U.S. equity markets surged higher as the wishy-washy expectations of future Federal Reserve policy were galvanized into an imminent rate cut in September. Chairman Jerome Powell telegraphed resuming the Fed’s interest rate cutting campaign from pre-election meetings last Fall (a 50 basis points cut could find some legs too). I want to utilize the SPDR S & P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) to capture the potential for more additional new highs in the S & P 500. The Fed’s annual gathering of global central bankers and economists kicked off last night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. However, investors were in a holding pattern awaiting Powell’s speech and his tone on his economic outlook. The last five trading days have been consecutive down days for the benchmark index, albeit small in aggregate of falling just 1.4%. Historically, Jackson Hole speeches by Fed chairs have often triggered significant market volatility. Remember that volatility brings markets down and also up. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool showed earlier this week that odds of a 25 basis-point rate cut in September had dropped from over 90% to roughly 60%. After the Jackson Hole speech, the probability is now back above 91%. Powell has endured strong pressure from the Trump administration regarding the economic need for imminent interest rate cuts. I don’t think he caved to President Donald Trump, I believe his dovish remarks were a reminder to investors that the Fed is data dependent and more importantly, independent of political influence. The concern for the job market seems to be paramount for the Fed. The trade (Risk reversal): Sold the 9/26/25 $635 SPY put for $6.00 Bought the 9/26/25 $650 SPY call for $7.00 This trade was executed when SPY was roughly trading $645 This spread costs an investor $1 or $100 This expiration date for this spread goes out past the Fed meeting, and break-even is at $651 which would be another new all-time high for the S & P 500. An investor must be prepared to own SPY at $646 in the event equity markets relent. DISCLOSURES: Kilburg is long SPY and owns this spread. All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer.
Kevin O’Leary has his eyes on a new alternative market: collectibles.
Parading a Louis Vuitton Labubu he acquired on the set of Shark Tank, the investor told CNBC the collectibles asset class may have some staying power.
“It’s not flash in the pan,” O’Leary said.
The Labubu O’Leary showed off—which he insisted he is not selling despite multiple offers—is the most recent “It toy” created by Chinese company Pop Mart. The fuzzy plush toy with pointed ears and a mischievous, toothy grin generally comes in a “blind box,” meaning buyers don’t know which they will receive until they buy. The toys have become a worldwide craze, with a boost from celebrity promotion, helping push Pop Mart’s net profit up 400% for the first half of the year. The company’s Hong Kong–listed shares have skyrocketed 246% year to date.
On the online reseller StockX, Pop Mart has maintained the top spot for collectible brands since October 2024, thanks to the strength of Labubus, according to the company’s midyear data report. The toy still hasn’t hit its peak yet, though, with StockX reporting more than twice as many sales in June than it saw in January, along with 2.4 million searches for the word “Labubu” in the first half of the year, putting it in the top 10 search terms, according to the report. Some of the toys, which retail for about $40, have sold for about $4,000 on StockX.
Apart from Labubus, O’Leary also mentioned collectible sports cards could possibly be the next big alternative investment. After studying the past eight years of the market, O’Leary found that between $380 million and $400 million worth of the cards are trading monthly.
“These are baseball cards, or F1 cards, or basketball cards; they’re trading for a million, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, and it reminds me so much of what was happening in modern art and contemporary art 20 years ago,” he said.
O’Leary noted that while fathers and sons have been collecting sports cards for 50 years in the U.S., someone’s dusty baseball card collection could now be a prized set of collectibles potentially worth millions.
“That market really intrigues me,” said O’Leary. “It sort of captures what this Labubu vibe is all about, except you can see—there’s a platform called Card Ladder—you’re going to find cards on there for millions of dollars that are appreciating, in some cases, better than the S&P 500.”
On Card Ladder’s account on X, a post from Friday touted a 2013 “Innovation Kobe Bryant Kaboom!” sports card that sold for $4,560 a year ago. On Aug. 10, the card sold for a whopping $19,999—up 338%.
Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list.
Hot Chips—NVIDIA today announced NVIDIA® Spectrum-XGS Ethernet, a scale-across technology for combining distributed data centers into unified, giga-scale AI super-factories.
As AI demand surges, individual data centers are reaching the limits of power and capacity within a single facility. To expand, data centers must scale beyond any one building, which is limited by off-the-shelf Ethernet networking infrastructure with high latency and jitter and unpredictable performance.
Spectrum-XGS Ethernet is a breakthrough addition to the NVIDIA Spectrum-X™ Ethernet platform that removes these boundaries by introducing scale-across infrastructure. It serves as a third pillar of AI computing beyond scale-up and scale-out, designed for extending the extreme performance and scale of Spectrum-X Ethernet to interconnect multiple, distributed data centers to form massive AI super-factories capable of giga-scale intelligence.
“The AI industrial revolution is here, and giant-scale AI factories are the essential infrastructure,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA Spectrum-XGS Ethernet, we add scale-across to scale-up and scale-out capabilities to link data centers across cities, nations and continents into vast, giga-scale AI super-factories.”
Spectrum-XGS Ethernet is fully integrated into the Spectrum-X platform, featuring algorithms that dynamically adapt the network to the distance between data center facilities.
With advanced, auto-adjusted distance congestion control, precision latency management and end-to-end telemetry, Spectrum-XGS Ethernet nearly doubles the performance of the NVIDIA Collective Communications Library, accelerating multi-GPU and multi-node communication to deliver predictable performance across geographically distributed AI clusters. As a result, multiple data centers can operate as a single AI super-factory, fully optimized for long-distance connectivity.
Hyperscale pioneers embracing the new infrastructure include CoreWeave, which will be among the first to connect its data centers with Spectrum-XGS Ethernet.
“CoreWeave’s mission is to deliver the most powerful AI infrastructure to innovators everywhere,” said Peter Salanki, cofounder and chief technology officer of CoreWeave. “With NVIDIA Spectrum-XGS, we can connect our data centers into a single, unified supercomputer, giving our customers access to giga-scale AI that will accelerate breakthroughs across every industry.”
The Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform provides 1.6x greater bandwidth density than off-the-shelf Ethernet for multi-tenant, hyperscale AI factories — including the world’s largest AI supercomputer. It comprises NVIDIA Spectrum-X switches and NVIDIA ConnectX®-8 SuperNICs, delivering seamless scalability, ultralow latency and breakthrough performance for enterprises building the future of AI.
Today’s announcement follows a drumbeat of networking innovation announcements from NVIDIA, including NVIDIA Spectrum-X and NVIDIA Quantum-X silicon photonics networking switches, which enable AI factories to connect millions of GPUs across sites while reducing energy consumption and operational costs.
Availability
NVIDIA Spectrum-XGS Ethernet is available now as part of the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet platform.
Learn more about Spectrum-XGS Ethernet at Hot Chips.
Building on the Council Meeting and in collaboration with leaders from business, policy, science, and academia, WBCSD will engage in a series of high-impact events, showcasing business leadership in delivering real, scalable solutions that move beyond ambition to implementation. Join us at Climate Week as we shift from dialogue to implementation—and turn critical conversations into a springboard for decisive action.
It is hailed as a global endeavour to explore the hidden universe – a powerful telescope comprising more than 130,000 antennae being built in outback Western Australia.
Along with a sister telescope in South Africa, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory is a €2bn (A$3.6bn) project tasked with mapping the first billion years of the universe.
One day, the SKAO’s antennae – which look like metal Christmas trees scattered across the desert – could confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life, prove Einstein’s theory of relativity and explain how galaxies have evolved over time.
But while the venture is being lauded as one of the most significant scientific endeavours of the 21st century, the Guardian can reveal that the organisation managing the funds of 16 member states has been rocked by allegations of financial misconduct.
The organisation has denied any wrongdoing.
The SKAO’s antennae resemble metal Christmas trees scattered across the desert. Photograph: SKAO/Max Alexander
The Australian government contribution to the SKAO has blown out by more than $150m from 2020 to 2024 compared with its initial budget, with the additional expenditure partly attributed to funding shortfalls for the project.
In March this year, as the telescope in Australia captured its first images of faraway galaxies using just 1% of its capacity, a former senior employee of the project was filing a “protected disclosure” report calling for an investigation into the SKAO’s financial management.
As an intergovernmental organisation, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory is not subject to national laws or regulatory oversight in Australia where the employee is based, so the complaint went directly to the organisation’s global chair, the Italian astrophysicist Filippo Maria Zerbi.
The concerns outlined in the disclosure had previously been raised with senior staff internally.
In response to the whistleblower’s report, an email from Zerbi – sent in May 2025 and seen by the Guardian – confirms the organisation is conducting an external independent evaluation of the litany of allegations made against it.
The email states that the chair is taking “all necessary actions” in response to the concerns raised, and given the volume of disclosed information, “further external and independent investigation into specific elements is necessary before reaching any conclusions and proceeding with the next steps”.
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The whistleblower has also raised concerns with the financial reporting council in the UK where the SKAO is headquartered, claiming the structure of the organisation had created a “regulatory blind spot” that had allowed for the “systematic deception of 16 sovereign governments”.
The Square Kilometre Array Observatory was established by an international treaty in 2019, endowing it with special legal status; it is immune from normal legal processes and exempt from paying tax. International staff employed on the project in Australia are hired on diplomatic visas.
A bird’s eye view of two completed stations in June 2024. The SKAO is not subject to national laws or regulatory oversight in Australia. Photograph: SKAO
While the UK and Australia are majority shareholders in the project, the total financial contributions of each member nation are not disclosed.
The Australian government announced in 2021 that it would contribute $387m to the SKAO over a decade for the construction and operation of the telescope, with $141m committed over the four-year forward estimates.
At the time, the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, said the project would “help our scientists make more discoveries than we can imagine today, whether it’s better understanding the origin and future of our stars and galaxies, to how gravity works across the universe”.
Portfolio budget statements for the Department of Industry, Science and Resources published since show the total amount spent is substantially more than this, with a total spend of $475m from 2021 to 2025.
A department spokesperson said the additional spending included Australia’s member state contributions to the SKAO Observatory and “Australia’s other commitments to the SKA project, including investment in the Australian SKA Regional Centre and site readiness and local communities”.
“Part of the investment is also leveraging the Australian SKA site’s fibre optic connection to provide connectivity for two communities nearby to the site – the Pia Wadjarri Remote Aboriginal Community and the Murchison Settlement,” the spokesperson said.
The amount spent between 2020 and 2024 was $164m more than initially budgeted in 2020.
The spokesperson said there had been changes to the administered budgeted expenses for the SKA project “due to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, adjustments to economic parameters, and the reprofiling of funds as part of regular updates to budget estimates”.
In the 2025-26 budget, the government announced an additional $47.9m in the budget’s contingency reserve “to address funding shortfalls for the SKA project” alongside other member nations.
In response to the disclosure, a copy of which has been seen by the Guardian, Zerbi has initiated an investigation into claims that public funds from member states have been lost through trading accounts – and then covered up by the organisation through the shuffling of funds internally.
At the centre of the misconduct allegations is a claim that at least £12m (A$25.1m) was lost through investment in three money market funds, with one fund allegedly losing 45% of its value. The Guardian has seen balance sheet extracts and statements that appear to confirm the investments by the SKAO, which is headquartered at the Jodrell Bank Observatory near Manchester.
The report also calls for an investigation into claims funds are being shifted within the organisation, and currency fluctuations being fabricated to conceal these losses from the governing council overseeing the project.
A spokesperson for the SKAO denied the allegations, but confirmed it was “assisting an independent, external investigation” into them.
“No capital loss has been incurred in these investment holdings. Money market funds are inherently low-risk, highly liquid investments and were selected for SKAO’s investment portfolio for this reason,” the spokesperson said.
“Any reduction seen in the investment balances relates to amounts being redeemed (withdrawn) from the investments to support SKAO’s normal cash requirements, for example to pay suppliers and staff salaries.”
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“SKAO follows recognised best practice, and its financial activities and reports are subject to rigorous internal audits and independent external audits which are reported to Finance Committee and Council. No adverse findings of note have been reported.”
Portfolio budget statements reveal the Australian government contributed $475m between 2021 and 2025 towards the SKAO. Photograph: SKAO/Max Alexander
Other complaints detailed in the whistleblower’s report include allegations that procurement budgets have been mismanaged, leading to delays and change in scope.
One example is the project’s failure to build a permanent power supply to the telescope at the Australian site, which is now being run on temporary diesel generators.
The SKAO website claims power for the project’s central processing plant “is provided by a photovoltaic plant [solar] and energy storage system backed up by diesel generators, generating renewable energy a majority of the time to power the antennas and all site infrastructure”.
However, no solar plant has yet been built. The project is yet to award a tender for the power plant and is allegedly spending more than $1m a year on diesel to power the plant.
A tender document published by the SKAO in March reveals that a “phase one” diesel-operated system for the site is “expected to be operational in early 2026”, with the tender seeking interest to build a “phase two” power plant to integrate renewable energy.
The SKAO spokesperson confirmed that the project would be running on diesel generators until the long-term solar-based plant was operational – expected in late 2028.
“An expert team is implementing a complex multi-stage power procurement process that will result in a long-term power purchase agreement with an independent power provider to build and operate a radio quiet power station with a very high fraction of power generated from solar photovoltaic cells and using a substantial battery energy storage system.”
The Guardian can also reveal that a €5m European Commission grant claimed by the SKAO consortium for infrastructure development was partially clawed back.
A letter sent from the European Research Executive Agency to the UK-based deputy director general of the SKAO, Simon Berry, indicates that the commission was seeking repayment of €3.4m that had already been paid.
It is understood that the amount ultimately recognised by the European Commission was €2.5m of the original €5m grant after many of the claimed costs were deemed ineligible.
The grant, allocated under the Horizon 2020 program, had been intended to support “the detailed design of the infrastructure required” for the telescope sites in Australia and South Africa.
The Australian SKAO site is being run on temporary diesel generators. Photograph: CSIRO/Alex Cherney
The SKAO spokesperson said the grant had been overseen by the SKA organisation – the predecessor company to the SKAO that is in the process of being wound up.
“As is often the case, with a complex major project of this sort, there were some costs deemed ineligible, but by the closeout of the project these were modest in nature and the arrangements resolved amicably between all the project partners and the EC, with the full knowledge and approval from the Organisation’s governance structures,” the spokesperson said.
An “internal update” circulated within the organisation in early July suggests there have also been changes to the project’s scope and schedule.
According to the update, a “programme and schedule risk review” had established “extensions to our Mid and Low schedules”. (“Low” refers to the Australian telescope, while “Mid” refers to the project in South Africa.)
The document also refers to a “budget gap” that will be assessed over the coming months. “Then we’ll look at how we can manage this, through reducing or deferring some of our scope.”
The circular states that the organisation is aware that “our current contingency budget is insufficient to cover the expected ECPs [engineering change proposals] and remaining risk” of the project.
In response to questions from the Guardian about the project’s changed scope, the SKAO spokesperson said: “The scope and schedule of the SKA project, a massive undertaking to deliver the world’s two largest and most complex radio telescopes, are under constant review.
“SKAO Council, comprising representatives of the governments of the member states that make up SKAO and supported by its Finance Committee, has oversight of all such issues. A recent schedule update has been notified to Council and the wider scientific community, and is driven by programmatic not financial reasons,” he said.
Paris, August 20, 2025 – In less than 30 days, Paris becomes the center of the space economy. From September 15 to 19, 2025, more than 1,800 decision-makers, 250+ top-tier speakers, and 600+ organizations from 60+ countries will unite at World Space Business Week (WSBW), the Space Defense and Security Summit (SDSS), and the newly launched Space Innovation Summit (SPIN).
Together, these three flagship events form the world’s most influential gathering of defense leaders, government officials, business executives, innovators, and investors — where strategies are set, deals are signed, and the future of space is defined.
Three Events. One Global Stage.
World Space Business Week (WSBW) | September 15–19, 2025 – Hôtel du Collectionneur 1,400 decision-makers | 200+ top-tier speakers | 600+ organizations | 60+ countries The premier global space business event spotlighting market trends, investment flows, satellite communications, Earth observation, mobility, and space infrastructure.
Space Defense and Security Summit (SDSS) | September 16–17, 2025 – Les Salons Hoche 300+ decision-makers | 60+ global speakers | 50+ institutions | 35+ countries A strategic platform for governments, militaries and industry leaders to address the evolving challenges of space defense, resilience, and security.
Space Innovation Summit (SPIN) | September 17, 2025 – Hôtel du Collectionneur 200+ decision-makers | 80+ organizations | 25+ speakers Novaspace’s newest summit, dedicated to breakthrough technologies, start-up showcases, dual-use innovations, and entrepreneurial visions transforming the space sector.
The strategic proximity of the three events provides an unparalleled environment for connecting with potential investors, innovators, clients, and partners — driving cross-sector collaboration and real deal-making opportunities.
World-class Lineup of Global Space Leaders
Notable confirmed speakers include European Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, General Brian W. Gibson (United States Space Command), General Vincent Chusseau (French Space Command), General Michael Traut (German Space Command), Jeong Gyuheon (Defense Acquisition Program Administration – DAPA), Josef Aschbacher (ESA), Gwynne Shotwell (SpaceX), Adel Al-Saleh (SES), Max Haot (Vast), Jean-François Fallacher (Eutelsat Group), and Ricky Freeman (Amazon Kuiper Government Services) — among many other government representatives, high-ranking officers, C-level executives, investors, and innovators shaping the next era of the global space domain.
A Pivotal Moment for the Space Domain
“With these three summits taking place simultaneously, Paris becomes the decision-making hub for the global space domain,” said Pacôme Révillon, CEO of Novaspace. “We are proud to host the conversations, partnerships, and deals that will shape the industry for years to come.”
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About Novaspace Novaspace is a global leader in space consulting and market intelligence, formed through the merger of Euroconsult and SpaceTec Partners. This strategic move combines the distinctive strengths of both entities to significantly amplify our international presence and service capabilities. With over 40-year legacy of expertise in guiding public and private entities in strategic decision-making, Novaspace offers end-to-end consulting services, from project strategy definition to implementation, providing data-led perspectives on critical issues. Novaspace presents an expanded portfolio of services, featuring combined expertise in management and technology consulting, top-tier executive summits, and market intelligence. Trusted by 1,200 clients in over 60 countries, with offices strategically located in Brussels, London, Montreal, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toulouse, and Washington D.C.
Media Enquiries: Olivia Garnier | Communications Lead | olivia.garnier@nova.space
The development program for the immunotherapy KB707 will prioritize an inhaled formulation of the agent for the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to an announcement from Krystal Biotech.1
As such, the company announced it was also pausing enrollment of the phase 1/2 OPAL-1 trial (NCT05970497) evaluating intratumoral KB707 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumor malignancies.
The company was also granted an end of phase 2 meeting with the FDA in October 2025 to further discuss developmental pathways for inhaled KB707.
“The acceleration of our work on inhaled KB707 is a reflection of both the clear and acute unmet need that exists for new treatments of NSCLC and the promising efficacy profile we have observed to date with inhaled KB707,” Suma Krishnan, president of Research and Development of Krystal Biotech, stated in a news release. “We look forward to meeting with the FDA and bringing another urgently needed therapeutic option to patients.”
Data from the phase 1/2 KYANITE-1 trial (NCT06228326) presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that efficacy-evaluable patients with NSCLC treated with inhaled KB707 (n = 11) achieved an overall response rate (ORR) of 27% as of the abstract data cutoff; patients experienced partial response (PR; n = 3), stable disease (n = 5), or progressive disease (n = 3).2 With extended follow-up, the ORR was 36%, with 4 patients achieving a PR.
Regarding safety, any-grade treatment-related adverse effects (TRAEs) were reported in 66.7% of patients, although no grade 4 or 5 TRAEs occurred. The most common any-grade TRAEs comprised chills (25.6%), cytokine release syndrome (CRS; 23.1%), fatigue (20.5%), flu-like illness (15.4%), dyspnea (15.4%), vomiting (12.8%), and pyrexia (10.3%). Notably, the rate of grade 3 CRS was 2.6%.
KB707 Background and KYANITE-1 Overview
The novel gene therapy KB707 is a replication-defective herpes simplex virus type 1–based vector encoding human interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-2. The agent is intended to bring high cytokine doses to the local tumor microenvironment.
In the open-label, dose-escalation and -expansion KYANITE-1 study, investigators enrolled patients with at least 1 measurable lung lesion and a histologically confirmed solid tumor malignancy of the lungs to participate in the KB707 monotherapy portion of the study.
The trial is also enrolling patients with histologically or cytologically confirmed stage III/IV NSCLC to receive KB707 in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) with or without chemotherapy. Notably, eligible patients from the monotherapy cohorts are allowed to roll over to participate in the combination cohorts.
During the monotherapy phase, KB707 was administered at doses ranging from 108 to 109 plaque-forming units (PFU; n = 16). During dose expansion (n = 23), patients received the agent at 109 PFU. The agent was administered on days 1, 8, 15, 36+, and 57+, with tumor evaluation also performed on day 57 or beyond.
Safety, immunologic biomarkers, and preliminary efficacy were the primary objectives for the monotherapy portion of the study.
In the efficacy-evaluable cohort, the median age was 71 years (range, 54-77), and most patients were female (63.6%), had an ECOG performance status of 1 (90.9%), and had stage IV disease (100%). Additionally, 18.2% of patients had a PD-L1 expression of at least 1%, and 45.5% of patients had PD-L1 expression under 1%; PD-L1 status was unknown in 36.4% of patients.
Patients had received a median of 4 prior lines of therapy. Notably, 63.6% of patients had undergone 1 prior line of immunotherapy, and 36.4% of patients had received at least 2 prior lines of immunotherapy.
References
Krystal Biotech announces update on development plans for oncology program KB707 and prioritization of inhaled KB707 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. News release. Krystal Biotech. August 21, 2025. Accessed August 22, 2025. https://ir.krystalbio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/krystal-biotech-announces-update-development-plans-oncology
Ma WW, McKean M, Villaruz L, et al. Inhaled KB707, a novel HSV-based immunotherapy, as a monotherapy in patients with advanced solid tumor malignancies affecting the lungs: Efficacy and safety results from a phase 1/2 study. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):2575. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.2575
