
Germany's Merz to Meet Trump in Washington
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Washington for his inaugural meeting with US President Donald Trump on Thursday. With just weeks until Trump has threatened to implement sweeping 50% tariffs on all European goods, the timing of Merz's trip is critical. Bloomberg's Michael Nienaber reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Departure of Tesla's humanoid robot boss caps tough week for Elon Musk, amid bitter fallout with Trump
It's been a difficult week for Tesla. Not long after Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's very-public social media spat led Tesla shares to take their greatest single-day drop ever on Thursday—erasing $152 billion off its market cap—one of Tesla's top engineers confirmed on social media late Friday afternoon that he was leaving the company. Milan Kovac, who oversaw the development of Tesla's 'Optimus' humanoid robot posted on X that he had made 'the most difficult decision of my life' and would be 'moving out of my position,' confirming a Bloomberg report from earlier Friday afternoon that he was departing the company. 'I've been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad,' he wrote in the post. 'I want to make it clear that this is the only reason, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. My support for [Elon Musk] and the team is ironclad—Tesla team forever.' Musk later replied to the post on X, thanking Kovac for his contributions to the company and saying it had been an 'honor' to work with him. The departure is a meaningful one for Tesla. Musk has repeatedly made public statements staking the future of the company on Tesla's self-driving software and its yet-to-be-released humanoid robot product. Musk has claimed that the Optimus robot, specifically, could generate 'north of $10 trillion in revenue' for Tesla and be its biggest product ever. It's largely his bullishness on these AI-powered initiatives that have contributed to Tesla's soaring stock price, which some analysts have argued is divorced from reality. Kovac's departure raises questions over the future direction of Optimus, and whether Tesla will successfully be able to develop, manufacture, and deliver the humanoid robots. Bloomberg reported that Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla's Autopilot, would be taking over responsibilities for Optimus. Tesla had already been criticized for overselling the capabilities of Optimus after it failed to alert attendees of its 'We, Robot' launch event that humans were apparently remotely controlling the robots. (Kovac had confirmed in a social media post after the event that the robots were human-assisted 'to some extent') The departure of one of Tesla's top engineers adds to what has already been a troubling week for the electric vehicle maker. Tesla's shares tumbled this week as President Trump and Musk took to their respective social media platforms to hurl insults at one another. Trump accused Musk of being frustrated that EV credits for Tesla cars would go away as part of the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' while Musk accused the president of irresponsible spending with the proposed legislation. The conversation spiraled into insults and even discussions of cutting SpaceX contracts with NASA as the partnership between the two figures very publicly imploded. Adding to Tesla's woes, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs issued a note to investors on Thursday forecasting weaker-than-expected sales of Tesla cars in the second quarter. Tesla shares recovered some ground on Friday as Musk said he was open to making amends with Trump, though the stock still finished the week down 14% from January (still, Tesla shares are trading nearly 66% higher than they were this time last year.) In his social media post, Kovac recounted how he had joined Tesla in 2016 as an engineer on its Autopilot team and that he had transitioned to lead the Optimus group in early 2022 when Tesla had 'nothing but a couple Kuka arms arranged upside-down,' referring to the industrial robotic arms that are often used in automated factory systems. Tesla did not respond to an immediate request for comment on Kovac's departure. This story was originally featured on


Bloomberg
26 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Stocks Hit Highest Since February on Jobs Surprise
Bloomberg Television brings you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street. Today's guests are Bloomberg Television brings you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street. Today's guests are Katie Nixon, Northern Trust, Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan, Dan Dolev, Mizuho, Rashad Bilal & Troy Millings, Earn Your Leisure, Matthew Griffin, Bloomberg News, Barry Bannister, Stifel, Jess Menton, Bloomberg News, Ed Ludlow, Bloomberg News, Stacy Rasgon, Bernstein Research, Frances Katzen, Douglas Elliman, Brett Winton, Ark Invest, Tony Zaccario, Stretch Zone, Nicole Camarre, 43North. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why EchoStar Bounced Back Today
EchoStar issued a press release touting its new 5G-enabled tablet. The FCC recently threatened EchoStar's spectrum holdings, alleging it hadn't been building its 5G network fast enough. Elon Musk's public spat with Donald Trump may also, believe it or not, account for the rise, since Musk's SpaceX wants EchoStar's spectrum. 10 stocks we like better than EchoStar › EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) shares were bouncing back today, up 10% as of 2 p.m. ET. EchoStar's shares have been under severe pressure since the beginning of the year, but especially in the past week. That's because management decided to not make two separate interest payments on its debt, as it awaits a decision from the FCC regarding its spectrum. Management has a 30-day grace period to do so before the company is technically in default. The spectrum debate has to do with the pace of EchoStar's 5G rollout, and is also indirectly linked up with Elon Musk's SpaceX. Back in May, the new Trump-appointed FCC director sent a letter to EchoStar, stating that the extension it was granted to complete its 5G network buildout by the prior administration was under review. EchoStar had purchased valuable spectrum years ago, on the terms that it would build a 5G network to increase competition in the industry. However, EchoStar's buildout has been slow, which is perhaps not surprising, given its declining legacy business in satellite TV. In an interesting wrinkle, Musk's SpaceX had led a campaign to win more satellite spectrum for its own services, including the spectrum held by EchoStar. That may have played a part in the FCC's initiation of a review, given Musk's ties to the Trump administration. However, late yesterday, EchoStar issued a press release introducing its new Boost Mobile Celero tablet, the Celero5G TAB, a low-cost tablet that takes advantage of EchoStar's 5G network. While normally not that significant, the announcement of a new 5G product could go a ways toward making EchoStar's case to the FCC that it deserves to keep its spectrum. Furthermore, it appears Musk's relationship with the Trump administration is now on the outs, given Musk's storm of posts today criticizing the administration and Republicans in Congress for the deficit expansion in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" making its way through Congress. If Musk and Trump have a falling out, then the FCC may not aggressively pursue EchoStar's spectrum on behalf of SpaceX, if SpaceX's campaign was in fact a motivating factor in initiating the review. EchoStar's stock has been punished severely, so it could make for a turnaround play if in fact it's able to deploy 5G to more areas and grow its low-cost Boost Mobile offerings. However, its high debt, declining legacy satellite TV business, and unresolved battle with the FCC remain big risks. Betting on a big recovery is a highly risky proposition, and only appropriate for speculators at this point. Before you buy stock in EchoStar, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and EchoStar wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,538!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $869,841!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 789% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why EchoStar Bounced Back Today was originally published by The Motley Fool