

The Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate at 3.50%-3.75% on July 29, but Chair Kevin Warsh's decision to pull back from forward guidance pushed the 30-year Treasury yield up 14 basis points to 5.23%, its highest level since 2007. "Warsh didn't convey the message clearly or explicitly, and the bond market puked on him," Jon Hilsenrath, a veteran Fed watcher, wrote after the press conference. Christian Hoffmann, head of fixed income at Thornburg Investment Management, said the surge in long yields reflected a market "openly questioning" Warsh's credibility. The 9-3 vote to hold masked the real story. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan dissented in favor of a quarter-point hike — the first unified three-way directional dissent since September 2016. Headline PCE inflation ran at 4.07% in May, up from 2.88% in January, with core PCE at 3.41%. The yield curve told a different story. The 10-year yield rose more than 7 basis points to 4.677% while the 2-year yield fell, widening the 10-year minus 2-year spread to 0.45% from a 12-month low of 0.27% on June 22. Short-end investors priced a cautious Fed; long-end investors priced a credibility problem. The jump in rates deepened losses across the three major U.S. stock indexes, as higher long-term borrowing costs threatened to tighten financing conditions for households and businesses. ## The Silence Strategy Warsh has deliberately pulled the Fed away from forward guidance, arguing the committee needs flexibility and markets should trade real data rather than Fed hints. He said as much on Wednesday: "Prices reacted in real time to incoming information and the reduction in forward guidance may have been a factor," adding that "markets have made decisions because we stepped back, in part, from trying to influence those markets." He declined to say what would trigger a hike. The approach has moved markets before. Earlier in his tenure, a six-word line — "This committee will deliver price stability" — reset investor expectations. The 3.75% upper bound has now held since December 10, 2025, and Warsh, who became chair on May 22, described the internal debate in characteristically punchy terms: "I asked for a good family fight, and I got one." ## What It Means for Bond ETFs Higher long-term yields mean higher borrowing costs for the U.S. government, businesses, and consumers — and pain for long-duration bond investors. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), holding 46 bonds with a weighted-average maturity of 26.06 years, has delivered negative annualized returns of 6.66 percent over the past five years despite a 5.13 percent SEC yield. When rates rise, long bonds fall hardest. The iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI), with 83 bonds averaging 4.7 years to maturity, has held up better, returning 0.35 percent annualized over five years and 3.95 percent over three. Its shorter duration makes it less vulnerable to rising rates. Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, said the Fed should have raised rates if it wanted to bring inflation back to 2 percent. The surge in bond yields was the market's message to Warsh. The probability of a September hike fell to 65.2 percent from 76 percent before the press conference. If inflation fails to cool and long yields keep climbing, long-term Treasury ETFs face more pain; shorter-duration funds offer a safer haven. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Chery Group sold 276,820 vehicles in July, up 23.3 percent year-on-year, with exports crossing 200,000 units for the first time by a Chinese automaker. "International markets are strategically important to our future growth," Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Group, said at the FREELANDER 8 roll-off ceremony at the company's Changshu manufacturing base in Jiangsu province. July exports reached 202,533 units, up 70.1 percent year-on-year, while new energy vehicle sales hit 129,067 units, a 97.5 percent surge. In the first seven months of 2026, Chery delivered 1,634,353 vehicles, up 10.1 percent, with cumulative exports of 1,146,350 units, up 71.2 percent, and NEV sales of 604,305 units, up 42.3 percent. The record export month cements Chery's position as China's No.1 automotive exporter, with more than 19.38 million cumulative global owners. The company is accelerating international expansion through its FREELANDER joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover, which began mass production of the FREELANDER 8 at the $3.1 billion Changshu facility, with a Middle East debut planned for September in Abu Dhabi. The FREELANDER Super Factory, backed by a total investment exceeding $3.1 billion plus an additional $440 million in new energy intelligent manufacturing upgrades, features more than 1,100 robots and end-to-end digital quality traceability systems. Test vehicles have arrived in the Middle East for road testing across desert, coastal and urban environments ahead of the brand's Abu Dhabi launch. Chery's export momentum comes as Chinese automakers continue to gain share in markets including Mexico, where they face 50 percent import tariffs, and Canada, which opened a limited EV quota in early 2026. Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley told employees in July that the automaker is preparing for Chinese rivals entering the US market within five to ten years, with the first meaningful indicator expected from Canadian sales data. BYD, Chery's main domestic rival, has also been expanding overseas, passing 100,000 UK sales in three years. The July figures extend Chery's growth trajectory from April, when the group sold 251,386 vehicles with exports of 100,276 units and NEV sales of 102,102 units, up 102.4 percent year-on-year. The acceleration in export volume — nearly doubling from April to July — reflects deepening demand across emerging markets and the Middle East. The record export performance points to sustained demand for Chinese-built vehicles globally, with implications for the broader supply chain including battery makers and component suppliers. Investors will watch Chery's August sales data and the FREELANDER 8's Abu Dhabi debut in September for the next read on the group's international growth. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Tesla's supervised Full Self-Driving subscriptions hit 1.48 million active users in the second quarter, up 56 percent year over year, putting the $99-a-month plan on pace for about $1.8 billion in annual revenue. "We're seeing in locations that have FSD approved, we're seeing a very high take rate of FSD," Chief Executive Elon Musk said on the earnings call, adding that customers want the software with whatever car it's paired with. The subscription base still represents a small slice of Tesla's roughly $94.8 billion in annual revenue last year, but FSD subscriptions carry significantly higher margins than the core electric-vehicle business, so the segment should account for a larger share of operating profit than revenue. Tesla's FSD fleet has also accumulated more than 12 billion cumulative miles on the road, feeding real-world data back into the software's training loop. The network effect is the long-term prize. More drivers mean more training data, which improves the software and attracts more subscribers — a flywheel that also feeds Tesla's robotaxi ambitions, where it trails Alphabet's Waymo. Tesla shares, down 28 percent this year, could rebound if the company scales its robotaxi fleet within the next year. ## The Subscription Flywheel FSD subscriptions are growing as Tesla earns regulatory approvals in more regions. Musk's comments suggest the take rate climbs wherever the software is approved, a dynamic that could sustain demand for Tesla's EVs themselves. The 12 billion cumulative miles driven by the FSD fleet create a data advantage that rivals cannot easily replicate — every mile trains the model, and a better model attracts more paying drivers. ## Robotaxi Race and the Valuation Question The subscription revenue is small relative to Tesla's vehicle sales, but its high margins make it a meaningful profit lever. The bigger opportunity sits in robotaxis, where Tesla competes with Waymo, the Alphabet unit that has led the commercial self-driving market. If Tesla can scale its robotaxi fleet within the next year and close the gap with Waymo, the stock could rebound from its 28 percent year-to-date decline. Considerable uncertainty remains. Tesla must secure additional FSD approvals in other regions, train its software to handle edge cases, and prove its robotaxi economics. In the meantime, the company's capital spending is rising rapidly, squeezing profits and margins as it doubles down on these bets. For investors, the question is whether the market has priced in the subscription growth. Tesla shares, down 28 percent this year, trade at a premium to traditional automakers, reflecting expectations for the software and robotaxi businesses. The $1.8 billion subscription run rate is a start, but it remains a fraction of the roughly $94.8 billion in annual revenue — and the path to a robotaxi fleet that justifies the valuation is still unproven. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.