Entreprenews: IBM’s Worst Day Ever

Entreprenews: IBM’s Worst Day Ever oil is spiking and inflation is cooling at the same time. that almost never happens. THIS WEEK’S NEWS AT A GLANCE (in two sentences) this week, a fresh flare-up between the US and Iran choked off oil shipping and inflation cooled at the same time, which almost never happens together. and IBM had its worst trading day on record, down 25 percent in a single session, because its own customers are pulling budget away from it to spend on AI instead. read time: about 7 minutes. as you read, ask yourself: which one of these can i actually use this week? CURRENT MOOD: 🥲 World news the US and Iran traded strikes again this week, and Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority declared passage through the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow water passage that about a fifth of the world’s oil travels through — is “not possible” right now. ship traffic through it dropped significantly compared to the week before. Brent crude jumped past 79 dollars a barrel early in the week and has since continued climbing past 85 dollars. at the same time, June’s inflation report came in cooler than expected, with the annual CPI dropping to 3.5 percent and showing a 0.4 percent monthly decline — the biggest one-month drop since 2020. new Fed chair Kevin Warsh cautioned that it was just “one data point,” not victory. How you can benefit: if your business depends on shipping, fuel, or imported goods, build a cost cushion into your next quote before retail oil prices fully catch up to this week’s spike. for example, if you’re quoting a client for delivery in September, price it assuming fuel costs 10 percent more than today, not the same as today. Sources: CNBC, Al Jazeera, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) CPI Report, CNN Business news June’s cooler inflation didn’t come with good jobs news. the economy added only 57,000 jobs in June, way under the 115,000 expected, and the unemployment rate sits at 4.2 percent. meanwhile, IBM had the worst single trading day in its 115-year history, down 25.2 percent in a single session, after warning that clients are rapidly shifting software and consulting budgets into AI hardware instead. the shock dragged down other enterprise giants, including ServiceNow, Salesforce, and Accenture. on the funding side, AI companies kept raising huge rounds: Ollama pulled in 65 million dollars for its Series B, and molecular design startup Chai Discovery raised 400 million dollars for its Series C. How you can benefit: if you’re hiring, this is a prime window. a weaker jobs market means more high-quality candidates are looking and wage pressure is easing. for example, if you’ve been putting off posting a role because you assumed you’d only get junior applicants, post it now you’re far more likely to see experienced people apply. Sources: BLS Jobs Report, CNBC IBM Earnings, TechCrunch Ollama, Business Wire Finance and investment stocks had a mixed week. the S&P 500 rose about 1.2 percent, the Nasdaq gained 1.7 percent on big tech strength, but the Dow slipped half a percent, dragged down by IBM’s historic crash. crypto swung hard. Bitcoin moved from about 61,500 dollars up to roughly 64,400 then back down near 62,000, all inside one week, while Ethereum sits around 1,880 dollars. on the hopeful side, Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds finally took in new money, snapping eight straight weeks of net investor outflows. How you can benefit: if you hold crypto, treat this week’s swings as proof it’s still speculative money, not savings. only keep in it what you could afford to lose without changing your life. for example, if you have 5,000 dollars in Bitcoin and 5,000 dollars in an emergency fund, don’t let one quietly merge into the other when prices jump. Sources: CNBC, CoinDesk, Fortune Marketing Instagram officially expanded its “Your Algorithm” tool to everyone’s main feed (not just Reels), allowing users to manually select, add, or drop the topics that dictate their recommendations. across Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, the platforms have heavily shifted priorities to reward saves, shares (specifically DM shares), and watch time over passive metrics like likes or follower counts. TikTok Shop also implemented a strict ban on AI-generated voices, pre-recorded audio, and static images in shopping livestreams; all narration must now be a real human speaking live in real time. How you can benefit: stop chasing likes and start creating things worth saving a checklist, a template, or a highly specific stat people will want to remember. for example, instead of posting “5 tips for better sleep” in a standard text caption, post it as a swipeable checklist graphic that people will bookmark to use later. that is the exact type of “save” the 2026 algorithm rewards. Sources: Instagram Newsroom, TechCrunch, PYMNTS, TikTok Shop Academy AI Claude’s Cowork feature Anthropic’s agentic tool that handles multi-step tasks for you instead of just answering questions expanded from desktop-only to phone and web this month. sessions now run entirely in the cloud, meaning you can assign a complex task from your phone and it will keep working even if your laptop is closed. researcher Ethan Mollick made a point worth remembering too: clever prompt tricks matter less now than writing a clear brief outlining your goal, what you want as the result, and how you will judge if the output is good. How you can benefit: this week, give an AI tool one real, multi-step task instead of a single question, and write it like a project brief, not a chat message. for example, instead of asking “write me a sales email,” tell it: “pull my last 10 customer emails, find the 3 most common objections, and draft a follow-up email template addressing each one.” Sources: TechCrunch, Ethan Mollick (One Useful Thing) Psychology a landmark study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found something wild about negotiating. when one party subtly copied (mirrored) the other person’s body language and mannerisms with a 1–2 second delay, agreements were reached 67 percent of the time, compared to just 12.5 percent in the control group where no mirroring was used. this physical mimicry backs up what former FBI lead hostage negotiator Chris Voss teaches as “verbal mirroring” repeating the last few critical words someone says back to them as a question to build immediate trust. How you can benefit: next time you’re negotiating a price or a deadline, repeat the last few words the other person says instead of jumping straight to your counter-offer. for example, if a client says, “we really can’t go above 3,000 dollars,” just say, “above 3,000?” and stay quiet. they will almost always explain their real budget constraint, and that is where the room to negotiate actually opens up. Sources: Maddux, Mullen, and Galinsky (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology), Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON) Health and longevity a randomized trial from Columbia University, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that losing just under 80 minutes of sleep a night (specifically an average of 78 minutes) for six weeks caused participants to gain an average of one pound, even though none of them changed their diet or exercise. the sleep-restricted group also experienced elevated levels of leptin (a hormone tied to appetite and energy storage) and spent an average of 17 more minutes per day being sedentary. it wasn’t one bad night that did it; it was six weeks of slightly shorter sleep quietly adding up. How you can benefit: move your bedtime up by just 15 minutes this week and see how it feels. it’s a small enough shift to actually stick. for example, if you usually fall asleep at 11:30, aim for 11:15 for the next seven nights before deciding it’s not worth it. Sources: Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Annals of Internal Medicine Entrepreneurship and mindset Gokul Rajaram, a former product lead at Square who later worked with DoorDash and Coinbase, built a decision-making framework called SPADE that is used across fast-growing companies. it splits every decision into five parts: setting the Setting (context/goal), naming the Person (exactly one decider), listing the Alternatives, having everyone register a private Decision (vote) before discussing, and writing down the Explanation (reasoning) afterward. the private vote part is crucial — it stops the loudest or most senior person in the room from steering the group by default. How you can benefit: before your next team decision, name one single person as the final decider and have everyone else register their vote privately before any discussion happens. for example, if you’re choosing between two vendors, don’t ask “what does everyone think?” out loud in a meeting. send a simple two-minute private form first, then discuss the results. Sources: First Round Review, Gokul Rajaram’s SPADE Toolkit NOW YOUR TURN - which one story this week actually changes something you’ll do, not just something you’ll think about? - are you still chasing likes on something that would work better as a saveable checklist? - if oil prices keep climbing, does your pricing already account for it, or are you just hoping it doesn’t happen? - next time you negotiate anything, will you actually pause and mirror, or default to your normal instinct? - whose decision are you waiting on right now that doesn’t actually have one clear owner? CHALLENGE pick one story above. do its “how you can benefit” this week. just one. that’s the week. none of this is complicated. it’s just easy to skip if nobody points it out. here’s what you get from me every week: - Monday: Entreprenews Life Stories real stories of fascinating people and one lesson you can actually use. - Wednesday: this the news digest you just read. - Friday: Practical Tools a tool or system you can plug into your business the same day. if that sounds useful, subscribe below. it’s free, and it might be the easiest edge you get all week. Sincerely, Stacy Entreprenews, every Wednesday. Disclaimer: this newsletter is for general informational and educational purposes only. it is not financial, investment, tax, legal, medical, or professional advice of any kind. all examples and numbers are illustrative. any action you take based on this content is at your own risk. please do your own research and consult a qualified professional before making any financial, health, or business decisions.