on average, according to research from the AARP Public Policy Institute. The report points to lower earnings and more time spent out of the workforce for caregiving as key drivers of the gap. Financial advisors say the disparity makes the timing and coordination of benefit-claiming decisions especially consequential for women.

More graduate students will face higher federal student loan caps than previously anticipated following a court ruling last week. Beginning July 1 under President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill act,” new graduate students would be capped at $20,500 a year, while “professional” students can borrow up to $50,000. On Monday, the Education Department released an updated list of over 20 professional degrees eligible for the higher limit during the court’s stay. The list includes registered nursing, physician associates and speech-language pathology.

Oil prices edged higher as traders weighed the prospect of renewed U.S.-Iran talks in Doha on Tuesday. President Donald Trump said the meeting would take place in Qatar’s capital, while an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson denied that any talks were scheduled. The uncertainty has highlighted the fragility of the interim understanding the two sides reached earlier in June.

Eli Lilly and Regeneron are among the first seven companies selected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its PreCheck Pilot Program, CNBC reported. The initiative is aimed at accelerating regulatory reviews of new domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.