Top stories for the morning: Trump is going to the Fed, Tesla has an anti-record, Neuralink has new ambitions

The US president - for the first time in nearly two decades - will make an official visit to the Fed on Thursday amid mounting pressure on Jerome Powell. Alphabet's second-quarter results beat forecasts, but the company alarmed investors by announcing a sharp increase in capital spending. Tesla failed to meet even the market's lowered expectations. Another company of Ilon Musk - Neuralink - presented ambitious plans: by 2031, it expects to conduct up to 20,000 operations per year with revenues of more than $1 billion. These and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of July 24;

US President Donald Trump will visit the Federal Reserve on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET, the White House said. It will be the first official visit by an American president to the Fed in nearly two decades. Investors may see it as increasing pressure on Chairman Jerome Powell, reports CNBC.

This is a serious symbolic step that could break the traditional independence of the US Federal Reserve, the TV channel commented. Trump will literally "deliver" his criticism of Powell to his doorstep, the article says.

Elon Musk warned of a challenging year for Tesla, compounding the automaker's problems after one of its worst quarters in a decade, writes Bloomberg. He highlighted the loss of subsidies for buying electric cars in the U.S. and the protracted adoption of drone technology, saying "compelling" economics for Tesla may not return until late 2026.

In its second-quarter report, the company reported earnings per share of $0.4, falling short of even Wall Street's low expectations. Revenue fell 12% to $22.5 billion, the steepest decline in at least a decade. Car sales declined again, and the average price of cars fell. Also, Tesla Energy's energy production and storage business showed a drop in revenue.

The company's shares fell 5.3% in the New York postmarket. They have already lost 18% since the beginning of the year, despite a partial recovery in March and April.

Google's parent company Alphabet reported second-quarter results, beating analysts' expectations for profit and revenue, but announced a sharp increase in capital spending for 2025 - $10 billion above its previous forecast, wrote CNBC. Alphabet shares rose as much as 3% in the post-market after the report was published.

The company's total revenue increased 14% year over year to $96.43 billion versus consensus guidance of $94 billion. Net income totaled $28.2 billion - up nearly 20% from a year earlier. Search and advertising continue to grow even as AI competition intensifies: the search business brought Alphabet $54.19 billion and advertising revenues $71.34 billion, up 10% from the same period in 2024. 

At the same time, Alphabet is going to increase investments in AI: if in February it was planned that capex will amount to $75 billion this year, which already exceeded market expectations, now this amount has been increased to $85 billion. According to Alphabet  CFO Anat Ashkenazi, in 2026, costs will increase even more - because of the high demand for cloud products.

IBM shares lost 6% in extended trading after the company released its second-quarter results, while the numbers beat Wall Street expectations, wrote CNBC. The company reported earnings per share of $2.8 versus expectations of $2.64, and revenue totaled $16.98 billion on forecasts of $16.59 billion. Revenue was up 8% year-over-year, compared to less than 1% growth in the first quarter. Net income rose to $2.19 billion, up from $1.83 billion a year earlier.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said geopolitical tensions are causing some clients to act cautiously, and U.S. federal spending has been constrained in the first half of the year. However, he emphasized that this would not create long-term problems. Software revenue rose 10%, but fell slightly short of the $7.43 billion forecast. The hybrid cloud business, including Red Hat, posted a 16% increase. The consulting division grew revenue nearly 3% to $5.31 billion, beating expectations. Infrastructure revenue added 14% to $4.14 billion, well above analysts' estimates.

Krishna said customers have reallocated spending toward hardware. IBM Chief Financial Officer Jim Cavanaugh said deferred project decisions and delays in renewing last year's contracts affected the volume of signings. 

Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink expects to perform up to 20,000 surgeries annually and generate at least $1 billion in revenue by 2031, according to a recent investor presentation, which is reported by Bloomberg.

According to the document, the company plans to open about five large clinics and introduce at least three versions of the device within six years. The first - Telepathy - is designed for communication between the brain and machines, the second - Blindsight - for restoring vision in the blind, the third - Deep - for treating tremor and Parkinson's disease. 

Financial projections and work on treatments for neurological diseases have not previously been publicly disclosed. Representatives for Musk and Neuralink did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.

The ambitious goal primarily emphasizes the tight deadline Musk wants to meet. To date, fewer than ten patients are known to have received Neuralink implants as part of clinical trials, and so far they have not been used to restore vision or treat Parkinson's disease.

According to PitchBook, Neuralink has raised $1.3 billion in investment and is valued at $9 billion.

The number of companies and organizations affected by a vulnerability in Microsoft's SharePoint servers is skyrocketing - according to research firm Eye Security, there have been six times as many victims in just a few days, writes Bloomberg. Hackers hacked into about 400 government agencies, corporations and other organizations. 

Eye Security estimates that the majority of those affected are in the United States, followed by Mauritius, Jordan, South Africa and the Netherlands. Among those affected by the hack is the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for maintaining and developing the country's nuclear arsenal, Bloomberg previously wrote. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) was also affected, with the vulnerability also linked to a Microsoft SharePoint system, the agency's source said.  

- Japan's broad Topix index rose 1.2% to a record high in morning trading in Asia, according to LSEG data. The benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.1%, extending gains after the announcement of Japan's trade agreement with the U.S. on Wednesday.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 1.17%, while the Kosdaq small-company index was down 0.64%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.15 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and the CSI 300 index of mainland Chinese shares added 0.4 percent. 

- S&P 500 futures were little changed, Nasdaq Composite futures added 0.3 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts lost the same amount.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor