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Senate passes bill with VP JD Vance breaking 50-50 tie.
Package includes tax breaks and steep spending cuts.
House Speaker Mike Johnson warns against major changes.
Senate GOP clashed over Medicaid reductions and deficit impact.
Rand Paul and two other Republicans opposed the bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump‘s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session.
The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president’s signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.
Three Republican senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in voting against it.
“The big not so beautiful bill has passed,” Paul said after the vote.
The difficulty it took for Republicans, who have the majority hold in Congress, to wrestle the bill to this point is not expected to let up. The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson had warned senators not to deviate too far from what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems as they race to finish by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
The outcome is a pivotal moment for president and his party, which have been consumed by the 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as it’s formally titled, and invested their political capital in delivering on the GOP’s sweep of power in Washington.
Trump acknowledged it’s “very complicated stuff,” as he departed the White House for Florida.
“I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts,” he said. “I don’t like cuts.”
What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiraled into a round-the-clock slog as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support.
The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, amid exhaustion.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota was desperately reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care, and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.
The GOP leaders have no room to spare, with narrow majorities. Thune could lose no more than three Republican senators, and two — Tillis, who warned that millions of people will lose access to Medicaid health care, and Paul, who opposes raising the debt limit by $5 trillion — had already indicated opposition.
Attention quickly turned to two other key senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Collins, who also raised concerns about health care cuts, as well as a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions.
Murkowski in particular became the subject of the GOP leadership‘s attention, as they sat beside her for talks. She was huddled intensely for more than an hour in the back of the chamber with others, scribbling notes on papers.
Then all eyes were on Paul after he returned from a visit to Thune’s office with a stunning offer that could win his vote. He had suggested substantially lowering the bill’s increase in the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said “Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular.”
An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade.
And on social media, billionaire Elon Musk was again lashing out at Republicans as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for including the $5 trillion debt ceiling in the package, which is needed to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills.
Senators insist on changes
Few Republicans appeared fully satisfied as the final package emerged, in either the House or the Senate.
Collins had proposed bolstering the $25 billion proposed rural hospital fund to $50 billion, offset with a higher tax rate on those earning more than $25 million a year, but her amendment failed.
And Murkowski was trying to secure provisions to spare people in her state from some food stamp cuts, which appeared to be accepted, while she was also working to beef up federal reimbursements to hospitals in Alaska and others states, that did not comply with parliamentary rules.
What’s in the big bill
All told, the Senate bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.
Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
Democrats fighting all day and night
Unable to stop the march toward passage, the Democrats tried to drag out the process, including with a weekend reading of the full bill.
A few of the Democratic amendments won support from a few Republicans, though almost none passed. More were considered in one of the longer such sessions in modern times.
One amendment overwhelmingly approved stripped a provision barring states from regulating artificial intelligence if they receive certain federal funding.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump’s first term are now “current policy” and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits.
She said that kind of “magic math” won’t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books.
Proposal would’ve barred states from regulating AI for 10 years.
Measure was tied to broadband and AI infrastructure funding.
Faced criticism from governors of both parties.
Provision was part of Trump’s tax cut and spending bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposal to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade was soundly defeated in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, thwarting attempts to insert the measure into President Donald Trump‘s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.
The Senate voted 99-1 to strike the AI provision from the legislation after weeks of criticism from both Republican and Democratic governors and state officials.
Originally proposed as a 10-year ban on states doing anything to regulate AI, lawmakers later tied it to federal funding so that only states that backed off on AI regulations would be able to get subsidies for broadband internet or AI infrastructure.
A last-ditch Republican effort to save the provision would have reduced the time frame to five years and sought to exempt some favored AI laws, such as those protecting children or country music performers from harmful AI tools.
But that effort was abandoned when Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, teamed up with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington on Monday night to introduce an amendment to strike the entire proposal.
Blackburn said on the floor that “it is frustrating” that Congress has been unable to legislate on emerging technology, including online privacy and AI-generated “deepfakes” that impersonate an artist’s voice or visual likeness. “But you know who has passed it? It is our states,” Blackburn said. “They’re the ones that are protecting children in the virtual space. They’re the ones that are out there protecting our entertainers — name, image, likeness — broadcasters, podcasters, authors.”
Voting on the amendment happened after 4 a.m. Tuesday as part of an overnight session as Republican leaders sought to secure support for the tax cut bill while fending off other proposed amendments, mostly from Democrats trying to defeat the package.
Proponents of an AI moratorium had argued that a patchwork of state and local AI laws is hindering progress in the AI industry and the ability of U.S. firms to compete with China.
Some prominent tech leaders welcomed the idea after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who leads the Senate Commerce committee, floated it at a hearing in May.
But state and local lawmakers and AI safety advocates argued that the rule is a gift to an industry that wants to avoid accountability for its products. Led by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a majority of GOP governors sent a letter to Congress opposing it.
Sanders, who was White House press secretary in Trump’s first term, credited Blackburn for “leading the charge” to defend states’ rights to regulate AI.
“This is a monumental win for Republican Governors, President Trump’s one, big beautiful bill, and the American people,” Sanders wrote on X on Tuesday.
Also appealing to lawmakers to strike the provision was a group of parents of children who have died as a result of online harms.
Cruz over the weekend tried to broker a last-ditch compromise with Blackburn to save the provision. Changes included language designed to protect Tennessee’s so-called ELVIS Act, championed by the country music industry to restrict AI tools from replicating an artist’s voice without their consent. Cruz said it could have “passed easily” had Blackburn not backed out. Blackburn said Tuesday there were “problems with the language” of the amendment.
“When I spoke to President Trump last night, he said it was a terrific agreement,” Cruz said. “The agreement protected kids and protected the rights of creative artists. But outside interests opposed that deal.”
Cruz withdrew the compromise amendment and blamed a number of people and entities he said “hated the moratorium,” including China, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a teachers union leader and “transgender groups and radical left-wing groups who want to use blue state regulations to mandate woke AI.”
He didn’t mention the broad group of Republican state legislators, attorneys general and governors who also opposed it. Critics say Cruz’s proposal, while carving out some exemptions, would have affected states’ enforcement of any AI rules if they were found to create an “undue or disproportionate burden” on AI systems.
“The proposed ban that has now been removed would have stopped states from protecting their residents while offering nothing in return at the federal level,” Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of children’s advocacy group Common Sense Media, wrote in a statement. “In the end, 99 senators voted to strip the language out when just hours earlier it looked like the moratorium might have survived.”
Fed Chair Powell signals rate cuts remain on hold.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting on Tuesday as Wall Street’s momentum slows after setting record highs in each of the last two days.
The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in morning trading and potentially on track for its first loss in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 153 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.
Tesla tugged on the market as the relationship between its CEO, Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump soured even further. Once allies, the two have clashed recently, and Trump suggested there’s potentially “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED” by scrutinizing subsidies, contracts or other government spending going to Musk’s companies.
Tesla fell 4.1% and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. It had already dropped a little more than 21% for the year so far coming into the day, in part because of Musk’s and Trump’s feud.
On the winning side of Wall Street were stocks of casino companies. They rallied following a report showing better-than-expected growth in overall gaming revenue in Macao, China’s casino hub. Wynn Resorts climbed 8.9%, and Las Vegas Sands gained 7.2%.
The overall U.S. stock market has made a stunning recovery from its springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. But challenges still lay ahead for Wall Street, with one of the largest being the continued threat of Trump’s tariffs.
Many of Trump’s stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, but they’re scheduled to kick into effect in about a week. Depending on how big they are, they could hurt the economy and worsen inflation.
Congress is also debating proposed cuts to tax rates and other measures that could send the U.S. government’s debt spiraling higher, which could push inflation upward. That in turn could mean higher interest rates, which would hurt prices for bonds, stocks and other investments.
Despite such challenges, strategists at Barclays say they’re seeing signals of euphoria emerging among amateur and smaller-pocketed investors. The strategists say a measure that tries to show how much “excess optimism” is in the market is not far from the peaks seen during the “meme stock” craze that sent GameStop to market-bending heights or to the dot-com bubble at the turn of the millennium.
Other signals are also indicating exuberance in the market, such as demand for what are known as “blank-check companies” that hunt for privately held companies to buy. When too much optimism is in the market, it can inflate stock prices to too-high levels in what’s called a “bubble.”
Of course, “market bubbles are infamously difficult to predict and can endure far longer than anticipated before correcting,” according to the Barclays strategists led by Stefano Pascale and Anshul Gupta.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following some mixed reports on the U.S. economy.
One said U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of May than the month before and than economists expected. That could be an encouraging signal for a job market that had been appearing to settle into a low-hire, low-fire state.
Separate reports on U.S. manufacturing were more mixed. One from the Institute for Supply Management said U.S. manufacturing activity shrank again in June, but not by as much as the month before.
“Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,” one survey respondent in the fabricated metal products industry said.
A separate report from S&P Global suggested manufacturing production returned to growth in June after three months of declines.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.26% from 4.24% late Monday after erasing an earlier, modest loss.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with its main interest rate, rose more sharply to 3.77% from 3.72%.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said again on Tuesday that he wants to wait for more evidence about how much Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before resuming cuts to interest rates. That’s despite Trump’s angry insistences lately that Powell and the Fed act more quickly to give the economy a boost through lower rates.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly in Europe following more mixed sessions in Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6% for two of the larger moves.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in May, a sign that the American labor market remains resilien t in the face of high borrowing costs and uncertainty over U.S. economic policy.
U.S. employers posted 7.8 million vacancies in May, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, up from 7.4 million in April. Economists had expected a slight decrease to 7.3 million. Openings were reported at hotels and restaurants and at finance companies. Vacancies at the federal government fell to the lowest level since May 2020, likely reflecting President Donald Trump‘s hiring freeze.
The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed that the number of Americans quitting their job — a sign of confidence in their prospects — rose modestly, and layoffs fell.
However, the report showed that hiring fell in May, suggesting that employers, though reluctant to lose staff, are hesitant about adding workers amid uncertainty over the economy.
“Hiring remains depressed, but that is less worrisome than it would be otherwise because layoffs continue to be low,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a commentary.
Openings are high by historical standards but have come down sharply since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022.
The U.S. job market has steadily decelerated from hiring boom of 2021-2023 when the economy bounced back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The unexpectedly strong post-pandemic recovery ignited inflation, prompting the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023.
The higher borrowing costs have gradually cooled the labor market, and President Donald Trump’s policy of taxing imports at high rates has added uncertainty to the hiring outlook.
The Labor Department is expected to report Thursday that the U.S. economy generated 117,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. That would be down from 139,000 in May, from an average 168,000 a month in 2024 and a from a monthly average of 400,000 from 2021 through 2023. The unemployment rate is forecast to tick up to a still-low 4.3% from 4.2% in May.
Powell expects inflation to rise later this summer.
Says the economic effects of tariffs remain uncertain.
Fed is taking a wait-and-see approach on future policy shifts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday stuck to his position that the central bank will keep its key rate on hold while it waits to see how President Donald Trump‘s tariffs effect the economy, despite the steady stream of criticism from the White House, which wants lower borrowing costs.
Powell, speaking in Sintra, Portugal, at a conference hosted by the European Central Bank, also said that U.S. inflation is likely to pick up later this summer, though he acknowledged that the timing and magnitude of any price increase from the duties is uncertain. But he said the Fed will keep rates on hold while it evaluates the impact of tariffs on the U.S. economy.
“As long as the economy is in solid shape, we think the prudent thing to do is to wait and see what those effects might be,” Powell said, referring to the sweeping duties Trump has imposed this year.
Powell’s comments underscored the divide between the U.S. central bank’s leader and the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to cut its key rate, which he says would save U.S. taxpayers on interest costs on the federal government’s massive debt, and boost the economy. The fight has threatened the Fed’s traditional independence from politics, though since the Supreme Court signaled the president can’t fire the chair, financial markets haven’t responded to Trump’s criticism.
The Fed chair also said that without tariffs, the Fed would probably be cutting its key rate right now. The central bank went “on hold” after it saw how large Trump’s proposed tariffs were, Powell said, and economists began forecasting higher inflation.
At the same time, Powell did not rule out a rate cut at the Fed’s next policy meeting July 29-30.
“I wouldn’t take any meeting off the table or put it directly on the table,” Powell said. Most economists, however, expect the Fed won’t reduce rates until September at the earliest.
On Monday, the president attacked Powell again and extended his criticisms to the entire Fed governing board, which participates on interest-rate decisions.
“The board just sits there and watches, so they are equally to blame,” Trump said. The attack on the board ratchets up pressure on individual Fed officials, such as Governor Chris Waller, who have been mentioned as potential successors to Powell, whose term ends in May 2026.
The Fed has kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged this year, at about 4.3%, after cutting it three times in 2024.
At a news conference in June, Powell suggested that the central bank would “learn a great deal more over the summer” about whether President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs would push up inflation or not. The comment suggested the Fed wouldn’t consider cutting rates until its September meeting.
Yet a few days later, Fed governors Waller and Michelle Bowman, who were both appointed by Trump, said that it was unlikely the tariffs would lead to persistent inflation. Both also indicated that they would likely support reducing the Fed’s rate at its July 29-30 meeting.
U.Va. EVP and COO will serve as short-term acting president upon Jim Ryan’s resignation
A longer-term interim president will be named by U.Va. board of visitors
As of July 1, board will be made up entirely of Youngkin appointees
Following President Jim Ryan’s sudden resignation, the University of Virginia‘s short-term acting president will be Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, the university’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, the university’s board of visitors announced Monday.
She will remain acting president until the board — which changes composition Tuesday with the start of the next year’s terms — names a longer-term interim president to serve until a permanent hire can be made after a national search.
Rector Robert D. Hardie, whose second and final term on the board of visitors was to end Monday, and Rector-elect Rachel W. Sheridan, who takes the reins of the board on Tuesday, July 1, sent a joint letter to the university community on Monday afternoon announcing that Davis will assume the role of acting president upon the effective date of Ryan’s resignation, although that date was not disclosed in the letter. According to a spokesperson, Ryan’s resignation has not yet become effective as of June 30.
Davis, who will work with interim Provost Brie Gertler and interim CEO of Health Affairs Mitch Rosner, “will remain in that role until we name an interim president who will continue to lead the university as we conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.” According to the BOV’s manual, the rector must convene a search committee when there is a presidential vacancy.
The search process will include input from faculty, students, staff and alumni, the letter from Hardie and Sheridan says, and this process “will commence shortly.”
Sheridan, a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ Capital Markets Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., region, is a 2023 appointee to the board by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She succeeds Hardie, a real estate investor who was appointed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2017 to his first term and reappointed by Gov. Ralph Northam in 2021.
Ryan has been at the center of controversy for months, as two highly ranked U.Va. alumni in the DOJ‘s Civil Rights division placed pressure on him and the university to prove that every division of the university and its health system has dissolved and dismantled its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, following a board vote in March.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, and Gregory W. Brown, deputy assistant attorney general, sent a letter in April to Ryan and Hardie demanding they produce audio and video from a closed session of U.Va.’s board of visitors and other materials by May 30.
According to The New York Times and other reports, Brown — previously a Charlottesville private attorney who sued the university in 2024 on behalf of a Jewish student who claimed he suffered antisemitic attacks on campus — demanded that Ryan resign in order for the university to reach a settlement with the Justice Department, protecting its federal funding.
Ryan sent a message to the university community Friday afternoon, acknowledging he had submitted his resignation to Hardie earlier in the day. In the letter, the president said that he was leaving to preserve federal funding for research at U.Va., as well as jobs funded by federal money and student financial aid.
“To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this university,” Ryan wrote. “But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job.”
On Friday afternoon after news of his resignation broke, hundreds of people showed up at the U.Va. Rotunda to show their support for Ryan and their anger at what many viewed as the Trump administration‘s overreach. Some held signs criticizing the BOV, which will be entirely made up of Youngkin appointees starting Tuesday.
Virginia Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, were highly critical of the Justice Department’s pressure on Ryan to resign, and many blasted Youngkin as well, who has been accused by Democrats of attempting to exercise too much control over the state’s universities throughout his term.
“The Trump administration, in partnership with Gov. Youngkin, has turned yet another public institution into a political target,” the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said in a statement Friday. “Their goal is clear: to defund public education, rewrite what is taught in classrooms, restrict who gets to learn, and remove leaders who refuse to conform to their narrow ideological vision.”
Earlier in June, nine Democratic state senators sued the rectors of U.Va., George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute over what they view as Youngkin’s attempt to nullify a Senate committee’s vote to reject eight board of visitors appointments, including former Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s appointment to U.Va.’s board.
On Friday, Youngkin thanked Ryan for his service in a statement but made no reference to the political controversy.
Hardie and Sheridan attempted to strike a balance between divergent points of view in their letter Monday, writing: “We share the sentiments of so many members of the university community who have expressed their sorrow about President Ryan’s resignation and their appreciation for his remarkable service to the institution.
“The board, individually and collectively, affirms our confidence in this great university and our understanding of the responsibility we have to ensure U.Va. remains a leader in academic excellence, free speech and responsible governance.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has reached a settlement with the Justice Department that could clear the way for its $14 billion takeover of rival Juniper Networks.
The Justice Department had sued to block the acquisition, saying it could eliminate competition, raise prices and reduce innovation.
The settlement, which is subject to court approval, calls for Hewlett Packard Enterprise to divest its global Instant On campus and branch business. Hewlett Packard Enterprise will facilitate limited access to Juniper’s advanced Mist AIOps technology once the deal closes.
“Our agreement with the DOJ paves the way to close HPE‘s acquisition of Juniper Networks and preserves the intended benefits of this deal for our customers and shareholders, while creating greater competition in the global networking market,” Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE, said in a statement.
Last year Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced that it was buying Juniper Networks for $40 a share in a deal expected to double HPE’s networking business. Juniper provides routers, switching gear and network security products from its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.
The Justice Department’s intervention — the first of the new administration and just 10 days after Donald Trump‘s inauguration — came as somewhat of a surprise at the time. Most predicted a second Trump administration would ease up on antitrust enforcement and be more receptive to mergers and deal-making after years of hypervigilance under former President Joe Biden’s watch.
Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise surged more than 12% in Monday afternoon trading, while Juniper Networks’ stock climbed more than 8%.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are adding to their records on Monday as Wall Street nears the finish of a second straight winning month.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in early trading, its first trading after completing its stunning rebound from a springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 142 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
Stocks got a boost after Canada said it’s rescinding a planned tax on U.S. technology firms and resuming talks on trade with the United States. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump had said he was suspending talks with Canada because of his anger with the tax, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”
One of the main reasons U.S. stocks came back so quickly from its springtime swoon has been hope that Trump will reach deals with other countries to lower his stiff proposed tariffs. Otherwise, the fear is that the trade wars could stifle the economy and send inflation higher.
The United States is charging a 10% baseline tax on all imported goods, along with higher rates for Chinese goods and other import taxes on steel and autos. But many of Trump’s additional, announced tariffs are currently on pause. They’re scheduled to kick back into effect in a little more than a week.
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump said his administration will notify countries that the trade penalties will take effect unless there are deals with the United States. Letters will start going out “pretty soon” before the approaching deadline, he said.
On Wall Street, GMS’ stock jumped 11.3% after the supplier of specialty building products said it agreed to sell itself to a Home Depot subsidiary in a deal that would pay $110.00 per share in cash. That would give it a total value of roughly $5.5 billion, including debt.
Less than two weeks ago, another company, QXO, said it was offering to buy GMS for $95.20 per share in cash. After the announcement of the Home Depot bid, QXO’s stock rose 2%, and Home Depot’s stock was flat.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise rallied 12% and Juniper Networks climbed 8.4% after saying they had reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that could clear the way for their merger go through, subject to court approval. HPE is trying to buy Juniper in a $14 billion deal.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were easing a bit ahead of some major economic reports later in the week. The highlight will be Thursday’s jobs report. It’s often the most anticipated economic data of each month, and it will come a day earlier than usual this upcoming month because of the Fourth of July holiday.
The job market has remained relatively steady recently, even in the face of tariffs, but hiring has slowed. Economists expect Thursday’s data to show another slowdown in overall hiring, down to 115,000 jobs in June from 139,000 in May.
Such data has kept the Federal Reserve on hold this year when it comes to interest rates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said repeatedly that it’s waiting for more data to show how tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before resuming its cuts to interest rates. That’s because lower rates can fan inflation higher, along with giving the economy a boost.
Trump, meanwhile, has been pushing for more cuts to rates and for them to happen soon. Two of his appointees to the Fed have said recently they could consider cutting rates as soon as the Fed’s next meeting in less than a month.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.26% from 4.29% late Friday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped modestly in Europe following a more mixed finish in Asia.
Stocks fell 0.9% in Hong Kong but rose 0.6% in Shanghai after China reported its factory activity improved slightly in June after Beijing and Washington agreed in May to postpone imposing higher tariffs on each others’ exports, though manufacturing remained in contraction.
Buc-ee’s opened its first Virginia location in Mount Crawford.
Fans arrived hours early, some in costume, for the 6 a.m. grand opening.
Two more Virginia locations are planned for New Kent and Stafford.
Some people seek out the biggest, baddest roller coasters. Some work overtime to afford front-row seats to Coldplay. Some spend their weekends ticking off visits to every winery in the state.
Then there are Buc-ee’s people.
“It’s like a cult,” says Crystal Limerick, a retired police captain from Augusta County’s Mount Sidney area. She got up at 3:30 a.m. to be among the first in line to enter the Mount Crawford Buc-ee’s, the first of the mega travel centers to open in Virginia, as it opened to the public for the first time at 6 a.m. Monday.
“I’ve heard so much about the brisket,” she says. “I love brisket. I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll see what it’s about.’”
Mt. Crawford, VA. – Sherri and John Hill, of Ellicott City, Maryland, video themselves as they enter the Mount Crawford Buc-ee’s for its June 30, 2025, grand opening. (Photo by Norm Shafer)
Some people camped in their cars Sunday afternoon. Angela Ward and her parents, Darlene and Charlie Ward, who traveled from Livingston, Alabama, for the opening, opted to spend the night in a hotel in Harrisonburg. They arrived at the new 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee’s just before 3 a.m. to get a coveted spot at the front of the line Monday.
For their effort, they received a free Rockingham County Buc-ee’s T-shirt. The one they were tossed wasn’t the right size, but the roadway retailer let the Wards trade it for the right fit once they got inside the store.
“I love that I will always find good food, clean restrooms, and a safe place for a break when stopping at Buc-ee’s,” Angela Ward said. “The staff is wonderfully kind and welcoming, and there’s always unique and fun items to find.”
This was the 48th Buc-ee’s the Ward family has visited. Since the mega-travel chain with the friendly beaver mascot began opening stores outside its home state of Texas in 2019, it now operates 53 stores across Texas and the South.
Monday afternoon, the Wards are driving to Brunswick, Georgia, for the opening of another new Buc-ee’s in that city. Then they’ll head to Daytona Beach and St. Augustine in Florida to visit two more stores before heading home. “By Wednesday, our count will be up to 51 different locations,” Angela Ward said.
Located at Exit 240 off Interstate 81, the Mount Crawford Buc-ee’s offers 120 fueling positions and is creating about 200 local jobs, according to the company and state officials. It is the first of at least three stores planned for Virginia, including one in New Kent County, expected to open in 2027 at Exit 211 off Interstate 64, and another in Stafford County, near Exit 140 off Interstate 95 that is still moving through zoning approvals.
Mount Crawford, VA. – Jaralie Machado and Sebastian Madera, both from Roanoke, relax as they plan to spend the night in their cars waiting for Virginia’s first Buc-ee’s to open at 6 a.m. June 30, 2025. (Photo by Norm Shafer)
Multiple people in line at Mount Crawford Monday were dressed in Buc-ee’s Beaver Union Suits, even though it was already 68 degrees in Rockingham County at 5:30 a.m. Only one Buc-ee’s fan came dressed as a banana, though. Owen Freed of Waynesboro selected that costume because it allows him to move his arms, unlike his inflatable T. rex and chicken costumes.
Freed, who works for Applebee’s, grew to love Buc-ee’s while briefly living in Texas. He’s visited many other Buc-ee’s travel centers, but he said it feels special now to be able to visit one so close to home. “There’s never going to be a Buc-ee’s that’s more sentimental,” he said.
Freed brought along his girlfriend, Maria Leckey of Staunton. Her father doesn’t approve of Buc-ee’s.
“He thinks it’s the Death Star of gas stations,” Leckey says.
“It’s the Disneyland of gas stations,” Freed answered.
Like her dad, Leckey generally makes an effort to shop at locally owned stores, “but I also like to have a good time,” she says.
Lauren Olivola, of Pennsylvania, and Zach Nicely, from New York City, also got up early to experience the good Buc-ee’s vibes.
Mount Crawford, VA. – Buc-ee’s pitmaster Randy Pauly gets the crowd excited just before the grand opening of the first Virginia Buc-ee’s travel center on June 30, 2025. (Photo by Norm Shafer)
The pair were in Harrisonburg to attend the 57th International Horn Symposium, held June 24-28 at James Madison University, and hung around for a couple additional days to catch the Buc-ee’s opening. Instead of waiting in line, the pair entertained the crowd of Buc-ee’s fans in the pre-dawn darkness by playing tunes like Lowell E. Shaw’s “Bipperies for Two Horns” on their French horns. Despite the hour, the people in line applauded whenever the duo finished a number.
Both Olivola and Nicely have visited multiple Buc-ee’s. Today, Olivola hoped to be able to buy a 66-inch light-up Buc-ee’s inflatable of the mega-convenience store’s beloved mascot. “No one else in my neighborhood has one,” she said.
Buc-ee’s beaver mascot is a nod to the childhood nickname of Buc-ee’s owner and founder Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, who started the chain in Texas in 1982.
Before the Mount Crawford location opened Monday, Buc-ee’s had a cowboy-hat-wearing hype man to get the crowd pumped up — Randy Pauley is the travel center chain’s official pitmaster. “You’re almost there,” he said as he fist-bumped each person in line. “Thank you for being here. It means the world to us.”
Mount Crawford, VA – Titi Humed, of Harrisonburg, chops brisket for customers during the grand opening of the first Virginia Buc-ee’s store on Monday, June 30, 2025. (Photo by Norm Shafer)
There were lots of cheers when the doors opened promptly at 6 a.m. Inside, the store was pure mayhem. A line quickly formed for folks wanting to get a selfie with the Buc-ee’s mascot. Another line formed for brisket (available sliced for $26.99 per pound). Those who weren’t there for snacks could pick up a variety of souvenirs and tchotchkes, from a dancing Buc-ee’s beaver ($24.98) to a T-shirt with Garfield dressed up as the Statue of Liberty ($17.99) or a Buc-ee’s shot glass nestled in a miniature cowboy boot ($14.99).
Pauley was all smiles as he looked at the crowd. “It’s a true blessing,” he said.
By the 10 a.m. grand opening ceremony, there wasn’t a spot to be had in Buc-ee’s ample parking lot. State police officers directed traffic, while desperate fans parked at the McDonald’s across the highway and attempted to hoof it in order to score some 13-ounce Beaver Nuggets for $4.98.
Not be outdone by their new neighbors across the street, McDonald’s had workers dressed in Hamburglar and Grimace costumes waving to drivers. No one appeared to be waiting in line for a selfie with them, however.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin didn’t have to sleep in his car to be among the first visitors at Buc-ee’s — he spoke during a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting event for the store, another nod to the outsized popularity and economic impact that Buc-ee’s is expected to make in the commonwealth.
Among the other officials who attended the ribbon cutting were Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller, Lt. Gov. (and 2025 GOP gubernatorial candidate) Winsome Earle-Sears and U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Harrisonburg, as well as several General Assembly members and local officials from Rockingham County.
Youngkin said he met Alpin three years ago in Texas and told him to bring Buc-ee’s to Virginia.
“Here in beautiful Rockingham County: There’s no place better to have the first Buc-ee’s. … Come and see what 74,000 square feet looks like,” Youngkin said. “By the way, it’s big. It’s really big.”
Alpin, wearing a cowboy hat, spoke after the governor on Wednesday, adding, “For us to make it to Virginia is a real milestone and an exciting thing.”
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