Global financial media focused on several key headlines overnight and this morning:
1. Trump urges Republicans to unite and pass a "clean" temporary funding bill 2. Tesla Motors stock rises as Musk purchases $1 billion worth of shares 3. OpenAI upgrades Codex with new GPT-5 version 4. Wharton School plans to launch quantitative finance master's program with participation from Citadel and Millennium 5. Epstein case prosecutor sues Trump administration Justice Department alleging "illegal dismissal" 6. Heavyweight Wall Street strategists warn that stock rally may pause after rate cuts
**Trump Urges Republicans to Unite and Pass "Clean" Temporary Funding Bill**
President Trump stated that he wants Republicans in Congress to pass a "clean" short-term funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.
Trump urged Republicans to "unite" and push the bill through the House this week.
A "clean" temporary funding bill refers to one without unrelated additional provisions; Democrats have been pushing to extend Obamacare subsidies.
**Tesla Motors Stock Rises as Musk Purchases $1 Billion in Shares**
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk disclosed on Monday that he purchased Tesla Motors stock in the open market for the first time since February 2020, after which the stock price surged significantly.
Last Friday, Musk purchased 2.57 million shares at various prices totaling approximately $1 billion, representing a major insider acquisition that traders view as a vote of confidence from the outspoken CEO.
Tesla Motors stock closed up more than 3% on Monday morning.
**OpenAI Upgrades Codex with New GPT-5 Version**
OpenAI announced on Monday that it will launch a new GPT-5 version for its AI programming tool Codex. The company stated that this new model, called "GPT-5-Codex," allocates "thinking" time more dynamically than previous models, with programming task completion times ranging from seconds to 7 hours. This feature enables superior performance in agentic coding benchmarks.
GPT-5-Codex is currently being gradually rolled out across the Codex product line. Users can access the tool through terminals, integrated development environments (IDEs), GitHub, or ChatGPT, with availability for all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, and Enterprise users. OpenAI plans to make the model available to API customers in the future.
**Wharton School Plans Quantitative Finance Master's Program with Citadel and Millennium Participation**
Bruce Jacobs, co-founder of Jacobs Levy Equity Management, donated $60 million to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to establish a quantitative finance master's program. This represents the largest single donation in the school's history.
This will be the first entirely new degree program launched by Wharton in 50 years. Wharton is best known for its MBA program. Citadel, Millennium, and Susquehanna will serve as advisory committee members for the program, which will run for one year with the final semester involving research projects in collaboration with these trading firms.
**Epstein Case Prosecutor Sues Trump Administration Justice Department Alleging "Illegal Dismissal"**
Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor who worked on criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, sued the Justice Department on Monday seeking reinstatement after being fired by the Trump administration in July.
In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Comey's lawyers wrote that Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, received no explanation for her "illegal and unconstitutional" dismissal.
"Indeed, there is no reasonable explanation," they wrote. "Rather, defendants fired Ms. Comey entirely or primarily because her father is former FBI Director James Comey, or because of her political affiliation and beliefs, or both."
**Heavyweight Wall Street Strategists Warn Stock Rally May Pause After Rate Cuts**
Top Wall Street strategists indicated that the U.S. stock market's record-breaking rally faces the risk of temporary cooling after the Federal Reserve's expected rate cut this week.
Strategists from Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Oppenheimer Asset Management warned that a more cautious tone may replace current optimism as investors turn their attention to potential economic slowdown.
Expectations of Fed policy easing have provided significant momentum for the S&P 500's latest gains. However, market concerns are growing that a 25 basis point rate cut on Wednesday may be insufficient to address labor market slowdown issues. Investors are also still trying to assess the impact of tariffs on inflation, which remains above the Fed's 2% target.
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