Bitcoin’s hovering near a record high, and CoinDesk-owner Bullish appears poised for an oversubscribed IPO tomorrow morning, under the ticker BLSH. No way to know how the meme crowd will move. But if I were a betting man…

Finally, read to the end for a heavyweight bout fought in quote tweets…

— Brooks & Cas

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$CRCL ( ▼ 5.15% ) Circle stock jumps after first-ever public earnings (Fast Company)

$ONON ( ▼ 0.27% ) On Holding Posted a Loss. Why the Stock Still Jumped. (Barron’s)

$SBGI ( ▼ 3.03% ) Sinclair may sell off its local TV stations (Axios)

$BBAI ( ▼ 4.72% ) BigBear.ai Stock Plummets on Uncertainty About Government Contracts (YF)

$MRCY ( ▲ 0.15% ) Defense Stock Breaks Out After Earnings, Analyst Upgrade (IBD)

CNBC: US consumer prices rose 2.7% in July, slightly below expectations, as tariff impacts remained modest and rate-cut bets increased.

Reuters: Perplexity AI made a $34.5B all-cash bid for Google’s $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.2% ) Chrome browser.

AP: Less than a week after demanding his resignation, Trump praised Intel $INTC ( ▼ 3.66% ) CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s career as “an amazing story”.

Barron’s: SpaceX rival AST SpaceMobile $ASTS ( ▲ 0.17% ) said it will deploy up to 60 satellites by 2026, with US service starting this year.

CNN: President Trump is weighing a lawsuit against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over alleged mismanagement of the Fed’s HQ renovations.

Paramount’s $PSKY ( ▼ 1.6% ) recently-approved merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media was a bad deal for long-time shareholders, according to Barron’s. And over the last five years, the stock has fallen by 60% amid a tough advertising environment as cable networks struggled.

But billionaire Oracle $ORCL ( ▲ 0.32% ) founder Larry Ellison and his son David Ellison are now betting that they can turn around the business with a new company rising from the merger, Paramount Skydance.

Larry Ellison is famous for his ruthless, even eccentric practices in business and his personal life. He once paid private investigators to look through the garbage of a business rival, and bought his own Hawaiian island, which he turned into a renewable energy experiment.

Yet Ellison’s vast fortune (net worth second only to Elon Musk’s) could breathe life into the newly created company’s shares, according to Barron’s.

The merger with Skydance — a complex affair in which Skydance took 70% of ownership in Paramount but 100% voting control — left a bad taste in many shareholders’ mouths. Class B shareholders were effectively sidelined, as Class A shareholders cashed out on a big premium.

But that’s all in the past now. What potential investors should consider is where the stock might be headed under David Ellison’s leadership — and, perhaps more importantly, his vast resources.

Barron’s points out several reasons the Ellisons could turn around Paramount. David Ellison brings tech expertise to a company that’s struggled to adapt to the times. And he plans to enact $2 billion in cost-cutting measures.

Then there’s the possibility that the Ellisons could simply buy out Paramount. The company’s public float is just over $3 billion, or about 1% of the family’s net worth.

A buyout would likely reward shareholders, but it’s just one possible path to recovery for Paramount’s share price. Ultimately, Barron’s concludes, there are a lot of ways to improve the company’s outlook, making betting on the company now an attractive proposition.

A stock that’s already lost half its value can always fall farther. Paramount hasn’t updated guidance since last summer, so if new forecasts come in below the $4.1 billion in operating income expected for 2026, shares may well tumble more.

Most analysts, for their part, aren’t convinced that the Ellisons can turn Paramount around. Of the 25 covering the stock, only three rate it a Buy, while 10 have issued Sell ratings. But if the turnaround at Paramount succeeds, as Barron’s predicts, it could be a triumph for contrarian investors.

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Bloomberg: Japan’s Nikkei 225 hit a record high, buoyed by SoftBank $SFTBY ( ▲ 3.11% ), as Asia-Pacific markets gained following the US-China trade truce extension.

WSJ: Crypto founder Do Kwon pleaded guilty to two fraud charges tied to the $40B TerraUSD and Luna collapse and faces up to 25 years in prison.

Fortune: Trump’s nominee to lead the BLS, Project 2025 contributor EJ Antoni, suggested suspending monthly jobs reports.

CNBC: The FDA is considering revoking authorization of Pfizer’s $PFE ( ▼ 0.28% ) Covid vaccine for healthy children under 5.

Forbes: Forbes named 25 fast-growing, venture-backed companies as likely 2025 unicorns. Here’s who made the list.

WWE: Oops! All Billionaires.

They just kept doubling down on the drama too.

Musk responded to the above exchange by comparing follower sizes with Altman. The X CEO’s engagement is smaller, despite a bigger follower count. Altman clapped back, “skill issue.”

Funny. That’s the same response I get from OpenAI when I complain about ChatGPT’s overuse of em dashes…

Does Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 0.87% ) still have more room to run?

▇▇▇▇▇▇ 🐂 Bullish

▇▇▇▇▇▇ 🐻 Bearish

And, in response, you said: