Business & Markets — July 12, 2026

SK Hynix completes record IPO. The chipmaker raised $26.5 billion this week in the biggest foreign IPO in U.S. history. Its seven-times-oversubscribed Nasdaq debut came as officials pressed SK Hynix and Samsung to build U.S. fabs.

TechCrunch framed the listing as the largest Wall Street event yet produced by the surge in demand for AI chips, underscoring how investor appetite for semiconductor exposure has grown alongside the technology. The offering's scale and heavy investor demand arrive as U.S. officials seek to translate that momentum into domestic manufacturing, urging both the newly listed company and Samsung to commit to new fabrication plants on American soil.

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June payrolls miss forecasts. U.S. employers added roughly half the jobs economists expected in June. Unemployment dipped to 4.2% -- but only because the labor force shrank, complicating the Fed's rate path under new Chair Kevin Warsh.

Yahoo Finance noted that the headline decline in the jobless rate overstated the labor market's health, since it reflected fewer people seeking work rather than stronger hiring. That distinction matters for monetary policy: a weakening jobs picture paired with a superficially improving unemployment figure gives the central bank conflicting signals as its new leadership weighs the direction of interest rates.

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Housing affordability bill becomes law. The largest housing affordability bill in decades became law at midnight this week without President Trump's signature; he had used the measure as leverage to pressure Senate Republicans.

The measure, formally the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, took effect automatically after President Trump declined to sign it, according to NPR. His refusal was a tactical move rather than a veto, as he sought to extract concessions from Senate Republicans by withholding his signature. The law's enactment without presidential endorsement means the most significant federal housing affordability legislation in decades now moves to implementation.

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