From Earnings Shake-Up to Tesla’s Billion-Dollar Bet

19th September 2025

Wall Street may be heading for a reporting revolution. Donald Trump is pushing for U.S. companies to report earnings just twice a year instead of quarterly—a shift the SEC now says it’s prioritizing. Meanwhile, the D.C. appeals court just blocked Trump’s attempt to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook, Google crossed the $3 trillion mark as it announced a fresh $6.8 billion UK investment, and Elon Musk snapped up $1 billion worth of Tesla stock to send shares soaring. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines

• Trump calls for earnings reports every 6 months so execs can 'focus on properly running their companies'

U.S. companies should be allowed to report earnings every six months instead of on a quarterly basis, President Donald Trump said on Monday, announcing what could prove to be a major shift for corporate America. The president said on his social media site Truth Social that change, which he had previously called for in 2018, would cut costs and discourage shortsightedness on the part of publicly traded companies. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was making Trump's proposal a priority. "This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies," Trump said.

Currently, the SEC requires corporations to report their financial statements every 90 days. Half-yearly reporting would mark a huge change in disclosure requirements and put the U.S. in line with the U.K. and several countries in the European Union. The agency in 2018 solicited public comment on possible changes but ultimately left the current regime in place. This time the SEC appeared fully on board. “At President Trump's request, Chairman Atkins and the SEC is prioritizing this proposal to further eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on companies," a spokesperson said. Trump's call puts him squarely on one side of a persistent tension between companies, on one hand, that seek to lessen the burdens of frequent market updates, and investor demands for information on the other.

Some investors have cautioned that waiting longer for financial information would mean less transparency and increased market volatility, making U.S. stocks less attractive, although several on Monday said they supported the idea. Transparency advocates also say it could give companies greater opportunity to hide or delay the disclosure of bad news. Adena Friedman, chair and chief executive at Nasdaq, said in a post on LinkedIn that her company strongly supported allowing companies to choose to report less frequently, as this would minimize the "friction, burden and costs" of listing on Wall St. Yahoo.Finance

US appeals court rejects Trump bid to oust Fed's Lisa Cook

A U.S. appeals court declined on Monday to allow Donald Trump to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook - the first time a president has pursued such action since the central bank's founding in 1913 - in the latest step in a legal battle that threatens the Fed's longstanding independence.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means that the administration only has hours to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if it hopes to block Cook from attending the Fed's policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday where it is expected to cut U.S. interest rates to shore up a cooling labor market. The D.C. Circuit denied the Justice Department's request to put on hold a judge's order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb had ruled on September 9 that Trump's claims that Cook committed mortgage fraud before taking office, which Cook denies, likely were not sufficient grounds for removal under the law that created the Fed. The decision was 2-1, with Circuit Judges Bradley Garcia and J. Michelle Childs in the majority, both of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, dissented. In an opinion joined by Childs, Garcia wrote that Cook is likely to prevail on her claim that she has been denied due process in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment.

"Before this court, the government does not dispute that it provided Cook no meaningful notice or opportunity to respond to the allegations against her," the judge wrote. The Fed, which had no comment on the ruling, has not made any legal arguments in the case. It has asked the courts for a swift resolution of the matter, and has said it will abide by any court ruling. Separately, the Senate on Monday night narrowly confirmed Trump's nominee to a recently vacated seat on the Fed board. The largely party-line 48-47 vote means that it is likely that Stephen Miran, currently chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, will also participate in this week's rate-setting meeting alongside Cook.  Reuters

• Google sets out $6.8 bln UK investment ahead of Trump's state visit

Google said on Tuesday it would make 5 billion pounds ($6.80 billion) in new investments into Britain ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to the country, which is expected to feature a flurry of business deals and partnerships.

The U.S. tech company also announced the opening of a new data center close to London, designed to help meet growing demand for its AI-powered services like Google Cloud, Search, Maps and Workspace. The investment "is a powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US," finance minister Rachel Reeves said in the company's statement. The Alphabet-owned company said the investment is projected to create 8,250 jobs annually at British businesses.

Google  crossed a historic milestone on Monday as its market capitalization moved above $3 trillion for the first time. The company became only the fourth U.S. firm to achieve this level, alongside Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Shares of Alphabet gained as much as 4.7% intraday, reaching $252.7, which pushed the stock into the $3 trillion tier. The company's stock has advanced more than 30% in 2025, driven by optimism around artificial intelligence and relief following a favorable antitrust ruling. Earlier this month, a judge determined that Alphabet does not need to spin off its Chrome browser, easing concerns of a structural breakup. With this move, Alphabet's inclusion in the $3 trillion club underscores the strength of mega-cap tech in shaping overall market momentum. Reuters

Musk Answers Tesla’s pay proposal with $1 Billion Stock Buy

Elon Musk responded to an unprecedented pay proposal from Tesla Inc.’s board by buying about $1 billion worth of shares, sending the carmaker’s stock soaring into positive territory for the year. The billionaire bought the shares indirectly through a revocable trust on Sept. 12, according to a regulatory filing released Monday. 

The purchase coincided with Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm speaking with reporters about the merits of awarding Musk around $1 trillion worth of stock if the company achieves a series of ambitious market value and performance milestones. Tesla’s shares jumped 6.4% at 11:44 a.m. in New York, touching their highest price since Jan. 22. The stock is now up about 4% on a year-to-date basis, having recovered from a 45% decline as of early April.

Musk, 54, last bought Tesla stock in the open market in February 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The chief executive officer offloaded more than $20 billion of the company’s shares in 2022, the year he acquired Twitter. The purchase amounts to a show of confidence in Tesla’s prospects after a challenging first half of the year in which vehicle sales slumped 13% worldwide. While Musk has talked up Tesla’s pursuit of robotaxis and humanoid robots, he’s also cautioned that the company could be in for “a few rough quarters” after the US phases out electric-car purchase incentives at the end of this month.

It’s a bullish indicator for those who believe Tesla’s Optimus robots can be deployed in large numbers fairly soon, said Dmitry Shlyapnikov, an analyst at Horizon Investments who works with portfolio managers. “If you are a little more skeptical on Tesla’s robotics endeavors, this is simply Elon buying shares to indicate his commitment to the company so that the recently proposed pay package gets approved,” he said. Yahoo.Finance

Minor Headlines 

• Albania appoints AI bot as minister to tackle corruption Reuters

  
  

• Nepal youth overthrows government and elects new PM on Discord Reuters

  
  

• Apple’s iOS update with its Liquid Glass design is now available for anyone with an iPhone 11 and up TechCrunch 

  
  

• CoreWeave, Nvidia sign $6.3 billion cloud computing capacity order Reuters

  
  

• BYD’s $45 Billion Stock Wipeout Raises Doubts on China Outlook Yahoo.Finance

  
  

• Israel announces seizure of $1.5M from crypto wallets tied to Iran TechCrunch

  
  

• PayPal adds new one-to-one payment links that will soon support crypto TechCrunch 

  
  

• OpenAI upgrades Codex with a new version of GPT-5 TechCrunch