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The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs yesterday, driven by a surge in tech stocks. Nvidia's stock soared after announcing new chips and an upcoming stock split, closing with a market cap surpassing $3 trillion, making it the second-most valuable company in the US, ahead of Apple. In a sign of the peak in AI enthusiasm, a woman even asked CEO Jensen Huang to autograph her chest.

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Finance

Detroit’s decade long real estate is glowing up

Imagine not working for over 35 years, getting a multimillion-dollar makeover funded by Ford, and then being serenaded by Diana Ross and Big Sean at a concert produced by Eminem. This is the reality for Detroit’s Michigan Central Station, where a star-studded outdoor show will be held tonight to celebrate the rebirth of the once-abandoned building as a Motor City business hub.

To rewind: Enclosed by barbed wire, the former railroad depot languished in disrepair from 1988—the year before the Berlin Wall fell—until 2018, when Ford purchased the heavily vandalized, 18-floor building for $90 million, aiming to aid Detroit's economic revival, five years after the city declared bankruptcy.

Now, after more than $900 million in renovations, Ford is unveiling the refurbished station. It is set to host some of Ford’s operations, other businesses, startups, shops, an event space, and various community attractions. This month, Google’s Code Next Detroit, an education program, is scheduled to move in.

Detroit's resurgence shouldn't be underestimated.

Central Station 2.0 is projected to bring thousands of tech jobs to the area and stimulate nearby service-industry businesses like restaurants and hotels. It will be a cornerstone of Ford’s planned 30-acre, $1 billion technology campus, which the automaker expects to be largely operational in three to five years.

On the rise: In 2023, Detroit's population grew for the first time in nearly seventy years. Additionally, the city’s offices are not facing the vacancy issues plaguing Los Angeles and Chicago, thanks to significant investments from the Ford family and the owners of Rocket Companies and Little Caesars. These billionaires have invested so heavily in downtown Detroit that they own approximately 70% of its office spaces.

While this boosts property values, it also raises concerns about gentrification. In April, median rent in Detroit’s metro area increased five times the national average. Local homeowners and small business owners have reported receiving numerous offers from out-of-towners and realtors interested in their properties.

Space

Boeing Finally Gets to Space

The only thing with more delays than a Boeing spacecraft? The airlines using its planes at MDW. However, the company’s first crewed spaceflight mission successfully launched yesterday, giving executives a reason to finally open that bottle of unintentionally aged Dom Pérignon in celebration.

With the Atlas 5 rocket providing 1.6 million pounds of thrust, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore lifted off at 10:52 am ET yesterday aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule.

Their destination is the International Space Station (ISS), with a journey expected to take 25 hours before the capsule docks. The astronauts will spend over a week on the ISS before returning to Earth on June 14.

Boeing still has a lot of catching up to do. Not to mention its costly air and land challenges. Nearly a decade ago, NASA awarded up to $6.8 billion in contracts to Boeing and SpaceX for astronaut transportation. While Boeing's first launch faced a seven-year delay and ran $1.5 billion over budget, SpaceX is preparing for its fourth test flight of the Starship rocket and Super Heavy launch vehicle today. A lunar variant of the Starship is set to be used in the NASA Artemis 3 mission to the moon in 2026.

Economy

New Exchange in Texas?

A group of investors, frustrated with Wall Street, are taking matters into their own hands by establishing a national stock exchange to rival the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) plans to file with the SEC later this year after raising $120 million from investors and major firms like Citadel and BlackRock, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Why create the TXSE when the NYSE already exists? The group behind this “anti-woke” exchange aims to leverage 1) the booming economy of the Southeast and 2) growing dissatisfaction with what is seen as overregulation at the New York-based exchanges. The TXSE promises to be more “CEO-friendly,” setting itself apart from the Nasdaq, which mandates diversity requirements for its listed companies or requires explanations for non-compliance.

Everything’s bigger in Texas. While many have attempted and failed to compete with the established stock exchanges, TXSE's institutional backing and a financial industry gravitating southward might give it a shot at success. Texas is rapidly shedding its image as a hub for underperforming analysts and is emerging as a new financial center: It’s tied with New York for the second-most Fortune 500 companies, and JPMorgan now employs more people in Texas than in New York.

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