Every weekend, I recap “news you can use” from the week — a handful of quotes from major (and often expensive) financial news sources — so you can stay up to date on the news that affects your money without spending a dime and in less than a minute.

Here’s an overview of what happened this week.

Here Are the Key Takeaways From the US Jobs Report for June (July 2, 2026, Bloomberg):

Hiring slowed sharply in June even as the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%. Nonfarm payrolls increased 57,000 and data for the previous two months were revised lower by a net 74,000.

Investors scaled back bets on a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase this year.

Businesses added 98,000 jobs in June, ADP says. Labor market is on the mend, but it’s still not great. (July 1, MarketWatch):

ADP is a lead act of sorts for the official U.S. employment report due Thursday — a day early this month because of the July 4 holiday. Economists predict a 115,000 increase in new jobs in June based on information collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Michael Burry Cites ‘Beginning of the End’ With New AI Short Bets (July 1, Wall Street Journal):

Tesla, Caterpillar, semiconductor manufacturer Applied Materials and an ETF tracking chip makers are among the latest bearish bets announced by Burry, one of the heroes of Michael Lewis’s financial-crisis saga, “The Big Short.”

Known for his idiosyncratic personality, Burry has gained a huge following online for correctly betting against the U.S. housing market during the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Small-cap stocks enjoy their best first half in 35 years. Here’s what’s driving it (June 30, CNBC):

The Russell 2000 Index has surged more than 21% this year, putting the benchmark on track for its best first-half performance since 1991.

“It’s both a valuation catch-up story and a fundamental story,” said Amy Zhang, portfolio manager at Alger. “The valuation gap was so wide that a truck can drive through it. At the same time, fundamentals are improving in small-caps and I think that’s why it’s causing the broadening trade.”

US Consumer Confidence Inches Up, Helped by Lower Gas Prices (June 30, Bloomberg):

The Conference Board’s gauge of confidence increased 0.6 point to 91.2 after a downward revision to the prior month, data released Tuesday showed.

The report shows that cheaper gas resulting from a truce in the Middle East helped assuage some of the anxiety Americans have expressed about the economy in recent months. However, views of job opportunities deteriorated and consumers expect little improvement in the coming months.

AI turbocharged the stock market. Now it’s firing up the economy. (June 29, MarketWatch):

AI investment significantly boosted the U.S. economy, adding 0.8 percentage point to GDP in the first quarter of 2026 and 0.7 percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The AI boom has propelled the stock market, with the S&P 500 skyrocketing 65% and Nvidia’s stock leaping 362% in three years.

The Trillion-Dollar Borrowing Binge Lifting the Stock Market to Risky Heights (June 28, Wall Street Journal):

U.S. margin debt, or what investors borrow from their brokerages to buy securities, rose 54% to a record $1.4 trillion in May from a year earlier, according to Finra data.

The risks of buying leveraged funds are well-advertised: a 30% drawdown in the underlying stock can turn into a 90% wipeout for the fund. But Wall Street sees a broader problem emerging: These funds, along with other forms of leverage, can also affect how the individual stocks behave.