Good Morning! Inflation slowed to a three-year low but your Fourth of July party still might cost you $100 this year. It’s going to be a summer of record airline travel, and you can definitely expect some delays. The VC money model is shifting and Warren Buffett is giving away another $5.3 billion. Wall Street junior bankers are logging 100-hour weeks again and doing push-ups on the sidewalk as punishment. Plus how $5 has become the fast food industry’s magic number and how workers in Finland stay happy.

Celebrate the 4th of July by declaring your freedom from manual expense reports. Take a demo of BILL and get a free Apple Watch.

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Boeing Charged with Fraud

It’s been a slow weekend leading up to the Fourth of July, but Boeing made an announcement…they’ll buy their supplier Spirit Aerospace for $4.7 billion.

And, almost as if federal prosecutors were waiting for the M&A announcement to steal Boeing’s thunder, they wasted no time dropping the hammer on Boeing, charging the plane-maker with fraud.

Prosecutors want Boeing to plead guilty to fraud, alleging that they lied to air-safety regulators about the 737 Max plans. In turn, Boeing will have until the end of this week to either accept the guilty plea or go to trial and fight the charge in court.

Under the guilty plea, Boeing will have to pay around a $243 million penalty as well as hire an outside consultant to monitor its compliance.

Many crash victims' families are outraged, calling it a "sweetheart deal" compared to their requested $25 billion fine. Attorney Paul Cassell criticized the plea for not acknowledging the 346 deaths caused by Boeing's actions.

Takeaway: To say Boeing is in turmoil would be an understatement. Boeing's shares have dropped by a third this year, and it’s facing an $8 billion cash burn due to production slowdowns. The FAA has capped 737 Max production, and Boeing also needs to find a CEO replacement after Dave Calhoun steps down later this year. Let’s hope their next CEO knows how to handle crash landings.

_{PRESENTED BY BILL}

Take a Demo, Get an Apple Watch

Celebrate Independence Day with a Free Apple Watch from BILL!

Declare your freedom from manual expense reports this 4th of July with BILL's Spend & Expense tool.

Book a demo of BILL’s expense management software and corporate card, and receive a complimentary Apple Watch.

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Inflation slows to three-year low (CNBC)

• Fourth of July parties will cost almost $100 to host this year (YF)

• Record summer airline travel is starting, and so are the flight delays (CNBC)

• Venture capital's money model is shifting (Axios)

• Warren Buffett gives away another $5.3 billion (CNBC)

• Wall Street junior bankers clocking 100-hour weeks and doing push-ups on sidewalk (Bloomberg)

• Elon’s audiobook recommendations (X)

• How $5 has become the fast food industry’s magic number (Axios)

• Ackman's Pershing Square USA to offer shares at $50 in NY listing (Reuters)

• SCOTUS rules on key business cases (Verge)

• Supreme Court kills a favorite liability shield for private equity (WSJ)

• JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley boost buybacks and dividends (CNBC)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed higher as investors assess higher rates for longer.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Infinera Corp ($INFN) +16% after Nokia announced its plans to acquire the company for $2.3 billion.

• (+) Synchrony Financial ($SYF) +7% after Baird initiated coverage with an outperform.

• (–) Nike ($NKE) -20% after the company projects larger sales decline than expected in 2025.

Private Dealmaking

• Nokia bought Infernia, an optical telecom equipment maker, raised $2.3 billion

• CVC Capital Partners bought M Group Services for $1.9 billion

• Formation Bio, a drug developer, raised $372 million

• AbbVie bought Celsius Therapeutics for $250 million

• Rohlik, a grocery delivery company, raised $170 million

• Sidecar Health, an employer-facing health insurer, raised $165 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

How To Expect The Unexpected

How can you be 100 percent sure you will win a bet? Why did so many Pompeians stay put while Mount Vesuvius was erupting? Are you more likely to work in a kitchen if your last name is Baker?

Ever since the dawn of human civilization, we have been trying to make predictions about what the world has in store for us. For just as long, we have been getting it wrong. In How to Expect the Unexpected, mathematician Kit Yates uncovers the surprising science that undergirds our predictions—and how we can use it to our advantage.   

From religious oracles to weather forecasters, and from politicians to economists, we are subjected to poor predictions all the time. Synthesizing results from math, biology, psychology, sociology, medicine, economic theory, and physics, Yates provides tools for readers to understand uncertainty and to recognize the cognitive biases that make accurate predictions so hard to come by.  

This book will teach you how and why predictions go wrong, help you to spot phony forecasts, and give you a better chance of getting your own predictions correct. 

“A vivid, wide-ranging, and delightful guide for understanding how and why predictions go wrong.”

_{DAILY VISUAL}

S&P 500 Looking Frothy

S&P 500 with record-high bullishness on future earnings from a small group of companies.

_{PRESENTED BY DOLLAR FLIGHT CLUB}

Travel Smart: $1 for Premium Flight Deals

Hate overpaying for flights? Yea, us too.

That’s why we snagged you the deal of a lifetime: Short Squeez readers can try Dollar Flight Club’s Premium Plus+ membership for only $1. 

It’s easy—just sign up, set your departure airports, and relax as flight deals discounted up to 90% roll in. Think deals to your dream destinations like:

• Round trip to Paris from $293

• Hawaii from $161

• Orlando from $38 (no joke)

Don’t wait, try for $1 now.

_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Self Doubt

That voice in your head saying "you can't,” is a liar.

History is filled with underdogs who silenced their inner critics and changed the world.

Oprah Winfrey was told she was "unfit for television."

Stephen King's first novel was rejected 30 times.

Yet they persevered.

Your doubts are not facts; they're just thoughts.

And thoughts can be changed.

So next time that voice pipes up, remember: doubt killed more dreams than failure ever did.

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

That's your true potential.

It's time to turn your "I can't" into "I'm unstoppable."

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• How to work for an overly critical boss

• How being a cynic at work is holding you back

• 5 keys to managing intrusive thoughts

• How workers in the world’s happiest country (Finland) stay content

• 6 leadership habits that require mental strength

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day